Undergraduate program in management internship PDF

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT
INTERNSHIP FINAL REPORT – PRJ200
PATES WARDA COMPANY
BY
Amine Ben Othman
Academic year 2020-2021
1

2

Declaration
I certify that I am the author of this project and that any assistance I received in its
preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this project. I have also cited any
source from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted or paraphrased. Further,
this report meets all of the rules of quotation and referencing in use at MSB, as well as
adheres to the fraud policies listed in the MSB honor code.
No portion of the work referred to in this study has been submitted in support of an
application for another degree or qualification to this or any other university or institution
of learning.
Amine Ben Othman 27/09/2021
Student Name Signature Date
3

Abstract
The internship took place from the 1st of August to 27th of August in Pates Warda
Company, it is located Sousse Industrial Zone. Originally it began as a simple pasta factory
now it is a group that has the largest portion of the market which has expanded on four
continents because of its professionalism and its high quality of products. It began as a family
business founded by Ibrahim Belkhiria and sons; now his elder son, Kamel Belkhiria is the
CEO of the company, and he is the one that had the vision that could transform a simple pasta
factory to a multinational company.
(https://www.rose-blanche.com/le-groupe/presentation/ )
4

Table of Contents
Declaration..........................................................................................................2
Abstract...............................................................................................................3
Table of Contents................................................................................................4
1. MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF THE FUNCTION...............................5
1.1. Company presentation/Organizational Structure.............................5
1.2. Planning/Organizing/Leading/Controlling process...........................5
1.3. Tools/Procedures...................................................................................5
1.4. Strengths/Weaknesses...........................................................................5
2. INTERACTIONS WITH THE OTHER FUNCTIONS...........................6
2.1. Value Chain...........................................................................................6
2.2. Strengths/Weaknesses...........................................................................6
3. MANAGER..................................................................................................7
3.1. Roles.......................................................................................................7
3.2. Skills.......................................................................................................7
3.3. Management Style.................................................................................7
3.4. Leadership Style....................................................................................7
4. MANAGER’S CHALLENGES..................................................................8
4.1. Challenge 1............................................................................................8
4.2. Challenge 2............................................................................................8
4.3. Challenge 3............................................................................................8
REFERENCES...................................................................................................9
5

1.MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF THE FUNCTION
1.1. Company Presentation:
Pates Warda Company is a company that was founded in 1995 after the establishment
of the two first flour mill in the Coastal region of Tunisia; in 1904 the Flour Mill of the Sahel
was established and in 1925 the Flour Mill of the Center too.
Pates Warda Company began its operations in the secondary sector; at first they were
producing cereal products such as pasta, flour and semolina and to expand its activity, the
company TRANSFOOD was created in 1997 to expand the activity of Pates Warda Company
in the transportation and logistics. In 1999, the company MEDIGRAIN was founded and its
main activities are the grain trading, producing animal food from corn, soy beans and from
lucerne; it is also a company that is responsible for importing wheat especially soft and
durum wheat.
In 2001, the Multiservice Agricultural Counter was founded, it is operating as the
representative of the Cereal Office and its main activity is to collect and store cereals, it has a
network of 48 collection center in various regions of the country like Beja, Jendouba and
Nabeul. These collection centers developed loyal partnerships that have mutual interests with
over 16000 grain farmers and cattle breeders.
To assure the distribution of the grains and the final products that were produced on
the Rose Blanche Group production sites, SINDBAD company was created 2002; the main
responsibility of this company is to deliver the final products to the clients with the guarantee
of products being stored in perfect conditions and delivered in time; with its fleet of trucks
that are located warehouses in 5 cities in Tunisia : Sousse, Mehdia, Nabeul, Tunis and Sfax to
offer its services to all regions of country even in rural regions.
In 2005, the company Agro Melange Technologies (AMT) was created due to the
growing demand of the bakery and pastry market. Its main responsibility is to offer high
6

quality flour to its clients; the ability to innovate made the company a leader in the market
and anticipate future demand; fueled by passion, AMT knows what products to offer to its
clients in order to maintain its reputation.
The company Aliments Composés du Nord (ACN) was acquired by the Rose Blanche
Group in 2006, it is a company that is specialized in producing poultry feed, with its expertise
it has developed loyal customers that recognize the excellence and the innovation in the
products of ACN at a reduced cost compared to other companies. The company products are
created in an innovative way to improve the quality of flesh chicken.
The group invested in the creation of another flour mill in 2008 in the Cap Bon region
and acquiring old setups of the Nabeul Flour Mill that its activity stopped in 2003.
The Rose Blanche Group did not stop at acquiring a flour mill in the Cap Bon but
after four years it created the biggest seed factory in the continent called SOSEM in 2012; in
2014, the group acquired Agricultural Production of Teboulba company (SOPAT) which is
specialized in producing and selling chicken and turkey meat; the group expanded
internationally by the creation of the company ARCADIA in 2015 that is specialized in
international trading, also in 2016, the company SOLAGRI was created, which is a company
that distributes fertilizers and phytosanitary products that is the official representant of the
two brands Brandt and Syngenta.
In 2019, the group acquired SAVINORDS which is a company that was created in
1995 in Tabarka, it is specialized in hatching and chick production with a capacity of
producing more than 16 millions of chick and the ability to distribute them across all the
country. In 2020 the company SOFIN PARTICIPATIONS was created and the last company
to be created is ALIFORT in 2021 which is a company specialized in producing mash.
( https://www.rose-blanche.com/le-groupe/notre-histoire/ )
Organizational Structure:
7

Subsidiaries companies of the Rose Blanche group are Pates Warda company
which mainly activity is to produce pasta; SINDBAD company to distribute and deliver
final products to clients; MEDIGRAIN company to store and collect raw products like
wheat and cereals; AMT to produce pastry and bakery products like flour or semolina;
ACN to offer high quality poultry feed; SOPAT to produce and sell chicken and
turkey meat; ARCADIA to assure the international trades; SOLAGRI to distribute
fertilizers and phytosanitary products; SAVINORDS to hatch and produce chick;
ALIFORT to produce mash.
Based on what I observed in Pates Warda Company :
-Marketing Department : It is in charge of designing packages of products,
segmenting the market and targeting specific clients.
-Sales Department : It is in charge of supervising the delivery of final products to
its clients with the guarantee that it would be stored in perfect conditions and to be
delivered in time across all the country.
-Finance & Accounting Department : It is headed by Mr. Mabrouk Ben Brahim,
with his employees Mr Mohamed and Mr Mounir they are responsible of the budget,
expenses, investments and book keeping the data gathered through financial
transactions.
-IT Department : The IT department is in charge of maintaining and repair any
damage that could occur to computers, phones, softwares.
-Legal Department : It is headed by Mr. Hatem Nattat who is a lawyer; with its
employees the legal department is responsible for any legal issue that the company is
facing, legal procedures to create or acquire other companies.
8

-HR Department: It is headed by Mrs. Intissar Rezgui; she is in charge of
interviewing applicants, training employees and resolving any conflict that could occur
between employees within the company.
1.2. Planning/Organizing/Leading/Controlling process
- Planning:
My internship took place in Finance & Accounting department.
First, Mr. Mabrouk Ben Brahim and his two employees Mr. Mounir and Mr.
Mohamed evaluate the financial situation of Pates Warda Company through all the data
gathered through each last month and according to the financial situation of the company
they set the goals and the objectives of the company; before executing any plan, the
Finance & Accounting department identify and evaluate other alternatives to implement
the plan in question and if the financial situation is good, the department can take the plan
into action and after that they observe results of the plan and in any situation they can
reevaluate the plan and reimplement it if it did not working according to the expectations
of the department and t can be modified at any minute. Either to buy new equipment or to
invest the money, the plan is always flexible.
- Organizing:
Within the Finance & Accounting department, both of the employees Mr.
Mohamed and Mr. Mounir gather the data collected from internal or external sources,
interpret it and give recommendations since they keep all the invoices in their offices and
the final word is of the head of the department Mr. Mabrouk; according to his expertise
and professionalism in taking financial decisions, he is the one that gives orders whether
to invest or not or whether to buy new equipment or not.
9

Both Mr. Mounir and Mr. Mohamed have the same office so they can work
together, consult each other when interpreting data and giving recommendations
according to the data collected then transfer it to the head of the department. It is a very
well organized department in the company even though it is considered a small
department within the company.
- Leading:
Since both workers have the same office, they were in charge of supervising me as
a new intern in the department. From what I observed, I understood that communication
within a company is a key factor for the success of any department; discussions were not
only about the financial situation of the company or whether to invest money or not, but
also about how fast the financial sector is changing around the world due to new
technologies such as Artificial Intelligence; tax optimization without transgressing the
law, work ethics and how the life journey of a financial worker can be full of obstacles.
- Controlling process:
One key factor of the success of the company is its effective controlling process
that summarizes the activity of all the departments at any level. The CEO gets a summary
of all the activity of the departments weekly, data collected from internal or external
sources and statistics that could help him taking any decision that could affect the group
and its subsidiaries.
In order to keep its high quality and reputation, Pates Warda Company has a team
to control and supervise the process of making pasta which is composed by engineers and
chemists; if any issue is happening, it is all reported to the CEO and managers in order to
be aware.
Also to keep its customers loyal, Pates Warda Company ensures that their
products arrive on time and are stored in perfect conditions, it has a team of more than
10

200 drivers across all the country to guarantee its customers the professionalism of the
company.
1.3. Tools/Procedures
Pates Warda Company is considered as a leader in the market and in order to maintain
its positions it needs to be up to date in terms of new technologies like machines and
software.
Within the Finance & Accounting department the tools are HP computers, Canon
printers, Microsoft office 365 (Excel, Word and Outlook), accounting software such as Xero.
The company uses many procedures in its other departments, as an example in the
sales department, the head of the departments assures that the final products are delivered to
clients on time, also to negotiate with clients and to ensure that the clients have where to store
the products delivered and in case the clients have where to store it, the storage needs to
happen with certain conditions like no sunlight, no humidity, not on directly on the floor; if
the client does not have where to store his products, the company reimburse him and take
back the products. In all cases, data is recorded and gathered, transfer it to managers and then
transferred to the CEO.
1.4. Strengths/Weaknesses
Strengths Weaknesses
- Pates Warda Company has its own
flour mills across all Tunisia
- Presence on social media like
LinkedIn and YouTube
- They have a website that is daily
updated with new information about
new international certifications
acquired by the company.
- The products offered by Pates Warda
- Except managers, no worker is
allowed to take a decision alone,
there is only one leader and it is his
responsibility to take any decisions
- Authoritarian regime within the
company
- Low direct communication between
employees and managers
- Aging staff
11

Company are state subsidized
- They export their products all over
the world : Japan, USA, France,
Canada, Russia
- High quality products and services
- Research and Development
department that is always innovative
- Skilled and well trained staff to keep
the company the leader of the market
- Good communication between the
CEO and head of departments and
managers
- No bonuses or compensations for
employees whether their performance
is good or bad.
INTERACTIONS WITH THE OTHER FUNCTIONS
1.5. Value Chain
Activities of the company are divided into two categories : primary and support
activities.
Primary activities include inbound logistics which is one of the most important part of
the process of producing pasta; Pates Warda Company has its own mills, buys from the
government and also import cereals to transform them into final products; cereals are
collected from mill to mill across all the country by the help of the company TRANSFOOD
that was mainly created for this purpose.
Cereals and wheat are transported through trucks to Pates Warda Company where
they have machines and equipment that will help transform the cereals from their initial state
to pasta or couscous. A precise process is followed in order to maintain the high quality of the
final products which is considered as operations.
12

Outbound logistics include delivering final products to clients; the Rose Blanche
Group created the company SINDBAD specifically for this purpose and it is to deliver final
products to customers with no delay and guarantee them that their products will be delivered
to them in perfect conditions; the Rose Blanche Group is serious about its professionalism
and way of work, since deliveries being on time is considered as a value by the clients.
Next activity is the financial & accounting, it is a crucial activity for the company in
order to know whether they are financially capable or not; not only to invest or to buy new
equipment but to know also if the company is able to take any step further without any
hesitation.
Marketing is also considered as an important activity within the company since it is in
charge of making clients more aware about the products that are offered and their quality; the
packaging of the products; participating in international fairs abroad in Dubai, Atlanta or
Shanghai and ads on TV.
Sales is also important since it is in charge of talking with customers, ensure that final
products are stored in perfect conditions and if there is any issue it will take it into account;
sales employees always on the road from a city to another in order to interact with clients,
take a look at the situation of the final products in the hands of its clients; if the client can not
store the products in an appropriate way, sales employees will provide them with necessary
equipment or solutions to keep their customers loyal. It is also perceived as a value by the
customer.
Concerning the support activities, investing in new technologies and in research and
development is important since it will always let the company be a leader in the market.
(https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-engagements/societal/ ; observations)
13

1.6. Strengths/Weaknesses
Strengths:
 Investing in new technologies creates a high competitive advantage.
 Worldwide recognition by participating in many international fairs.
 The effective communication between departments and how fast
information flows.
Weaknesses:
 Even if information flows quickly from a department to another, only
top managers are allowed to take decisions.
 Too much work for employees that they can not even take a break of 5
minutes.
MANAGER
1.7. Roles
According to Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles, the manager has three roles:
interpersonal, informational and decisional.
 Informational role: The manager is responsible for communicating the
company any relevant information, also he is responsible for communicating with all the
departments within the company to make the flow of information easier. The manager is also
responsible for communication information to entities outside the company like the
government, banks and shareholders. Finding new opportunities is a responsibility for the
manager; make workers feel comfortable about the workplace and acknowledge their
capabilities and skills in order to maintain good relationships with them and boost their
productivity.
 Interpersonal role: The manager in a way symbolizes the company since he is
assigned to run an operation or a department. Considered as a mentor by his employees since
14

the manager is responsible for encouraging employees to do their best and boost them in
order to achieve the common goals of the company and even the worker personal goals. The
manager is also represented as an intermediary between people outside and inside the
company; as an example, he could represent the company in an international event.
 Decisional role: The manager is responsible for managing any unexpected
event or crisis; he is the one who knows how to handle it; he is also the provider of resources
to the department whether financial or human resources. The manager must be a good
negotiator in order to negotiate with suppliers of wheat and cereals to reduce costs of the
company.
(https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/6-6-managerial-roles )
1.8. Skills
Technical skills of the manager:
The manager’s department where my internship took place showed me that to work in
the financial world you need to master new technologies and software. The manager also is
the one who knows how much money is needed for the production of a certain quantity of
final products or either the investments that the company wants to make are worth it or not,
all that by analyzing data gathered through previous transactions and investments.
Attentiveness to details is also a skill that I noticed in my manager through my internship,
when I asked him about it he told that noticing any change helps improve the work efficiency
and productivity.
(https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/skills-required-for-
finance-manager )
Human skills:
The manager is responsible for interacting with his employees and guide them when
its needed. My manager is not empathetic towards his employees, he is very military minded
15

when it comes to work. Workers are not allowed to have a break of 5 minutes not even after
the work is done. A manager needs to be attentive and a good listener to his employees
because they are the key to the success of the company so that they can enjoy themselves at
work and then be more productive. It is an essential skill that departments manager where I
had my internship lack of.
Conceptual skills:
The manager of the department of Finance & Accounting where I had my internship
is lacking in conceptual skills and the company wants them like that. Pates Warda Company
offers their managers contracts with mandate which means they are assigned to that work for
only a certain period of time then they are changed. They just do their work properly and
according to the needs of the company.
Diagnostic skills:
The manager can know whether the company is having financial capabilities or not to
invest in new companies or new technologies. He must be attentive to any changes of prices
of raw materials, to observe exchange rates of foreign currencies and to record every
financial information in order communicate the information to the CEO of the company,
shareholders or the fiscal administration.
(https://www.ideasforleaders.com/ideas/leadership-essentials-diagnostics-influence-
and-energy )
1.9. Management Style
The management style of the company is divided into two categories: the visionary
management style and management by objectives within departments.
The Rose Blanche group is managed in a way that they are always a step over their
competitors and that by acquiring new companies and investing in research and development
16

in order to find new solutions and ways to minimize costs, also the group is always trying to
innovate in its products and that by releasing new pasta shapes and new recipes.
Within departments it is another thing, workers are assigned tasks and objectives that
they need to attain in order to achieve the company goals. Each employee is in charge of
doing certain tasks before the deadline and communicate it to their respective manager so
they can discuss it and then communicate it to the CEO.
1.10. Leadership Style
The leadership style within the company is authoritative, it means that only managers
are allowed to make decisions in limited ways because the CEO of Pates Warda Company
can change the plan at the last minute and it is mandatory for all workers to comply to his
words.
Even if this leadership style is efficient in terms of productivity, it does not mean that
the employees are doing their job in a compassionate way, but they are doing it out of fear to
get their paycheck at end of the month.
(https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/authoritative-
leadership#:~:text=Authoritative%20leadership%20refers%20to%20a,no%20input%20from
%20team%20members. )
17

2. MANAGER’S CHALLENGES
2.2. Challenge 1
Diverse workforce challenge:
One challenge that the managers can face is the diversity in their workforce.
Pates Warda Company is a company with an aging workforce, most of them are
below their fifties they are generally reluctant to change. It could be a strength and it could be
a weakness for the company; for example, an aging workforce takes generally more time to
learn new technologies and to get trained, however a young workforce can boost the
productivity twice as it was or more. Within the company, the manager needs to give
everybody a chance whether they are disabled, immigrants or from a different race.
International companies around the world are trying to find solutions to become more
equal in terms of hiring, Twitter can be a very good example since it has 90% of its
workforce from Asia.
Some companies are still facing challenges in diversifying their workforce because it
is a problem of culture; tolerance is something that must be present in a workplace so that
everybody can achieve the company goals and their personal goals.
2.3. Challenge 2
Organizational culture challenge:
Pates Warda Company is a company that faces a big organizational culture challenge,
since their leadership style is authoritative employees are not well engaged in their work
which is based only on observations.
Due to the lack of freedom for employees to make decisions they feel like they do not
belong to the company while managers always remind them that they are like family.
The company began as a traditional pasta maker and with the expansion of the
company, its organizational culture began to disappear so I would recommend that instead of
18

treating your workers well and always remind them that they belong to the company and
acknowledge their capabilities will make them more engaged in their work and more
confident about themselves.
(https://imdiversity.com/diversity-news/twitter-admits-diversity-problem-workforce/ )
2.4.Challenge 3
Social responsibility and ethics challenge:
The Rose Blanche commitment is to build mutual relationships with its partners and
that by offering them a stable quality of products such as pasta or couscous; also services
offered by the subsidiaries of the group are offering services that can only keep partners and
customers of the group happy and to promote the Tunisian agricultural sector.
The company has four main engagements:
 Improve the wheat and cereals quality, its nutritional value.
 Promote sustainable ways of wheat and cereals culture.
 Protect the environment.
 Valorize the farmer job.
(https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-engagements/societal/ )
19

REFERENCES
AMT – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/cereales-et-derives/amt/
ARCADIA – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/cereales-et-derives/arcadia-2/
CMA – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/agricole-et-avicole/cma/
MEDIGRAIN – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/negoce-et-distribution/medigrain/
Présentation – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/le-groupe/presentation/
SAVINORD – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/agricole-et-avicole/savinord/
SINDBAD – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/cereales-et-derives/sindbad-2
Sociétal – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-engagements/societal/
SOLAGRI – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/agricole-et-avicole/solagri/
Qualité – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-engagements/qualite/
Notre Histoire – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/le-groupe/notre-histoire/
Nos valeurs – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/le-groupe/nos-valeurs/
20

Innovation – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-engagements/innovation/
ACN – Rose Blanche Group. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.rose-blanche.com/nos-filieres/agricole-et-avicole/acn/
Corporate Finance & Accounting. (2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.investopedia.com/corporate-finance-and-accounting-4689821
6.6 Managerial Roles - Introduction to Business | OpenStax. (2021). Retrieved 27
September 2021, from https://openstax.org/books/introduction-business/pages/6-6-
managerial-roles
(2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/skills-required-for-finance-
manager
Leadership Essentials: Diagnostics, Influence and Energy. (2021). Retrieved 27
September 2021, from https://www.ideasforleaders.com/ideas/leadership-essentials-
diagnostics-influence-and-energy
(2021). Retrieved 27 September 2021, from
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/authoritative-
leadership#:~:text=Authoritative%20leadership%20refers%20to%20a,no%20input%20from
%20team%20members.
Twitter admits to diversity problem in workforce – IMDiversity. (2021). Retrieved 27
September 2021, from https://imdiversity.com/diversity-news/twitter-admits-diversity-
problem-workforce/
Murphy, K. (2021). The Challenges of Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved 27
September 2021, from https://planergy.com/blog/corporate-social-responsibility-challenges/
21