BMM3003 - Business Operations and Management - Knowledge Portfolio

This portfolio provides a comprehensive overview of business operations and management principles through real-world examples. It begins with an analysis of contemporary research, focusing on consumer merchandise shortages and operational issues faced by Tesco and Marks & Spencer, including supply chain delays and quality management problems. The portfolio then examines ALDI's unique business model, evaluating its potential applicability in other industries and the trade-offs customers make to access its offerings. Furthermore, it delves into business ethics, using Zara as a case study to illustrate both unethical practices and the implementation of positive ethical approaches. The work concludes with a reflection on the skills gained through university presentations and a summary of key findings related to operational strategies, business models, and ethical considerations in business. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Introduction to
Business Operations
and Management

Table of Contents
Task 1: Contemporary Research......................................................................................................1
Overview of the topic...................................................................................................................1
News publication 1......................................................................................................................1
News publication 2......................................................................................................................2
Task 2: ALDI...................................................................................................................................2
ALDI and similar stores offer different customer experience. Do you think a similar business
model would work in other industries? Please give examples to illustrate your answer.............2
What are the sacrifices customers have to make in order to have access to this shopping
experience?..................................................................................................................................3
Task 3: Business Ethics...................................................................................................................3
Overview of the example.............................................................................................................3
Where the management team in an organisation practiced or implemented a positive ethical
approach?.....................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion/Summary.......................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals......................................................................................................................6

Task 1: Contemporary Research
Overview of the topic
Business operations and management is defined as the area of administration which is
related to the designing and controlling of the entire procedure of production and also redesigns
the business operations in terms of the production of goods and services.
There are numerous operational control problems which have a impact on individuals day
by day lives. In this task, the chosen operational control difficulty is Consumer merchandise
shortage. On this topic, there are modern-day information guides which are defined as under:
According to Jaana Remes and Sajal Kohli, while clients assume it’s far secure to say no
their pandemic stockpile of sanitary paperman are looking stockouts on different commodities
and elevating prices. Unexpected charge extends on each product from pickup vans to fowl are
tending to growth their queries approximately while the marketplace of client merchandise will
lower back to its everyday situation (Arana,2019).
News publication 1
Overview
Tesco has faced the operational issue which is one of the leading international retail
supermarket companies established in 1919 and headquartered in the United Kingdom. It deals
with the products and services such as groceries and electronics along with the home appliances
and food products and many more (Akhtar, Khan, Frynas and Rao‐Nicholson, 2018).
What the key operational issue is?
An operational issue found out in Tesco is the delay in entire supply chain management
with an organization. Products and services are not supplied properly on time and are being
delayed and reached out to the customers late after the deadline.
What caused the problem?
Tesco has not adopted the proper operational strategy in order to support the management
of the supply chain from the initial stage to the last stage when the customer receives it finally.
What if any would be the suggested solution to the problem?
It is suggested that Tesco must use the operation strategy of just in time management. This
is the methodology which can help the organization in the quick servicing and fast supply chain
management function in the company. It avoids the delete servicing and it is also time and cost
efficient in nature.
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News publication 2
Overview
Marks and Spencer have faced the operational issue of being one of the leading
international retail companies established in 1884 and headquartered in the United Kingdom. It
deals with product and services of men’s and women’s wear and accessories (Zurich, Instruction
and Documentation, 2018).
What the key operational issue is?
Operational issue found out in Marks and Spencer is the quality management in its
clothing in its manufacturing introduction of accessories. Continuous quality issues are figured
out in the organization and complaints by the customers (Escrig-Tena, Segarra-Ciprés, García-
Juan and Beltrán-Martín, 2018).
What caused the problem?
Marks and Spencer have not adopted the proper operational strategy in order to maintain
its quality management in its raw materials and then in the manufacturing of its products.
What if any would be the suggested solution to the problem?
It is suggested that marks and spencer must use the operational strategy of Total quality
Management. It is described as the complete quality in the products and services of Marks and
Spencer which also overlooks the inventory management along with its cost efficiency.
Task 2: ALDI
ALDI and similar stores offer different customer experience. Do you think a similar business
model would work in other industries? Please give examples to illustrate your answer
It is difficult to think that a similar business model just like ALDI would work in other
industries. This is because the organisation uses the model which is cheap in nature and good
competition in the market place against the top competitors. The reason being is that most of the
brands organisation sells in its own brand name from the local vendors at 50% discount so
customers attract towards the brand. Organisation is a super market which contains different
brand products with its own name provided by the local vendors and hence it helps organisations
to gain more profit than expected.
Tesco also uses the similar business model which is a retail company and comes under
retail industry as well. This is a business model which can also be used in other industries with
similar working with no own manufacturing and production of their own products and services
and own brand name and labelling. Therefore, retail and supermarkets can be used as business
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models and can earn huge profit by implementing the business model (Martelli and Greener,
2018).
What are the sacrifices customers have to make in order to have access to this shopping
experience?
As per the given case study sacrifices made by the customers in order to have access to this
shopping experience are such that customers usually get the products and services at a 50%
discount by the organisation. This is the offer which is not given by any other supermarket
company and it creates the doubt in the mind of the customers as to why this organisation is
offering the branded products at a 50% discount. Customer’s needs to analyse that the products
and services they are purchasing are real or fake because a 50% discount on the branded products
is next to impossible. Therefore, in order to access this type of shopping experience it is
important for the customers to sacrifice their analysis and purchase products and services so that
we can experience the branded products at a 50% discount by the organisation (Dalevska,
Kravchenko and Kwilinski, 2019).
Disadvantages of Aldi's model for customers are such that it has the poor penetration in
high income groups. Customers can find difficult to look for their desired brand names.
Organization do not perform the manufacturer's coupons. Organization is not made for the one
stop shopping for the customers. Customers also find poor experience in getting servicing at
stores. It also lacks the E-commerce capabilities.
Task 3: Business Ethics
Overview of the example
Example chosen in context of the organisation Zara which is one of the leading
international apparel organisations established in 1974 and headquartered in Spain. It Deals with
the products and services of women and men accessories along with the kids clothing. Previously
Zara was considered as an unethical operation in its organisation because many people have
started boycotting Zara because of the inappropriate association with forced labour camps in
China. It has resulted in the degraded working conditions in Brazil factories. Zara is one of the
fast fashion brands which have exposed their workers to extremely hard-working conditions
around the world. They have misconducted its ethics and code in terms of employee
management and broke the laws and legislations in terms of labour laws in which the great
employee turnover was faced by Zara instead of employee retention. Many of the talented
employees were lost from the organisation and hence productivity lowest down with low sales.
These were the headlines of those days where customers were also declining to buy products
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from Zara. Zara has not followed the proper corporate social responsibility and sustainability in
its organisation. Therefore, it is considered one of the examples to go against the business ethics
(Hazen, Skipper, Boone and Hill, 2018).
Where the management team in an organisation practiced or implemented a positive ethical
approach?
In order to rectify all such ethical issues from the organization has created the management
team in the company practicing and implementing a positive ethical approach for better
employee retention and customer experience as well. For example, Zara has started to fulfil its
targets in order to source all its fabrics sustainably by 2025. Zara states that 100% of their cotton
will be recycled with better cotton initiative and organic. 100% wood-based fibres will be
sourced from responsibly managed forests. This is a code of conduct which is defining the
ethical commitment and basic principles relating to the corporate social responsibility and
sustainability. In terms of employee code of conduct there is a legal document which is provided
by Zara to their employees which mentions the guidelines on acceptable behaviour and social
norms which must be adopted in the day-to-day activities within organisation. Zara has not
fulfilled its code of conduct in terms of labour management because of the labour abuse they
have undertaken. But now Zara is producing all search unethical labour management and started
employee retention with a positive ethics undertaken in the company (Paul, Moktadir, Sallam
and Chakrabortty, 2021).
Task 4: Class Discussion
Studying at university we gained a lot of knowledge, making a presentation developing the
skill to speak front of other people. Presenting of more people, a smaller or larger audience,
creates strong emotions that made me more confident. It helped me to consolidate my
information and taught me that I need to keep the audience involved, that my presentation should
be like a story, a good story, to capture the audience’s attention. I learned that I need to be more
confident in my own strength and that I need to get the audience to express their emotions.
Making a presentation in front of an audience, no matter how small or large, has a very big
impact on us but also on the audience. Of course, I was nervous, agitated, I had great emotions
just thinking about speaking in front of several people. Starting the presentation, seeing that the
audience was listening to me, and I captured all the attention I become more confident. I
overcame the moments of emotions and I started to make the presentation full of confidence that
I will make the presentation very well and I convince the public of my research. Was a first
presentation, a challenge. It was a challenge because I have to make research on the chosen
topic but also was a challenge of speaking openly in front of the public.
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I hope it was a successful first presentation and after the experience gained , I hope that my
next presentation will be as the audience expected to be .
Conclusion/Summary
It is concluded that task 1 contemporary research undertaken on Tesco and Marks and
Spencer. Tesco was facing the issue of delaying supply chain management. Then it found a
strategy of Justin Time management. Marks and Spencer were facing the issue of quality in its
products and services rendered to the customers. Then it Found the strategy of Total quality
Management. These are the operations and strategies which can be formulated and implemented
within the organizations to resolve the major issues in the functioning of the companies
(Moynihan, 2018). Task 2 organization is based on the business model used by the company
which provides its products and services with 50% discount and uses the cheap model in order to
gain the competitive advantage in the marketplace. it is summarized that it is difficult to use such
model in other industries because this model can only be used in the supermarket organization so
that the company can purchase the product from local vendors and name its product to its own
labelling and hence sell the products with the less price which gives the largest sales and good
productivity and perfect addition to the organization (Reid and Sanders, 2019). Task 3 is on Zara
who was initially an ethical in its business in terms of the employee management but after they
are analyzed that they are decreasing with it sales and productivity then they have started
following the stated code of ethics in the labour management and started following the labor
laws with good efficiency and with the maintenance of corporate social responsibility and
sustainability (Barnes, 2018). Task 4 is on the organization HSBC on the basis of information
Technology services. Organization was facing the problem in the maintenance of technical
equipment with an organization and hence lacking in the security system of information systems.
Therefore, recommendations are given for the password management and frequent updates of the
information systems in order to implement the good security systems within the organization so
that the big data security can be maintained without any loss of data and breaching of it
(Lutchman, Lutchman, Akula and Al Hashmi, 2019). Business management is also an important
factor which is helpful in responding to all the activities which is related with the management.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akhtar, P., Khan, Z. and Frynas, G., 2020. This is a repository copy of Essential micro-
foundations for contemporary business operations: Top management tangible
competencies, relationship-based business networks and environmental sustainability.
Akhtar, P., Khan, Z., Frynas, J.G. and Rao‐Nicholson, R., 2018. Essential micro‐foundations for
contemporary business operations: Top management tangible competencies, relationship‐
based business networks and environmental sustainability. British Journal of
Management, 29(1), pp.43-62.
Barnes, D., 2018. Operations Management. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Dalevska, N., Kravchenko, S. and Kwilinski, A., 2019. Formation of the entrepreneurship model
of e-business in the context of the introduction of information and communication
technologies.
Escrig-Tena, A.B., Segarra-Ciprés, M., García-Juan, B. and Beltrán-Martín, I., 2018. The impact
of hard and soft quality management and proactive behaviour in determining innovation
performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 200, pp.1-14.
Hazen, B.T., Skipper, J.B., Boone, C.A. and Hill, R.R., 2018. Back in business: Operations
research in support of big data analytics for operations and supply chain
management. Annals of Operations Research, 270(1), pp.201-211.
Lutchman, C., Lutchman, K., Akula, R. and Al Hashmi, W.S.G., 2019. Operations Excellence
Management System (OEMS): Getting It Right the First Time. CRC Press.
Martelli, J. and Greener, S., 2018. An introduction to business research methods.
Moynihan, G. ed., 2018. Contemporary Issues and Research in Operations Management. BoD–
Books on Demand.
Paul, S.K., Moktadir, M.A., Sallam, K. and Chakrabortty, R.K., 2021. A recovery planning
model for online business operations under the COVID-19 outbreak. International
Journal of Production Research, pp.1-23.
Reid, R.D. and Sanders, N.R., 2019. Operations management: an integrated approach. John
Wiley & Sons.
Seidmann, A., Jiang, Y. and Zhang, J., 2019. Introduction to the Minitrack on The Impact of
Digitization on Business Operations.
Zurich, B.L.L., Instruction, X. and Documentation, X., 2018. Service operations and
management. Master of Science in Engineering, p.380.
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