Contemporary Business Themes: A Report on Key Topics and Cases

This report delves into contemporary business themes through various case studies. It begins with an analysis of Debenhams' market research, followed by a SWOT analysis of Facebook. The report then explores human resource management challenges and solutions at Bradley Estate Agents, examines equality and diversity laws with reference to TESCO, and analyzes accounting models employed by corporations, specifically focusing on The Corner Shop Bar. The report provides insights into market trends, organizational challenges, legal frameworks, and financial practices, offering a comprehensive overview of key business aspects. The report utilizes publicly available information and maintains ethical research standards.

CONTEMPORARY
THEMES

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH.........................................................................................................................................3
Debenhams Market research............................................................................................................3
MARKETING AND DIGITAL SOCIETY .........................................................................................4
SWOT Analysis of Facebook...........................................................................................................4
MOTIVATION, LEADERSHIP AND HRM........................................................................................5
HRM problems and solutions of Bradleys Estate Agents................................................................5
LAW: EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN CORPORATIONS ..........................................................6
ACCOUNTING MODELS EMPLOYED BY CORPORATIONS......................................................7
The corner shop bar.........................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................8
........................................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The report describes the understanding of research in context to case study of Debenhams. It
is a leading multi departmental retailer in UK. Marketing and digital societies are also discussed by
determining the SWOT analysis of Facebook which is the largest social media website across the
world. Problems of human resource management are evaluated and their solutions are identified by
the case study of Bradley Estate Agency, an established and developed estate agency organisation.
Law of equality and diversity have been discussed in the report with reference to TESCO.
Accounting models employed in the corporations are also evolved and the problems and solutions
are discussed in context to The Corner Shop Bar (BañosCaballero, GarcíaTeruel and
MartínezSolano, 2014).
RESEARCH
Debenhams Market research
Debenhams is a multi departmental retailer in UK. It offers products of health care, beauty,
home care, male clothing and female clothing. It has successfully rooted its tents among the leading
retailers of UK and the brand is highly popular there. In 1905 first department of the company was
started and today it has around 154 stores in major cities of UK and around 172 stores overall. It has
been procured by Texas pacific group, CVC capital partners, and many other groups in 2003 and
trading was ceased on London stock exchange (Debenhams plc (DEB), 2017).
Customers- It mainly considers the shopping habits of the customers. It pays emphasis on store
design and promotions. It follows inspirational and emotional connect with the buyers.
Competitors- Its major direct competitors are John Lewis and M&S. Indirect competitors are Hight
street brands, other online retailers and supermarkets.
Supplier and supply chain- More outsourcing in other countries significantly in Asia is adopted.
Socially ethical production takes place. They offer more choices to the suppliers and consumers.
Distribution channels- Its main distribution channel is in UK. The offerings include smart phones,
computers and other gadgets. The expansion has also taken place in Europe and other countries.
Stakeholder and partnership relationship- It carries a reliable relation of partner sourcing and stable
stakeholders. More efforts are required on sustainability policies and make it more transparent.
The strategies of the company include UK retail focus, international expansion of the brand,
enhancing choice and availability, delivery of compelling consumer proportion. It has 18.6% of

total departmental stores of UK. Christmas trading update saw increase of 3.5% shares. It has
successfully responded towards changing shopping attitudes of the customer. The market share in
2003 saw an increase of 3.4% from 15.2%. Digital trading enhanced the revenues such that 15% of
the total revenue is from online and mobile sales. Online sales saw an increase of 13.9% and non
clothing sales raised to 57% (Debenhams, 2017).
The above carried information about the company has followed an ethical approach. The
data and information has been taken from genuine online publications. All the consents are proper
and appropriate research has been done. No harm to anyone has taken place during the research.
MARKETING AND DIGITAL SOCIETY
SWOT Analysis of Facebook
Strengths
 It is the largest social networking site. Having more than one billion users it has become the
leader in the social network market. Carrying a recognition among almost all the age groups it is
the most popular site around the world.
 Youth and teenagers are addicted to Facebook and it captures almost three quarters of their time.
 It involves user supplied interest and data is robust.
 Usage of Facebook for E- commerce website and global entertainment is increasing continuously.
 Its features are popular and unique which are not offered by any of its competitors (SWOT
Analysis of Facebook Inc, 2017).
Weaknesses
 Conversion rate of is continuously questioned and criticised. This means that after and
advertisement is clicked the marketer specified actions have occurred or not.
 63% of the ads came from mobile and only 34% conversions occurred.
 The CTR (Click Through Rate) of Facebook is reported to be continuously reducing and is lower
than that of Google ads.
 Potent user burnout prospective of the funders.
 Under monetizing of few portals and some search engines.
 Growth rate of Facebook is questioned.
 Large funding done for the expansion of its ecosystems.

Opportunities
 It carries large potentials to introduce new products and services for the consumers.
 Increasing usage and popularity of ad network and e- commerce destination.
 Additional revenue opportunity are present due to pro-founded level of engagement of mobile
phone.
 Using high valued social ad schema it has the potentials to enhance the monetizing aspect
considerably.
 It has already established wide expansion of its ecosystems.
 Acquisition of Whatsapp has created a boost in the opportunities.
 Increasing usage of Instagram which is bought by Facebook has increased the revenues
significantly.
 Evolution of stand-alone mess anger app for the mobile phones helps in generating revenues from
sponsored accounts, e-commerce etc (Kaplan and Atkinson, 2015).
Threats
 Monetization taking place in developing countries which could create difficulties in the growth of
the company.
 Its top and bottom line could weigh down over next few years due to a strong dollar.
 Continuous questions about the privacy in EU can lead to destruction of its business plans.
 Increased hacking of Facebook accounts of consumers can decrease its usage.
 Increasing breaching of data is another threat.
 Enhancement of ad blocking extensions can lead to a reduction in profitability of Facebook ads.
 Do not track regulation can reduce its capability to target ads.
MOTIVATION, LEADERSHIP AND HRM
HRM problems and solutions of Bradleys Estate Agents
The HRM problems and their solutions in the cited company are :
 Retention – HR in the company is not only responsible for recruiting new employees but
also for retaining the existing talent. Retaining of current the current talent eliminates the
expenditures of recruiting and training the new joiners. A lot of time and money is required

to train the freshers and get them to the level of the existing workers. Thus, it is important
for the HR's to retain the existing members.
For this a balance between incentives, culture and compensations should be maintained.
Each worker should be offered correct combination of these three. Balancing should not interfere
the company's interests procedures. Agreed packages should be provided to the employees.
 Recruitment – It is a major problem oh HR's. Finding a new talent appropriate for the profile
is a big challenge as all the skills, persona, attitude, characteristics etc. are to be judged and
matched with the available profile. There are many applicants and their CV's which are to be
shortlisted and managed (Roberts, 2015).
This can be handled by creating a software application which will make the short listing and
management easier. Complete and sorted details of the applicants help to judge and select a
candidate and speed up the selection process. Also, reduction in productivity and morale could be
eliminated.
 Productivity – In order to ensure the efficient operation it is essential to increase and retain
the productivity level of each employee. HR needs to figure out where productivity is low
and what areas are to be focused to increase it.
For this Time and Motion study could be carried out in order to define the performance and
activities of the employees. Also, an integrated software can help to collect and review who does
what work.
 Training and compliance – Training is another essential aspect of concern of HR in the cited
company. For the growth and development of the organisation it is important to train the
existing as well as new employees so that they put their efforts in right direction.
Proper training sessions could be converted regularly by the experts. A record of previous training
and outcomes should be maintained and each worker's performance should be analysed and the
areas of training should be identified (Vernimmen and et. al., 2014).
LAW: EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN CORPORATIONS
TESCO is popular for following all the equality and diversity laws. Few laws adopted by the
company are as follows :
 The success of the company is the result of contribution of efforts from both men and
women. This is realized by the owners of the cited company and they know the importance
of men and women both. Thus, they provide equal wages to both the genders. There are no

cases where an employee is paid less than other employee for the same profile just because
they are females. Efforts of both are appreciated and act of equal wages for all the
employees is followed.
 Equal opportunities are given to all the staff members. No discrimination is done for
providing the opportunities on the basis on caste, religion or authority. Even a worker of
manufacturing department can grab the opportunity if he has talent and skills. Equal
opportunity system provides equal chances of growth in the company (Terjesen, Aguilera
and Lorenz, 2015).
 The recruitment process in the quoted company takes place purely on the basis of the talent,
skill and personality of the person. It recruits people of all the religions, castes and
geographical regions. Discrimination on the grounds of race, region, culture, ethics etc. is
not practised in the company.
Sainsbury is a leading supermarket in UK. It can apply the laws and acts of the TESCO to practise
equality and diversity among the workers. For this it needs to offer equal salary to men and women
and difference in wages should not take place on the grounds of caste, religion, race, age etc.
Further equal opportunities should be provided and it should recruit members from diverse culture.
ACCOUNTING MODELS EMPLOYED BY CORPORATIONS
The corner shop bar
According to the case study of the corner shop bar are as follows:
 Accounting errors – Errors in accounting are the common problem in the corner shop
businesses. These small firms face these kinds of problems because they have small
investment and hence they often use improper and obsolete softwares and technologies. The
latest techniques and software are not being taken into considerations and hence the result is
the errors and mistakes. The problem to this solution is calibrately do all the calculations and
with full concentration (Rhode, 2014). Often distractions and reduction of focus leads to
errors and the whole calculation has to be done again. Thus, increasing focus and attention
towards the accounting can reduce the possibility of errors. Also, the owners should try to
use the advanced and the latest softwares available in the market so that there is less or
almost no conditions of error. There are advanced softwares available in the market for
doing the calculations and accounting. Although they are little costly but can help a lot and
reduce the wastage of time in rechecking of the accounting (Faccio, Marchica and Mura,
2016).

 Cases of fraud – Another major problem of accounting in the corner shops are the cases of
fraud and cheats. Often the shop owner heirs an accountant for the purpose of accounting.
This brings in the chances of fraud and cheating. The accountant disturbs the calculations by
putting the wrong data in the accounts and by doing this he can make profit. For example
sale of some stock is £300 and the accountant writes £200. Those extra money will go in the
pocket of the accountant. There may be chances that the frauds are caught by the owner and
it may also be possible that the owner does not even know about it. In this way workers
easily cheats the owners which may result in a great loss of profitability of the owner.
This problem could be solved by timely checking of the accounts. Hiring employees who are
trusted and sincere could also help to reduce chances of cheating. Also, owners can put cctv
cameras or volunteer them strictly (Klarsfeld and et.al., 2014).
CONCLUSION
The report has evaluated the market research of Debenhams. It has also discussed marketing and
digital society by SWOT analysis of Facebook. Bradleys estate agencies problems and solutions of
HRM are also identified. The report discusses the laws of equality and diversity in corporations in
context to Tesco and accounting models of the Corner Shop Bar are also described and its solutions
are identified.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Faccio, M., Marchica, M. T. and Mura, R., 2016. CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the
efficiency of capital allocation. Journal of Corporate Finance. 39. pp.193-209.
Baños-Caballero, S., García-Teruel, P. J. and Martínez-Solano, P., 2014. Working capital
management, corporate performance, and financial constraints. Journal of Business Research.
67(3). pp.332-338.
Kaplan, R. S. and Atkinson, A. A., 2015. Advanced management accounting. PHI Learning.
Vernimmen, P., and et. al., 2014. Corporate finance: theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.
Klarsfeld, A., and et. al., 2014. 9.78 E+ 12: Country Perspectives on Diversity and Equal
Treatment. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Rhode, D. L., 2014. Foreword: Diversity in the Legal Profession: A Comparative Perspective.
Fordham L. Rev.. 83. p.2241.
Terjesen, S., Aguilera, R. V. and Lorenz, R., 2015. Legislating a woman’s seat on the board:
Institutional factors driving gender quotas for boards of directors. Journal of Business Ethics.
128(2). pp.233-251.
Roberts, A., 2015. The Political Economy of “Transnational Business Feminism”
PROBLEMATIZING THE CORPORATE-LED GENDER EQUALITY AGENDA.
International Feminist Journal of Politics. 17(2). pp.209-231.
Online
2017. Debenhams. [Online]. Available through:
<www.redmayne.co.uk/research/securitydetails/summary.htm?tkr=DEB>. Accessed on [16th
March, 2017].
2017. Debenhams plc (DEB). [Online]. Available through:<http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-
search-results/d/debenhams-plc-ordinary-0.01p/share-research>. Accessed on [16th March,
2017].
2017. SWOT Analysis of Facebook Inc. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/08/swot-analysis-of-facebook-inc.aspx>.
Accessed on [16th March, 2017].