Contemporary Management: Case Study on Strategy, Culture & People

This assignment presents a case study analyzing various aspects of contemporary management, including strategy, organizational culture, and people management. It begins with an elevator pitch focusing on operating in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) environment, emphasizing proactive strategies and stakeholder engagement. The analysis extends to the Australian electronic retail industry, utilizing Porter's Five Forces to assess competitive dynamics and identifying strengths and weaknesses. The study also addresses managing people, focusing on employee retention and well-being through stakeholder dialogue and initiatives like 'café Ideas'. The case study concludes by highlighting the importance of employee well-being and integrated teamwork for improved organizational performance and service quality. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

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Table of Contents
Elevator Pitch (Topic No. 6)......................................................................................................3
Response....................................................................................................................................3
Introduction............................................................................................................................3
Relevant Solution and its relevance.......................................................................................3
Action Required......................................................................................................................3
Elevator Pitch (Topic 8).............................................................................................................4
Introduction............................................................................................................................4
Solutions.................................................................................................................................4
Action Plan.............................................................................................................................4
Case Study (Topic 7): Managing strategy [watch where you are going]...................................4
Response to the issues................................................................................................................4
Analysis of the electronic retail industry of Australia............................................................4
Porters Five Forces.............................................................................................................5
Strengths and Weaknesses..................................................................................................6
Case Study (Topic 9): Managing People (Minds, Hands and Heart).........................................7
Outcome of the Case Study....................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Reference List............................................................................................................................9

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Elevator Pitch (Topic No. 6)
Response
Introduction
Operations in the business atmosphere of the VUCA world involve a direct and
specific approach to deal with the internal factors like handling of the employees. Other than
that, representation of the business practices that the successful companies have applied in the
context of the same VUCA world is also of utmost importance.
Relevant Solution and its relevance
Light footprinting is an effective strategy for operating in the VUCA world. The
organisation focused upon, in this topic has itself been created as a consequence of business
threat. The owner Reed Hastings founded Netflix for saving himself from paying penalty to
Blockbuster. I think in a VUCA world, the business strategy of companies that operate with
big data should be extremely proactive. In my opinion the company should adopt a
complimentary policy and thereby respond to the changes in the customer market and
corporate market very promptly. Generally, the corporate atmosphere in VUCA worlds are
animose to the new entrants. Hence collaboration with local operators and generating value
for the local enterprises should turn out to be a successful business strategy.
Action Required
In the VUCA world, the company should give utmost importance to the issues of the
stakeholders. Netflix should create new web series cast on the background of the local issues,
or allow giveaways which have a straightforward significance with the local factors. Local
data networks should be considered as important stakeholders also.

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Elevator Pitch (Topic 8)
Response to issues
The values generated by the organisational culture and HR management in any
company is really essential. Sam needs to focus at the employees hiring process and the
onsite training process in order to develop an integrated work culture in the workplace.
Introduction
The elevator pitch is focused on suggesting Sam about how to improve the workplace
conditions and make the internal atmosphere amicable.
Solutions
I suppose Sam should implement a policy that could acquaint newer employees with
the work regime. In the introductory phase the employees should be given a fair idea of the
organisational goals, which would make them more oriented with the objectives of the IT
team of the company.
Action Plan
Sam should encourage his employees by making them acquainted with the work
cultures of the bigger IT companies. Hence, a strategic training program can be arranged.
This may have impact on the mind-set of the employees as well as help the IT department
learn about the technological innovations and newer infrastructure that would be required by
them for ensuring success.
Case Study (Topic 7): Managing strategy [watch where you are going]
Response to the issues
Analysis of the electronic retail industry of Australia

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Porters Five Forces
1. Supplier’s Bargaining Power
Suppliers of the electronic retail industry of Australia do not have much bargaining
strength. The ecommerce brands are the market peers who curb their bargaining strength.
They have to rely totally on the online retailing brands for retention of their target market.
Hence they cannot exercise their own strength to bargain. Already they get a large market
(often international market), that might be outside their scope or budget at the moment. Most
of the companies’ also view the electronic retail sector as an opportunity for alternative sales.
Hence they do not bargain over price.
2. Buyers bargaining strength
The Buyers of the ecommerce sites have high bargaining power. It is evident that they
do nit have the option of bargaining available. However they can choose to shop with other
peering companies instead if they suppose the price of a company is not reasonable.
However, the customer retention strategy of the ecommerce websites are creating brand
loyalty in the electronic retail industry also. As such, Zhu (2015), puts that the bargaining
power of the buyers in the industry would reduce in the future, since they would give
preference to the brands power more than the competitive prices.
3. Threat from Substitute Items
Substitutes from the other brands that carry out physical sales are potential threat to
the ecommerce brands. This is because the customers of America still view online sales as an
alternative sales medium. Another area of threat is the market trend of launching exclusive
online sales portal by the major brands in the country (Calhoun, O’Neill & Douglas, 2018).
4. Rivalry in the Online Retail Industry

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The rivalry in the industry is high owing to the increase in the number of market
entrants in the recent Years. This is not a threat for the on-line market since the number of
customers in the online shopping sites is increasing at a high rate. Therefore, it can be
concluded that the chance of market penetration is still open in the online retail sector.
5. Threat of New Entrants
The coming of new entrants in the market is not a potential risk for the existing peers.
The new brands come up with many new retail brands. Hence, this just results in the
thickening if the market. However, as per Killett et al. (2016), this is not disrupting the
healthy ratio between the number of retail companies and the number of buyers. This is
because the number of buyers in this sector is also increasing.
Strengths and Weaknesses
1. Strengths
The foremost strength of the industry is the increase of customer’s investment in the
sector. As the customers bring in more purchasing power in the industry, new entrants would
be more exited to enter in the industry (Freeman, 2017). Moreover, the stable financial
position, the advantages of the Free Trade area and the easy corporate regulations have many
new and existing online shopping companies interested to enter the Australian market.
2. Weakness
The foremost weakness of the sector is that setting up a country wide network us very
expensive and problematic. The organisations that wish to start new business in the sector not
only need to invest large capital but also establish a country wide logistics network that is
very difficult owing to the geographical hindrances existing here (Kalia, Kaur & Singh,
2018).

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Case Study (Topic 9): Managing People (Minds, Hands and Heart)
Response
The peering companies of the hospitality industry are facing issues like workers’
turnover rate and the reduction in the rate of employee retention. In this case study, the
factors and issue that the internal operations manager of the Sandbanks Hotel faced in
employee retention and meeting the demand of the customers have been highlighted.
The business policy of stakeholder dialogue have been implemented by the famous
hotel chains. As per Guchait, Paşamehmetoğlu and Dawson (2014), the benefits of this
strategy are improved reach in the target market along with learning about new trends or
services introduced in the hospitality sector. The project undertaken by the company focuses
on exchange of information among the business agency of the hospitality sector, the policy
makers and the academic researchers.
The project involved setting up of cafes, which was an informal chat room for
discussion of the best and most innovative policies and strategies in the industry. The subtle
motive of the campaign was to foster wellbeing in the HR department. Employee wellbeing is
directly related to the quality of service provided to the clients in the hotel. This hotel owned
by the FJB group is situated in Poole Dorset. It is popular for the amenities that are offered
here, the likes of which include various beach sports. Space bookings for weddings or
meetings is also among the listed facilities.

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The biggest advantage of the café Ideas is that it provides a platform for interaction of
the academic personalities with the internal stakeholders or policy makers (Kochukalam &
Joseph, 2015). For instance, the informal discussion that took place between the HR manager
of the organisation and the workers might be mentioned. The HR policies and the employee
retention practices of the authorities were evaluated in the meeting. The Destination feel-
good members participated cordially in the meetings.
Outcome of the Case Study
The suggestion of the staff exposed some postulates which are worth considering for
the authorities. The most important factors was the need to introduce the work pattern of
operating in shifts. Moreover, in the informal conversations it became evident that the
managers’ needed to address the personal issues that the workers in the Hotel faced.
Alongside, the positive attitude of the management in reacting to the immediate demands of
the employees were also appreciated.
The employees who were present in the chat rooms also addressed the facts that there
were traces of disorientation in the work force also. The employees needed to work as a more
integrated team and thus ensure a smooth workflow in the hotel which would in turn account
for better service to the employees. The unit of the employees also addressed the proficiency
of the internal promotions policy of the hotel authority. The other important issue discussed
in the chat room is the appraisal policy adopted by the authority and management. The staff
members in general confided in the fact that cash appraisals help them to focus on their work
and reach out to the clients with better service.
Conclusion
Analysis of the project reveals that such endeavours bring together various power
heads to communicate and address the issues of the internal stakeholders, mainly the

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employees. Furthermore, it can also be concluded that an effective policy for the employee’s
wellbeing also impact their organisational performance and thus gives rise to new business
value.
Reference List
Calhoun, J. R., O’Neill, M., & Douglas, A. C. (2018). An Examination of Second Language
Education Provision among US and European Hospitality and Tourism Management
Schools. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Education, 1-10.
Freeman, B. (2017). An introduction to India's skills system to facilitate increased Australia-
India bilateral engagement.
Guchait, P., Paşamehmetoğlu, A., & Dawson, M. (2014). Perceived supervisor and co-worker
support for error management: Impact on perceived psychological safety and service
recovery performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, 28-37.
Kalia, P., Kaur, N., & Singh, T. (2018). E-Commerce in India: evolution and revolution of
online retail. In Mobile Commerce: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications (pp. 736-758). IGI Global.
Killett, A., Burns, D., Kelly, F., Brooker, D., Bowes, A., La Fontaine, J., ... & O'NEILL, M.
A. R. T. I. N. (2016). Digging deep: how organisational culture affects care home
residents' experiences. Ageing & Society, 36(1), 160-188.
Kochukalam, C., & Joseph, J. (2015). Integrated Self Help Group (I-SHG)-The Potential
Maximized Through a Sustainable Social Business Model.
Zhu, C. (2015). Organisational culture and technology-enhanced innovation in higher
education. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 24(1), 65-79.

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