6FBS1512 BABA Report: Contemporary Issues in Business Management

This report, submitted by a student at the University of Hertfordshire, addresses contemporary issues in business and management. It examines challenges such as globalization, innovation, technology, government regulations, and diversity. The report analyzes how managers utilize contemporary tools and theories, including benchmarking, customer segmentation, customer relationship management, mission and vision statements, and supply chain management, to overcome these issues. Case studies of companies like Coca-Cola, Fujifilm, Wells Fargo, Amazon, and Google are used to illustrate the practical application of these tools. The report further explores the theoretical underpinnings of these management practices, referencing concepts and theories from various researchers to support the strategies discussed. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for effective business management in a dynamic environment.

Module Title: BABA Contemporary Issues in Business and
Management
Module Code: 6FBS1512
UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
Individual Assignment 1
Student Name: Junaidah Binte Mustafa Kamal (17046461)
Date: 15th March 2018
Lecturer: Dr. Chang Cheng Sheng

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Ways that managers adopt to overcome these issues.................................................................3
Theories and concepts of the contemporary management tool used..........................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
1

Introduction
In the modernized business there are larger numbers of contemporary issues that have
risen. Due to these issues, companies need to effectively manage their operations so as to
eliminate it (Maylor, Blackmon and Huemann, 2016). This will help company in ensuring its
growth rate which is essential for having control over the market. This report highlights the
problems that are faced by the organisations. It also illustrates the ways in which managers’
uses contemporary tools for overcoming these issues as well as the theories that support the
emerging management practices.
Causes and impact of management problems
There are many kinds of management problems that arise within a firm (Jeston and Nelis,
2014). Some of the common challenges that modern day organisation faces are:
 Globalisation: Due to globalisation not only, new opportunities for the companies
have come up but they also started facing several new kinds of challenges. One of the
biggest challenges is competition (Bookboon, 2011).
 Innovation: This is also the problem for the organisation as they have to continuously
make innovation in their approach of business as well as the product and services they
are delivering (Van Der Aalst, La Rosa and Santoro, 2016).
 Technology: In every six month the advancements in the technology that is used
inside the industries are getting doubled. This has created problems for the
organisations as they have to make continuous changes in their technology use which
requires whole lot money (Wheelen, et. al., 2017).
 Government policy and regulation: The regulations and policies made by the
government is becoming a challenge for the company as they need to make sure that
they follow all the guidelines for making the business successful.
 Diversity: In an organisation there are many people that are coming from different
cultural backgrounds (Stark, 2015). This has forced companies to make sure that they
adopt all the strategies in a better way so that they work as a team to achieve common
goals in spite of such diversity.
Ways that managers adopt to overcome these issues
There are many ways that can be adopted by the managers to make sure that all the issues that
are coming to the business are taken care off in a better manner. There are various types of
companies that exist i.e. national, international and local (Heizer, 2016). All these are facing
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different kinds of challenges. It is the role of the management to make sure that they
overcome these challenges in order to ensure higher profits. There are many tools that are
used by the mangers so as to check that these problems do not make negative impact on the
operations of the firm. The issues that arise in the society due to these problems are as
follows:
Globalisation: Due to globalisation competition has got intense. This has given choices to
the people. On the other hand, it has also forced companies to make changes in the business
process otherwise they may lag in their operation which can be dangerous for the survival of
the company (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). For example, Coca cola is the multinational
beverage brand and is facing problems related to the Globalisation. This company has to face
the competition from many bigger and smaller local beverage companies. Its biggest
competitor PEPSI co. has given them major challenge in almost all the markets. One of the
best methods that this company has adopted is to preserve its trade secrets. This helps them in
making sure that they have originality in their product which assists them in leading into the
market and face globalisation. They have taken the use of management tool named
benchmarking. They have set standards in the beverage industry which only few of its
competitors can match. They have made particular set of standards for all their existing
products and keep monitoring itself in terms of quality that it delivers in its products. This has
helped them in their survival.
Innovation: Innovation is necessary for the survival of any company. It has also helped
society in solving their day to day life problems. Companies need to invest a lot in the
research of new products as well as the demands and the requirements of the market
(Wheelen and Hunger, 2011). For example, Fujifilm is one of the primary examples of the
company that is facing problems related to innovation. This company has learned from the
mistakes of Kodak who believed that marketing and branding is sufficient for the survival.
This company is facing problem that they want to incorporate open innovation inside the
firm. This cannot be possible without incorporating face to face communication inside the
firm. They have taken use of the tool named customer segmentation. This helps them in
developing products as per the demand of the target consumers. This helps them in making
innovation aligned with the demands of the market which helps them in getting success in the
market.
Technology: It has come up as the gift for the society as it has made the works of the people
easier (Adekola and Sergi, 2016). It has also helped businesses in making the cost cuts which
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is major challenge for the firm. It has brought effectiveness in the operations of the firm
which is necessary for manufacturing quality products and services. For example, Wells
Fargo bank which is one the leading American banking firm is facing problems related to
technology. The speed with which the technology is changing and the treats that are present
in the use of IT mediums for banking has created problems for Wells Fargo bank. In order to
reduce such type of issues they have taken use of customer relationship management. This
has helped them in retaining of consumers by implementing centralised data storage and
retention facility. They have taken use of such technology that helps in enhancing the
efficiency of CRM.
Government policy and regulations: Companies these have to make sure that they have
good relations with the government in order to influence them for having regulations that
benefits them. For example, Amazon is one the biggest IT related firm in the whole world.
Since the government policies and regulation related to E-commerce market have changed.
Government of India in its new FDI rules have specified that now e-commerce platform can
sale more than 25% products from one vendor. This has created problems for the company
and hence This Company has decided to use the tool called Supply Chain Management
(Chanchani, 2011).
Diversity: Companies need to make sure that they have a strategic human resource
management plan so that they can manage the diversity at their workplace (Storbacka, 2011).
With the use of strategic plan for diversity company can make sure that they have health
employee relations. For example, Google which is another biggest firm in the IT industry is
facing problems related to diversity. This is due to the reason that Google has employees
from all around the world. Google need to make sure that they have managed their employee
strength in a better way. Since diversity is strength of the company as very different types of
talent comes to the company. They took the use of the management tool i.e. their mission and
vision. This management tools helps in bringing all the employees irrespective of the
diversity in their skills or culture into one unit. They all make efforts for achieving the
common goal and objectives of the organisation.
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Theories and concepts of the contemporary management tool used
There are various theories and concepts that have been given by various researchers in order
to support emerging management practices (Pappas and Cannon, Optimum Outcomes LLC,
2011). Some of the major theories in this regard are as follows:
Benchmarking theory: This is theory that is generally utilised by the firms in order to
understand the gap they have in their processes and make changes accordingly (Johnson,
2015). It is understood as the quality management theory which aims to enhance the quality
of the products and services. This theory suggests finding the gap by continuously measuring
the products and services against the set standards inside the firm as well as with products of
other competitors. It helps Coca-cola to enhance consumer satisfaction in terms of cost,
product, quality etc. It motivates them for making improvement in the overall operations
within the firm. It also helps in stimulating continuous performance that can give them
competitive edge over other competitors. On the negative side it does not account for the fact
that under which circumstances competitors like Pepsi co. have gained those standards. It
gives arrogance and complacency in the firms like Coca-cola which stops them from
developing further.
Customer segmentation theory: This theory explains the need of making smaller segments
in the whole market. This helps company in producing products as per the demand of the
smaller segments. These segments are made according to some criteria then company
develops products according. This helps them in achieving higher level of consumer
satisfaction. It also helps to appeal to the consumers as per their demand which is necessary
in the case of Fujifilms who are facing such a large competition. It helps Fujifilms to capture
the market that competitors have not pursued. Fujifilms also need to be take care of the fact
that this theory generally confuses company about the customers. In the use of this theory
costing is not taken into consideration which can be dangerous for the company.
Customer relationship management: It is a holistic process of retaining, acquiring and
growing consumers. It involves all in-line and off-line relationship management. As
mentioned above it is very helpful for the banking sector that is facing the challenges like
technology, commoditisation, globalisation and deregulation. It helps in increasing consumer
loyalty. It will assist Wells Fargo bank to manage its increasing database and speed of growth
process. It also helps in centralisation of data that may generate at any branch of the bank that
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may help in making automations in many services like sending of emails. On the negative
side implementation of CRM is difficult as switching from manual modes of operations to
automatic modes in banking. Apart from this when CRM is implemented within an
organisation then there is a chance of computers getting hacked.
Mission and vision: This concept helps in communicating the objectives of the organisation
as well as defining the purpose of the firm to stakeholders (David, 2011). It also helps in
binding the whole organisation in one knot so that everyone works for achieving the common
goals of the company. This concept when implemented helps in aligning the efforts of the
stakeholder in one direction. Defining mission and vision in a more elaborated manner can
help Google them in showing the paths to the stakeholders about the ways in which they have
to do their work at the workplace. This will help in managing the diversity at the workplace.
It also assists in making sure that company does not practice any wring means to achieve
success. On the negative side setting mission and vision tends to overburden the stakeholders
to follow some specific norms for achieving higher growth.
Supply Chain Management: This theory advocates maintaining the flow of goods and
services so that they can maintain the demand and supply chain. This involves movement,
storage of work in process inventory as well as the final goods and products. This will help
Amazon in managing the problem related to new regulations by Indian Government. A new
investment in suppliers’ service will be done by the company in the coming years so as to
reduce it by the use of SCM.
Conclusion
There are many problems or challenges occur in the daily operations of the firm. It is
the role of the managers within a firm to make sure that these problems does not have
negative impact on the operations of the firm. Due to various kinds of reasons these problems
pose both negative and positive impact on the society. There are various tools that are used
by the managers so as to manage the impact and causes of these problems. They also take use
of the various theories and concepts related to contemporary business management which can
help in tackling these issues.
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References
Adekola, A. and Sergi, B.S., (2016) Global business management: A cross-cultural
perspective. Routledge. pp. 16-20
Bookboon. (2011) How globalisation affects business. [Online]. Available at: https:
https://bookboon.com/blog/2011/10/how-globalization-affects-business/. [Accessed on: 9th
March 2018].
Chanchani, M. (2011) With clarity in FDI rules, Amazon will invest more: Amit Agarwal,
Amazon India. [Online]. Available at: https:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/with-clarity-in-fdi-rules-amazon-
will-invest-more-amit-agarwal-amazon-india/articleshow/52285116.cms. [Accessed on: 14th
March 2018].
David, F.R., (2011) Strategic management: Concepts and cases. Pearson/Prentice Hall. pp.
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Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., (2014) Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. pp. 20-27
Heizer, J., (2016) Operations Management, 11/e. Pearson Education India. pp. 67-69
Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., (2014) Business process management. Routledge. pp. 1-7
Johnson, M.P., (2015) Sustainability management and small and medium‐sized enterprises:
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Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(5), pp.271-285.
Maylor, H., Blackmon, K. and Huemann, M., (2016) Researching business and management.
Palgrave. pp. 4-18
Pappas, G. and Cannon, J., Optimum Outcomes LLC, (2011) Business management tool.
U.S. Patent 7,945,472.
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Stark, J., (2015) Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (Volume
1) (pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.
Storbacka, K., (2011) A solution business model: Capabilities and management practices for
integrated solutions. Industrial Marketing Management, 40(5), pp.699-711.
Van Der Aalst, W.M., La Rosa, M. and Santoro, F.M., (2016) Business process management.
pp. 2-6
Wheelen, T.L. and Hunger, J.D., (2011) Concepts in strategic management and business
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management and business policy. Pearson. pp. 10-23
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