Stakeholder Analysis of George Weston Foods Company - MGT501

This report provides a detailed analysis of George Weston Foods, a leading food processing company in Canada. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, followed by a brief description of the company, identifying and analyzing its functional areas such as management, finance, operations, marketing, and accounting. The report delves into business stakeholder analysis, differentiating between internal and external stakeholders, and explores relevant theories and frameworks. It examines the nature and degree of stakeholders' interests, implications of conflicting interests, and their levels of influence. The analysis includes a competitor comparison, a stakeholder matrix, and a conclusion summarizing the findings. The report also includes references and an appendix, providing a comprehensive overview of George Weston Foods' stakeholder environment.

Running Head: GEORGE WESTON 1
Business Environment
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GEORGE WESTON 2
Executive summary
George Weston Food Company, which is a food processing industry; it is one of the leading
consumer product organization in Canada. Its main products include bread, cakes, flour, and
biscuits. The company requires employees belonging to different departments for the success of
the business. Different functions are operated within the business which is controlled and
performed by different departments in the company. Business stakeholders' analysis is a
technique used to identify stakeholders in a business and analyses their roles. A company
stakeholder is a person or group of people who can have an impact on the business either
positively or negatively or either the business can either have a positive or negative impact on the
stakeholders. Business stakeholders are divided into two internal and external stakeholders. The
company separated the operations activities into different departments because it wanted to
separate its employees depending on the area of specialization. George Weston Food company
internal stakeholders include their employees, the company recognizes their staff members as
part of their business community and they try their best to protect the interest of their employees
for their employees' benefit and also for their benefit since the productivity of the company will
be very high. George Weston Food Company faces great competition from Canada Breads.
Canada bread limited company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Grupo Bimbo since the year
2014, the company is the leading distributors and producers of bakery products and packed fresh
bread.

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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.......................................................................................................................................3
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................3
Brief description of George Weston Foods Company.............................................................................4
Identifying and analyzing the functional areas of George Weston Food Company.............................5
Management..............................................................................................................................................6
Finance Department..................................................................................................................................8
Operation department...............................................................................................................................8
Marketing...................................................................................................................................................9
Accounting...............................................................................................................................................10
Business stakeholder’s analysis..............................................................................................................10
George Weston food company stakeholders’ relevant theories and frameworks...............................11
The nature and degree of main stakeholders’ interests, and implications of conflicting interests....11
Level of main stakeholders’ influence....................................................................................................13
George Weston food competitor.............................................................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................15
References................................................................................................................................................16
Appendix..................................................................................................................................................19
George Weston Food company Stakeholders’ matrix..........................................................................19
Stakeholder Analysis Matrix..............................................................................................................19

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Introduction
The task is going to cover about George Weston Food Company, which is a food processing
industry; it is one of the leading consumer product organization in Canada. Its main products
include bread, cakes, flour, and biscuits. The following topics are going to be discussed the brief
introduction of the company industry, identifying and analyzing functional areas in the business,
the internal and external stakeholders, compare the industries with another industry, create the
company’s stakeholder matrix and then discuss chosen stakeholders and industries in the context
of relevant theories and frameworks

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Brief description of George Weston Foods Company
George Weston Food Company, which is a food processing industry; it is one of the leading
consumer product organization in Canada. George Weston foods own two brands which include
Top Taste and Tip Top, and the company is a subsidiary wholly owned company of Associated
British Foods Plc (Gómez & López-Lomelí, 2018). The company has been operating for over 50
years, and through the years it has developed and grown to become one of the leading food
manufacturers in Canada and largest bread distributor in Australia and New Zealand, George
Weston food is a proud manufacturing company since it has been able to support 60 sites across
Canada, Australia and New Zealand regional and rural communities and primary producers who
produce ingredients required by the company so that they can be able to produce food products
like bread ( Blay-Palmer,2016). The company supports the producers by buying their locally
grown ingredients. The company is capable of producing 7.8 million loaves of bread and 380000
cake pieces per weeks, George Weston foods are also able to make small enough goods like
cabana, franks, and Kransky two times in one year which are distributed all over the world and in
a year the company is able to produces 1 million tonnes of grains and other commodities. In the
year 2013, George Weston foods started to produce biscuits, and their significant suppliers were
Paradise foods and Arnott's Biscuits Holdings. The company has more than 6000 employees
across the 58 sites in New Zealand and Australia (Howard, P. H. (2016).

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Identifying and analyzing the functional areas of George Weston Food Company
George Weston Foods Company is a food processing industry, and it requires many employees
belonging to different departments for the success of the business. Different functions are
operated within the business which is controlled and performed by different departments in the
company (Gates, 2016). The company separated the operations activities into different
departments because it wanted to separate its employees depending on the area of specialization
which was beneficial to the company since the quality of services offered by each department
was effective and efficient thus the company producing right quality products and services. The
functional areas that are essential in the company include;
a) Management
b) Finance
c) Operation
d) Marketing
e) Accounting

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Management
The company management department is an essential functional area in the business since they
supervise the employees’ performance (Botha, Van Rensburg, Du Toit & Motlatla, 2016). The
management department of George Weston Foods is divided into the following categories;
 Controlling
The managers spend most of the time in the company controlling the operational activities in the
company to ensure the performance of the employees toward achieving the company's goals is
excellent. The managers acquire the skill of solving problems in the company, in case a problem
or a mistake occurs the manager is the first person to notice and take necessary actions to control
or correct the problem.
 Organizing
The company managers are responsible for organizing or the company's' operation activities
effectively and efficiently ensuring all the company's' resources are appropriately used by every
staff member of the company (Vanek, 2017).
 Planning
The goals of the company are set by the manager in each department which includes the long
goals such as being the leading bread distributor all over the world and the short goals like
ensuring the attendance and performance of the company is efficient, by setting up these goals
the manager also comes up with a strategic plan of how to accomplish their goals (Shams,
Vrontis & Weber, 2018).

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 Leading
George Weston Foods Company’s overall manager acquires good leadership skills both in
symbolic and practical ways. The manager is the team leader during groups and teamwork,
during the production of bread, cakes, biscuits and flour in George Weston Food Company the
overall company manager is seen as the leader when interacting with the customers, suppliers
and the community at large (Laudon & Laudon, 2016).
Finance Department
The finance department is also an essential functional area in Weston Food company since it is
responsible for obtaining and managing all the funds in the company. The finance department in
the company plans for both long-term and short-term capital financial needs and also they must
analyze the impact borrowing funds from other places will have in the financial well-being of the
company. The finance department of the company is answerable to all questions about how the
company can raise funds for example loans versus stock, the cost of borrowing long-term funds
and also the implications of the company finance decision for the company’s long-term
health( Brooks, 2019).

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Operation department
The operation of the company is all activities that are carried out in the company in the aim of
producing products like flour, bread, cakes, and biscuits. Operation is an essential functional area
in George Weston Food company since plays a very vital part in the production of quality and
quantity products that satisfy the needs of the consumers and suppliers (Krenczyk, Kempa,
Kalinowski, Grabowik & Paprocka, 2018). The operation department is led by a manager who is
responsible for overseeing the day to day operations in the business, for example, the manager
orders the raw material required by the company for the production of products and scheduling
the company's employees to produce products.

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Marketing
Marketing is the process by which a business advertises its products or services to the public
convincing them to purchase and use their products or services. George Weston Foods Company
markets its products by identifying their target market by designing their products and services to
satisfy their customer’s needs. The company’s marketing department carry out functions like
promoting the company’s products and services, developing a strategy for the products and
service pricing that will help capture their target market and remain competitive to other similar
businesses in the industry, they also come up with strategies of how product and services will be
delivered to their customers (David & David, 2017). The marketing department is also
responsible for overseeing and building the company’s internet presence like social media
campaigns, blogs and web sites since social media marketing is one the leading sectors within
the function of marketing (Carson,2017).
Accounting
The function of the accounting department in the company is to provide the department
managers with information that is required in the decision making of allocating the resources of
the company. The department is responsible for representing actual financial transactions of the
company’s external and internal parties, owners and investors of the company and government
agencies. There are two categories of accountants in the company the financial accountant who
are responsible for business financial statement preparation that helps entities both organizations
inside and outside assess for the company’s financial strengths, the other category is the
managerial accountants who are responsible for providing information regarding budgets, asset
allocation, costs and the performance information for management internal use which they use
during the company’s decision making (Argenti, 2015)

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Business stakeholder’s analysis
Business stakeholders' analysis is a technique used to identify stakeholders in a business and
analyze their roles (Eskerod & Jepsen, 2016). A company stakeholder is a person or group of
people who can have an impact on the business either positively or negatively or either the
business can either have a positive or negative impact on the stakeholders. Business stakeholders
are divided into two the internal and external stakeholders
a. Internal stakeholders
Internal stakeholder of business is entities within the company or organization like the board of
directors, managers, and employees. The owners their role in the business is to maximize the
profit the company or organization makes, and the employees want to stay employed and earn a
living (Ahmad, O'Regan & Ghobadian, 2015)
b. External stakeholders
External stakeholders of a business are entities that are not within the business, but the
stakeholder cares about the business, or they are affected by the business performance, for
example, the regulators which are the government, the suppliers, the investors, and the
customers. The business is expected by the government to pay their taxes. Follows the laws are
regulations, create more job opportunities and to report the business financial condition
truthfully. The business suppliers want to purchase products and services from them
continuously, the consumers expect the business to continue providing products and services that
are good quality and expect the purchasing prices to be low and generally the business is
expected to have a positive impact to the community which includes the population and the
environment (Andriof & Waddock, 2017).

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George Weston food company stakeholders’ relevant theories and frameworks
The nature and degree of main stakeholders’ interests, and implications of conflicting
interests
George Weston Food company internal stakeholders include their employees, the company
recognizes their staff members as part of their business community and they try their best to
protect the interest of their employees for their employees' benefit and also for their benefit since
the productivity of the company will be very high. George Weston Food Company believes that
the best and applicable way to improve and balance their social, economic and environmental
responsibilities of their external stakeholders is by adopting sustainable development practice in
the company operation activities, satisfying the needs of their customers and suppliers and
meeting the qualification needs of their target market without any compromise (Friedman &
Miles, 2017). The company also acknowledges the importance of their environment as the
leading distributors in Australia and New Zealand they are required and expected to act
responsibly to having a positive impact in their environment (Freeman, Harrison &
Zyglidopoulos, 2018). The company strives to have an impact on its external stakeholders by
adopting the following environmental principles during their day to day operations;
 Prevent environmental pollution by reducing the sources
 Obeying and following the government environmental regulations and laws
 Implementing and establishing environmental management systems
 The company performs environmental audits regularly
 The company minimize its waste products by reusing, reducing and recycling
 Produce high-quality products for their customers
 They continue to supply their products and services to their suppliers