Business Report: Greggs' Response to Brexit and the Importance of CSR

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BUSINESS REPORT ON GREGGS AND REFLECTION ON
TEAMWORK
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Greggs’s key issue and recommendations...................................................................................3
3. Benefits of CSR projects.............................................................................................................4
4. Possible impact of Brexit.............................................................................................................5
5. Individual reflection on group presentation.................................................................................5
6. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
Reference list...................................................................................................................................7
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1. Introduction
The purpose of the study is to analyse the issues currently the company named, Greggs, that is
largest bakery chains in UK is facing related to management operations in the organisation.
Moreover, this report will also focus on importance of linking with the Corporate Social
Responsibility and impact of Brexit in Greggs, bakery business.
2. Greggs’s key issue and recommendations
Management plays an important role in keeping a balance in the work process and employee’s
needs effectively. As mentioned by Kourula et al. (2017), managers are responsible for setting
the mindset of the employees in order to bring their motivation and interest in work. It has been
found that Greggs is currently facing issues with the long working hours of employees and
management handling process (Bitc.org.uk, 2018). Greggs is an organisation with about 22,000
employees that are trying to serve excellence customer services. As the working hour and
pressure level is high in the organisation, the managers of the company are not able to keep
balance in the working process. The managers are found to dependent highly on the employees,
hence, for this purpose, the staffs are facing hectic schedule in the stores of Greggs. This has
made many of the staffs in leaving the business at a large rate. Hence, it can be said that
management of the organisation needs to be improved by following a relevant management
theory that is Elton Mayo’s Behavioural management theory.
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Figure 1: Elton Mayo’s Behavioural management theory
(Source: Muldoon, 2018)
According to this theory, increase in the productivity can occur if the staffs of the organisation
feel motivated and remains connected. Muldoon (2018) mentioned that Elton Mayo’s
management theory is useful for gaining positive responses from the staffs that would help in the
enhancement of the business productivity. Hence, managers of Greggs can apply this theory for
studying the behaviour of staffs and can understand their necessity. This can help in improving
the employee retention rate of the organisation. The managers can shift the locations and job
hours of the staffs according to their preference by using the Elton Mayo’s management theory.
3. Benefits of CSR projects
It is important to link business with CSR activities for gaining a positive effect from both internal
as well as external stakeholders. By planning a CSR activity, the company can increase profits
by gaining values from shareholders (Lim and Greenwood, 2017). This would ultimately help in
growing sustainability of business. Different CSR activities such as reducing of carbon
footprints, improving the labour policies, participating in fair trade, and investing in charitable
trusts are practiced by organisations for empowering the business position.
In context of Greggs, it has been found that organisation has been awarded with business charity
Award in year 2015 for helping the community by developing a culture of supporting charitable
at every level of organisation (Thirdsector.co.uk, 2019). The company has invested in different
CSR projects since from year 1960s. Greggs support charities by three different ways such as
support charity initiatives, collecting money for Gregg’s foundation and providing staffs’ scope
to involve in volunteer activities. It has raised about £1 million for charitable organizations along
with £865,000 fund for BBC Children and £71,000 fund for the crisis appeal of Ebola.
The company has involved in social responsibility program in which all the projects are
delivered with measurable targets. This has helped the company to focus on the customers that
buys products from them. CEO and Executive boards of the company direct the Social
responsibility group (Corporate.greggs.co.uk, 2014). For example, fresh made sandwiches and
puff pastry are sold for gaining positive impact from the customers.
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4. Possible impact of Brexit
Brexit event is found to have a huge impact on the UK business as the future productivity is
expected to be reduced. This is because as the European Union has decided to leave UK, the
costs of raw materials, labour costs and, product regulations and others will be affected. As a
result, this will bring pressure on the UK business. In Greggs, it can be said that organisation will
face pressure with the occurrence of Brexit event. For example, due to Brexit event, it has been
analysed that supplies of the products such as salads, vegan Sausage roll and others would be
difficult as these products are imported from Europe and other countries. Hence, this indicates
that the company would face a significant loss in the business, as vegan sausage roll is one of the
best selling products in this bakery chain (Pham, 2019). Moreover, the business will face issues
in gaining raw materials for the preparation of fresh sandwiches and hence, the business needs to
come up with contingency plans for securing the suppliers for products like tomatoes and lettuce
in order to sustain the profitability of this largest bakery chain of UK.
5. Individual reflection on group presentation
I have been able to collect the important resources for developing the group presentation in a
proper way. I along with my group members have gathered information about the company for
highlighting the significant data of their contribution CSR activities. I communicated with all of
my team members in the group meetings for exchanging my ideas with them. This helped me in
creating innovative contents for the group presentation. The main benefits that I got while
working in team is I have been able to grow my team working skill and management skills. I
worked with my team members and tried to collect relevant figures that can add significant
attention of the audience. I have tried using both verbal and written communication to interact
with the team members effectively. However, in the middle of preparation of presentation,
conflict raised among the team members due to miscommunication and deliverance of wrong
information among the groups. Hence, I think I have to develop my communication skills so that
I can note down the points that are given by all the group members and can consider the relevant
points in the preparation of group presentation. This will help in mitigating the communication
gap in the development of group presentation.
6. Conclusion
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From this study, it has been found that Greggs is able to invest in the CSR activities that has
helped in gaining positive impact from the customers, suppliers, team and other subordinates.
However, the management team needs to focus on understanding the needs of the employees for
bringing consistency in the business operations.
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Reference list
Bitc.org.uk (2018). Good Work for All: Regular staff ‘check-ups’ at Greggs to improve employee
satisfaction and performance. [online] Available at:
https://www.bitc.org.uk/all-resources/impact-stories/good-work-all-regular-staff-
%E2%80%98check-ups%E2%80%99-greggs-improve-employee [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].
Corporate.greggs.co.uk (2014). Social Responsibility. [online] Available at:
https://corporate.greggs.co.uk/social-responsibility [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].
Kourula, A., Pisani, N. and Kolk, A., 2017. Corporate sustainability and inclusive development:
highlights from international business and management research. Current opinion in
environmental sustainability, 24, pp.14-18.
Lim, J.S. and Greenwood, C.A., 2017. Communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR):
Stakeholder responsiveness and engagement strategy to achieve CSR goals. Public Relations
Review, 43(4), pp.768-776.
Muldoon, J., 2018. Spontaneity Is the Spice of Management: Elton Mayo’s Hunt for
Cooperation. The Palgrave Handbook of Management History, pp.1-21.
Pham, L., (2019). Greggs Moves to Ensure Post-Brexit Supply of Vegan Sausage Rolls [online]
Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-07/greggs-moves-to-ensure-
post-brexit-supply-of-vegan-sausage-rolls [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].
Thirdsector.co.uk (2019). Business Charity Awards 2015: Business of the Year - Greggs. [online]
Available at: https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/business-charity-awards-2015-business-year-
greggs/communications/article/1347314 [Accessed 1 Jul. 2019].
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