Strategy Course: Knowledge Management at Costa Coffee Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of knowledge management practices at Costa Coffee. It begins with an overview of Costa Coffee, its products, and its global presence. The report then defines knowledge management and its importance, particularly in fostering innovation and achieving strategic goals. It explores knowledge sharing, seeking, and acquisition within the company, emphasizing the importance of investing in employee skills and creating a supportive work environment. The report also examines Costa Coffee's approach to recruitment, selection, compensation, and rewards. Furthermore, it covers the company's strategic decision-making processes, including the use of knowledge management tools and the influence of company culture. The report highlights the two main approaches to knowledge management – functionalist and interpretative – and how they apply to Costa Coffee. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of Costa Coffee's knowledge management strategies and their impact on the company's success.

Strategy Course Work

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
Overview of costa coffee.................................................................................................................1
Knowledge management overview..................................................................................................2
Knowledge sharing, seeking and acquisition at costa coffee...........................................................4
Investing in skills and Employment.............................................................................................4
Consumer well being...................................................................................................................6
Environment responsibility..........................................................................................................7
Company's knowledge management practices and strategic decision making................................8
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge management can be defined as the procedure which includes creating,
sharing, utilizing as well as managing knowledge and companies information. The purpose of
knowledge management is to help an organization in increasing value. It also intends to support
firm in fulfilling strategic and tactical requirements. Knowledge management is also considered
to be as multidisciplinary approach of accomplishing business objectives by making the best
utilization of knowledge. It helps in promoting innovation and also assists in bringing positive
improvement in business procedures.
The purpose of report to analyse knowledge sharing, seeking and acquisition at Costa
coffee. It also emphasizes on identifying the knowledge management practices and strategic
decision making in an organization. Study will also include evaluation of business entity
knowledge management practices.
Overview of costa coffee
Costa Coffee is basically a coffee shop Located in United Kingdom. It is basically a
multinational company. Various products offered by Costa Coffee are coffee, sand witches, iced
drinks and snacks. Business entity is famous for offering Italian coffee. An enterprise has
approximately thirty four hundred stores in thirty one countries. Costa coffee also have its stores
in other countries as well which provides business entity an ease in delivering goods or services
to wide number of customers. Objective of Costa coffee is to deliver high level of satisfaction to
both customer and employees (Dalkir, 2013). Company makes huge investment on developing
its workers. Business entity provides training and development opportunity to its employees, this
strategy has enabled firm to retain talented and skilled staff. Recently, The Coca-Cola Company
announced to acquire the Costa coffee for $5.1 billion from its parent company which is
Whitbread PLC. This deal will benefit the Coca cola for providing a strong platform in countries
like Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa for delivering coffee products of Costa
coffee. This deal was expected to complete in the Fiscal Year 2019. Costa coffee is one of the
largest coffee chain in the entire world and comes at first place in United Kingdom.
Costa Coffee was established in London in the year 1971 as a roasted coffee supply chain for
supplying to caterers and Italian coffee shops. The company has expanded in 31 countries with
3400 stores. The company has 2,100 stores or restaurants in the United Kingdom along with the
6,000 Costa Express facilities and 1,280 outlets in other countries.
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Knowledge management overview
Knowledge management is referred to as efficient handling of company's information as
well as business resources. It is mainly concerned with development as well as exploitation of
knowledge and organization information for achieving desired business objectives. Knowledge
management mainly involves various activities such as developing, sharing, utilization and
management of information as well as knowledge. This management activity is crucial in context
of promoting innovation at workplace (Easterby-Smith and Lyles, 2011). Knowledge
management is also very much crucial as it helps in exploring as well as capturing business
opportunities. Knowledge management aid manager in identifying the different problems related
to development, management as well as maintaining infrastructure which is needed for holding
and sharing of knowledge within an organization. An effective knowledge management has
assisted Costa Coffee in improving business performance. Knowledge management has
supported Costa coffee in maintaining its learning capacity in order to remain competitive as
well as innovative. This type of management has positive effect on business. It has helped Costa
coffee in improving company effectiveness.
The various aspects which make knowledge management possible are culture which
includes knowledge sharing. Other aspects which supports knowledge management procedure
includes technology, infrastructure etc. The purpose of knowledge management is to support
business entities in bringing positive as well as drastic improvement in procedures. In context of
Costa coffee, an organization has adopted as well as implemented the knowledge management
strategy. It is basically a plan to which is developed by manager in an enterprise for increasing
awareness among workers and assisting employees in developing the understanding about the
knowledge management procedure in an enterprise. Knowledge management strategy has
assisted Costa Coffee in accomplishing various strategic as well as tactical objectives. It can also
be defined as a procedure which enables employees in an enterprise to share, access all business
related information (Edwards, 2011). Training is considered to be as the best technique which
can be implemented in order to provide workers an opportunity to share information and
enabling them to get themselves about the new business objectives, policies, plans and strategies.
As this tactic will help employees in improving their performance at workplace.
In context of Costa coffee, Human resource manager in organization need to provide
workers a tool to make sure that workers can easily share information as well as knowledge
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which they posses. Continuous as well as an effective flow of information is very much
important in context of smooth functioning of business. It is required by manager in Costa Co fee
to provide open communication channel which will be helpful in context of promoting sharing of
knowledge (Firestone and McElroy, 2012). As this strategy will support manager in developing
creative working environment and assist an organization in getting the innovative ideas which
can be utilized for solving various business issues. An effective knowledge management
supports managers in quick decision making. In context of Costa Coffee, the utilization of the
appropriate knowledge management tools is essential for their products to reach out to people
even in different cultures. It is important for management in an organization to develop the
understanding about the different knowledge management tools. As business entity is earning
high revenue then other organization in brewing sector during the utilization of Knowledge
management tools would take longer than usual.
There are basically different types of knowledge management tools are required for
conducting knowledge management practices within an organization. These are content
repository, it enables workers to share as well as manage knowledge content. Social software,
these are other tools which supports an individual in getting update themselves with current of
affairs (Handzic, 2011). Communication tools enables employees in an enterprise to share
information as well as knowledge posses by them.
In context of Costa coffee, it is very much important for manager in an enterprise to
ensure proper implementation of internal procedure this is considered to be as crucial activity for
making that right knowledge is created, stored as well as utilized. Policy as well as regulations
in a company governs the way workers interact with each other. It is very much important for
human resource manager in Costa coffee to communicate significance of knowledge and
management to employees. Costa Coffee has already has adopted the knowledge management
practices and made it compulsory in routine business operations (Hislop, Bosua and Helms,
2018). Manager or leaders in coffee provides workers some breaks, this tactic has been
implemented by management in order to provide employees a chance to review as well as
analyse the information or knowledge which they have gained recently.
In addition to manager in Costa Coffee has developed some guidelines and has
communicated the same to employees and some policies as well as rewards system, are being
developed in order to encourage workers to make signification contribution in knowledge
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management procedure at workplace. It is very much important for leaders or managers in an
organization to preserve the information about the incident, as well as the steps taken to rectify it
and provide example of the same to employees. As this tactic will support leaders in encouraging
employees to learn from their mistakes (Holtshouse, 2013). In context of technology, there are
various sites as well as software which can help an individual in developing the knowledge or
gathering information about particular topic.
Culture is considered to be as a crucial factor which has direct as well as significant effect
on the success of knowledge management. Trust is considered to be as a crucial factor through
which knowledge or information can be exchanged smoothly. High level of trust among
employees as well as management in an enterprise can facilitate knowledge sharing. In context
of Costa Coffee, business entity has adopted the integration strategy. Management in an
organization has integrated knowledge management system in business structure which has
assisted them in managing knowledge through internet.
There are basically two approaches related to knowledge management these are
functionalist as well as interpretative. The functionalist approach of knowledge management
have focus on explicit knowledge (Lambe, 2011). It concentrates on developing the way for
disseminating as well as expanding the knowledge with the support of various techniques or
technologies. Interpretative approach of knowledge management mainly concerned with tactic
knowledge, treating it as a procedure. According to the Interpretative approach, manager in
Costa coffee need to emphasizes on people. In addition to this, It is required by manager in an
enterprise to develop such environment where employees should be given permission to interact
with each other.
Knowledge sharing, seeking and acquisition at costa coffee
Investing in skills and Employment
Costa coffee company is popular for its well trained, talented and skilled workforce.
High performing and skilled workforce has assisted business entity in delivering professional
services to its clients. Investment on employees' strategy has enabled Costa Coffee to establish
good position in the market (López-Nicolás and Meroño-Cerdán, 2011). Costa coffee is
considered to be as a top employer. In business entity all the workers share same value. An
organization for providing the development as well as knowledge gaining opportunity has
established its training institutes in different countries. In addition to this, workers in an
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enterprise are taught to prepare such coffee which fulfils the needs of all types of customers.
Management in Costa Coffee motivates employees to share successful stories, which assists an
organization in enhancing its influence of brand. In addition to this, timely cross training is
organized by management in Costa Coffee for promoting sharing of knowledge. Recruitment and selection- Recruitment is the process of attracting and hiring
knowledgeable candidates for the vacant position in an organisation. Recruitment process
involves posting of jobs on social media sites, online job portals and internet for
attracting potential candidates required for filling the vacant position. Selection process is
the process of recruiting and selecting the potential candidates which are suitable for the
position they has applied for (Mills and Smith, 2011). The selection is done based on the
skills and knowledge possessed by the candidates for meeting the selection criteria.
Selection process involves interviews, medical tests, physical tests, aptitude test for
measuring the capabilities of the candidates. Therefore, recruitment and selection is the
most essential process for hiring potential employees from a pool of applicants. Compensation and rewards- Compensation and rewards are provided to the employees
based on their performance and efficiency of performing their work effectively. When the
employees are contributing their maximum efforts for accomplishing the desired goals
and objectives of the company, then it is the major responsibility of management to
provide them some monetary benefits in terms of rewards, incentives and appraisals. By
providing rewards, employees feel motivated towards the company and they provide
more effective services to the company for increasing the growth and productivity of the
corporation. Support at difficult task- Management should support the workers and low level
employees when they are not comfortable with the given task. Management needs to
provide guidelines and support to them in such needy times. From this, employees wont
feel dissatisfied from their work and can easily perform their roles and responsibilities for
achieving the desired organisational goals and objectives.
 Taking supports from staff- It is most important element which brings the required
efficiency in the operations of the firm as well as in the employees. Management should
take support and suggestions from the employees who are having experience and
knowledge. Through taking suggestions from employees, employees feels motivated and
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loyal towards the company. This is also helpful for retaining old and experienced
employees.
Consumer well being
Costa Coffee has implemented customer relationship management at work place.
Customer relationship technology supports outsourcing of knowledge which can be exemplified
by the explication of tacit knowledge about consumers. This technology has supported Costa
Coffee in gathering the information about consumers (North and Kumta, 2018). In addition to
this, customer relationship technology also assists the sharing of explicit knowledge which can
be utilized for setting the standards for their procedure , products as well ass services. For
instance, based on the external information and considering the taste as well as preference of
customers, Costa coffee has decided to reduce the sugar as well as salts in its products.
Marketing research has been executed by Costa Coffee gathering the information about
the needs and demands of customers. This strategy has enabled business entity to maintain its
leading position in an industry. It has also supported an organization in gaining competitive
advantage in the market (Wiig, 2012). Customer relationship is considered to be as a process
which has assisted Cost Coffee in expanding the knowledge or information related to consumers
which further has assisted an enterprise in improving loyalty. It has also assisted an enterprise in
identifying an appropriate strategy for retaining profitable customers. Acquiring , A customer
relationship management has assisted Costa Coffee in acquiring new customers through
excellent contact management, direct marketing, selling and fulfilment.
In addition to this, Costa coffee has integrated web enable customer relationship
management technology with customers tools, this strategy has helped business entity in
delivering quality, quick as well as excellence services to clients. Knowledge management can
be considered to be an effective approach which is basically utilized for capturing, creating as
well as applying knowledge for making customer relationship management procedure successful.
Customer knowledge management can be defined as the optimization of business procedures
which facilitates the creation, dissemination, use of customer information for accomplishing
organizational objectives. It is also important for the Costa Coffee company to develop the
understanding about the buying process of customers. In addition to this, management in an
enterprise need to gain information about the factors which might influence customer decision
related to buying specific product or service (Pandey and Dutta, 2013). As this tactic will help
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management in developing an appropriate strategy for attracting people to buy products or
services offered by company. The biggest challenge related to managing knowledge in the
company is capturing, creating and disseminating as well as integrating knowledge for sharing
will all people with an enterprise. For attracting health conscious customers: Company is introducing new product in the
market with low sugar and salt for the health conscious consumers. Also company is
providing recyclable cups in their restaurants which are attracting more customers due to
these environment and health friendly products. Organise health related programmes: It is a important element in which the company
can organise various Health related programmes in their restaurants for increasing the
loyalty of the customers and also to retain them for a long period of time.
 Provide healthy and hygiene products: Company is spending huge amount in R&D
activities for improving the quality of their food products by reducing the level of salt and
sugar in some of their products. Through this, company can attract more customers and
can increase their customer base.
Environment responsibility
Costa coffee has planned to reinvent its business model, this strategy has helped an
organization in gaining competitive advantage. Corporate social responsibility is considered to
be as innovative way of responding to unique demand of stakeholders. It is required by Costa
Coffee to develop responsible attitude, as this strategy will support an organization in increasing
sustainability in high competitive business environment (Reich, Gemino and Sauer, 2014).
Knowledge management utilities information and human resources in a cost-efficient, advanced
and effectual manner. Management in Costa Coffee by examining the internal environment, its
partner’s community, competitors, customers and workers, can learns about and engages in
constant improvement. Business entity able to implement various changes in its attitudes and
operations in order to accomplish better business objectives. An Effective management of
environment related knowledge provides worker with manual concerning desired behaviour and
increases capacity to take effective actions in respect of environmental sustainability, thus
workers fulfil their operation in an organization, which reaches the corporate objectives and
strategies.
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In context of Costa coffee, Human resource manager in business entity has planned to
hire new employees based on their commitment towards sustainability. As this strategy will help
in developing a team of highly valuable as well as skilled employees. It is required by Costa
coffee to make investment on research and development, as this strategy will support business
entity in gaining information about various laws which they are required to follow as well as they
can gain knowledge about the various environmental issues.
Company is using recycle cups for ensuring that the environment will not get effected
through their operations and activities. Through this, Costa coffee can achieve the desired growth
and sustainability in the global market. Also company reduce their waste and cost by using these
cups. Company is using the solar panel system for reducing the energy used in their stores and
restaurants. Through these two above mentioned techniques, company is saving their cost and
profitability of the company is increasing.
Company's knowledge management practices and strategic decision making
Knowledge management is completed based on technology which supports workers in
sharing as well as transferring of knowledge. It also supports enterprise in discovering experts as
well as best practices (Roy, 2012). Technology enables management to gather information about
internal environment which further helps them in making quick decisions. Knowledge
management can be applied ion a spiralling procedure which involves setting as well as defining
the targets, mapping the existing knowledge etc. It also includes production as well as
preservation of new knowledge, monitoring and feedback.
Analysis and evaluation of Costa's knowledge management practices
KM system KM sharing
examples
KM seeking
Examples
KM creation
Examples
Communication Lack of good
communication skills
in the employees of
Costa.
 Management of
Costa needs to
develop more
effective
communication
channel for
employees, so
 Management of
Costa needs to
build a good
working
environment in
the company
for employees.
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that they can
work
effectively and
efficiently.
Through this
they can
perform their
activities and
roles properly.
Collaboration Collaboration among
the workforce is not
good.
Management needs to
take support from the
valuable and
experienced
employees for
boosting the morale
and confidence of
employees.
Management of Costa
should divide their
members into teams
for effective
coordination and
collaboration in the
given work.
Retrieval Costa is effectively
using their knowledge
based resources.
Cost needs to
determine the
customer requirements
and market trends for
generating and
purchasing more
resources.
Company is
effectively using their
knowledge based
resources for
generating more
efficient results.
Company can achieve
high competitive edge
if use these sources
properly.
Recommendation
Costa coffee needs to work hard in the countries where the productivity and sales of the
company is low. Management should focus on developing strategies and plans for such countries
for getting more profitability. Also company needs to provide training to the employees for
enhancing their working efficiency and skills to serve the customers in a better way. Through
this, the company can attracts a large number of customers. Company also needs to open their
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new stores in the residential areas as their stores are in posh areas at which some customers find
it hard to visit due to the affordability and distance from their homes (Von Krogh, 2012).
Company also needs to work on their delivery services for delivering the products according to
the needs and requirements of the customers. Through these above mentioned strategies, costa
coffee can provide good quality products to their customers for converting them into their regular
customers. Company can gain huge market share if implement these suggestions properly which
also leads to increase in sales and profit of the company.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that Costa coffee needs to work hard for
increasing its brand image, efficiency, performance and productivity of the organisation as they
already have huge presence in all over the world. The company is providing their services in
more than 30 countries with an approx. more than 8000 employees working for providing the
customers with an unique taste of coffee products. Knowledge management activities also plays
a essential role in the Costa coffee for finding the new opportunities and to use them in an
efficient manner. By using knowledge management systems company is forming a structure of
communication which can provide the support to the management from the employees. These
KM practices are useful for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the management. Also
management can enhance their skills and strength for getting the necessary growth and
sustainability in the global market. Costa coffee had built their brand image but because of some
weaknesses they are unable to improve the quality of their services which are provided to the
customers. Some suggestions are provided in the report for enhancing their services. Social
responsibility of the Costa coffee is positively effecting the company's brand image by using the
renewable cups in their restaurants. Using these cups, company is attracting potential health
conscious customers and also the company is introducing their new products which comes with
low sugar and salt. By using the above discussed suggestions and products, Costa coffee can
improve their brand image and sales in the future. With continuous improvements in their
products and services provided to the customers, company can capture more market share of the
food and beverages industry at global level.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Dalkir, K., 2013. Knowledge management in theory and practice. Routledge.
Easterby-Smith, M. and Lyles, M.A. Eds., 2011. Handbook of organizational learning and
knowledge management. John Wiley & Sons.
Edwards, J., 2011. A process view of knowledge management: it ain't want you do, it's the way
that you do it. Electronic journal of knowledge management. 9(4).
Firestone, J.M. and McElroy, M.W., 2012. Key issues in the new knowledge management.
Routledge.
Handzic, M., 2011. Integrated socio-technical knowledge management model: an empirical
evaluation. Journal of Knowledge Management. 15(2). pp.198-211.
Hislop, D., Bosua, R. and Helms, R., 2018. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical
introduction. Oxford University Press.
Holtshouse, D.K., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Lambe, P., 2011. The unacknowledged parentage of knowledge management. Journal of
Knowledge Management. 15(2). pp.175-197.
López-Nicolás, C. and Meroño-Cerdán, Á.L., 2011. Strategic knowledge management,
innovation and performance. International journal of information management, 31(6),
pp.502-509.
Mills, A.M. and Smith, T.A., 2011. Knowledge management and organizational performance: a
decomposed view. Journal of knowledge management. 15(1). pp.156-171.
North, K. and Kumta, G., 2018. Knowledge management: Value creation through organizational
learning. Springer.
Pandey, S.C. and Dutta, A., 2013. Role of knowledge infrastructure capabilities in knowledge
management. Journal of knowledge management. 17(3). pp.435-453.
Reich, B.H., Gemino, A. and Sauer, C., 2014. How knowledge management impacts
performance in projects: An empirical study. International Journal of Project
Management. 32(4). pp.590-602.
Roy, R. ed., 2012. Industrial Knowledge Management: a micro-level approach. Springer Science
& Business Media.
Von Krogh, G., 2012. How does social software change knowledge management? Toward a
strategic research agenda. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems. 21(2). pp.154-
164.
Wiig, K., 2012. People-focused knowledge management. Routledge.
Online
Knowledge Management Explained. 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/What-Is/What-is-KM-Knowledge-
Management-Explained-122649.aspx>
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