University E-Business Report: Knowledge Management at Pizza Express

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the knowledge management (KM) practices at Pizza Express, a UK-based fast-food company. It begins with an executive summary and company overview, followed by a detailed examination of Pizza Express's current KM practices, including knowledge sharing, structural support systems, and internal and external processes. The study identifies key findings and evaluates how the company utilizes its resources and technology, such as online apps and management information systems, to manage data, track orders, and facilitate customer interactions. The report also explores types of knowledge management systems that could improve KM activities and strategic decision-making within Pizza Express, recommending the implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) and Business Intelligence (BI) to enhance efficiency and customer service. The analysis concludes with recommendations for improvement and references relevant literature to support its findings.

Running head: E-BUSINESS
E-Business
[Pizza Express]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Executive summary
Knowledge management (KM) system is an essential and integral part of contemporary
organisations. It helps to float the various kind of knowledge effectively among each one of the
organisations' members. The floating of knowledge is required to take care of all operations
activities in an effective manner. The main purpose of this study is to analyse the knowledge
management systems in Pizza Express, a UK based Fast Food Company. The study identifies
that though Pizza Express has all essential things related to KM in place it still needs to work
more towards the area. Pizza Express needs this to serve their customers more efficiently than
they are currently doing. In the context, the study recommends “Internet of Things (IoT)” and
“Business Intelligence (BI)” to facilitate improved knowledge management and informed
decision making.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Company Overview:........................................................................................................................3
Knowledge Management Practices at Pizza Express:.....................................................................4
Key Findings:.................................................................................................................................10
Types of Knowledge Management Systems to Improve the KM Activities and strategic Decision
Making:..........................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
Knowledge management is about storing, retrieving and sharing pieces of information by
using appropriate tools and executing a range of management strategies. Knowledge
management is necessary for various business reasons. It helps to track various monetary
transactions, which is useful for the financial team as well as for team responsible for publishing
the company’s annual report. The pieces of information stored in various IT tools communicate
business transactions with the suppliers.KM is useful in creating and managing a huge database
containing every essential of a business (Omotayo 2015). On top of all, KM does contribute to
developing and managing a learning environment in the workplace. It helps to create an
environment where members of a firm have enough access to useful resources to be used in
training and learning new skills and arts of handling customers (Omotayo 2015). Indeed,
learning is the utmost necessity of a business. It increases in its significance when related to a
business that directly deals with its customers. The success for all such organisations depends
much on how well they interact and treat their customers. It is due to this, such organisations
require involving in both formal and informal form of learning (Manuti et al. 2015).
This study is also related to knowledge management practice at Pizza Express, a London
based restaurant specialised in quality foods. The study serves this purpose by discussing KM
practice at Pizza Express and evaluating types of knowledge management systems concerning
improving KM activities and strategic decision making in Pizza Express.
Company Overview:

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Peter Boizot founded pizza Express 54 years ago. Pizza Express is headquartered in
Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. Hony Capital, a Chinese group now owns this company.
Since quite a few decades Pizza Express is providing quality foods to customers. Using fresh
quality ingredients to prepare foods has been one of its core competencies. The company enjoys
a good combination of appropriate IT tools and skilled people to take care of their day-to-day
operations. In addition to all these, Pizza Express practices management information systems to
store, manage and utilise the data in decision-making (Pizzaexpress.com 2019).
Knowledge Management Practices at Pizza Express:
Knowledge management is an integral part of any business regardless of the type of
organisations such as for-profit and not-for-profit firm. It is evidently because KM helps in
storing information with the help of appropriate tools and enhancing the knowledge base of
managers as well as employees. The information stored using appropriate tools is a record that
shows the transactions made in recent time as well as in the past. The information accessed from
such records is good indicators of strategies adopted in the past in response to the diverse market
situation. Hence, such findings will help devise new strategies for existing as well as for a new
set of managers (Gunjal 2019). As stated, KM enhances the knowledge base for managers as
well as for employees. KM will enable managers in making informed decisions and interacting
with employees on a more analytical note. Similarly, employees will be able to enhance their
knowledge of a wide array of tasks, the expected business challenges and the rising management
expectations of them (Gunjal 2019).

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Pizza Express likewise many food brands in the United Kingdom and the industries as
well appears to have good respect for knowledge management. The fact gets evidenced by
looking at how capably they handle their entire business operations. Indeed, without possessing
efficiency in knowledge management a food company will not be able to attract new customers
and retain their existing customers as well as considering the growing industry-based
competition. For example, Pizza Express uses an online app to track orders and allow customers
doing easy bookings. With this in process, they could store a huge amount of customers’ booking
data (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019). These pieces of data will be useful in identifying
customers' preferences for foods.
Pizza Express deploys trained staffs for interacting and serving customers efficiently. It
conducts training both in a formal and informal mode. Informally, instant feedbacks are given to
correct any performance-related flaws like unprofessional behaviour with customers. This also
indicates how Pizza Express promotes a learning environment. The company is effectively using
its valuable resources such as tenured people in informally training the new staffs
(Pizzaexpress.com 2019). Both the management team and the human resource personnel in the
company are responsible for promoting the exchange of knowledge or informal training
environment in the workplace.
Pizza Express uses technology to remain up-to-date with the current trend and enhance its
performance efficiency. Besides, they are also able to boost the knowledge base of their trainers,
HR professionals and employees. They use management information systems (MIS) to store
huge pieces of data and access in real-time (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019). In this way, they
are making the smallest of data counted and utilising it to good effect. Indeed, the utilisation of
information in this way has resulted in reduced wastage of products. The use of MIS has proved

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productive in predicting sales and making efficient delivery. An enhanced prediction of sales
helped to anticipate the fluctuation in demand and reduce the products’ wastage (Laudon and
Laudon 2016).
Speaking specifically about the knowledge management practices at Pizza Express it can
be said that they strategically manage knowledge sharing; however, can do even better by
working in few areas. These areas could be known by evaluating the knowledge management
practices at Pizza Express. The knowledge management practices at Pizza Express happen
broadly in four distinct ways. These are (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019):
 Knowledge Sharing
An efficient knowledge sharing is an utter requirement to stay competitive and enjoy progressive
sales figures in the fast-food industry. There are so many fast food brands existing in the United
Kingdom and so in different states of the country. It is, therefore, important to be efficient in a
few key areas to attract new customers and enjoy a good customer retention rate (Serrat 2017).
Talking specifically about a pizza maker, these key areas include but not limited to such as
offering delicious and fresh pizza every single time and reaching to a wider customer base
through utilising the various media channels (Kane et al. 2015). After analysing what Pizza
Express does at this aspect of the fast-food industry their efficiency to perform becomes evident.
Research suggests that Pizza Express does make good utilisation of various media channels to
reach to and also promote the latest news regarding the products and offers (Batzer 2019). By
being able to do so they do advertisement for new offers such as the inclusion of freshness in
foods. To be very specific, Pizza Express still uses TV adverts every 20 months or so
(Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019). They use various other modes of promoting their offers to a
larger customer base. However, they are not blindly using all the promotional channels.

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Understandably, they invest more on channels only with high Return on Investment (ROI) figure
(Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019). Pizza Express uses some kind of advanced modeling to
figure out and knows exactly the ROI for each of its media channels. Besides, Pizza Express
receives twice or even more than twice deliveries a week. It is just to ensure that the dough is
always fresh. They try to keep every ingredient fresh. The ability to utilise information
effectively on various media channels has helped to make an impact on advertising stunts.
Similarly, an effective knowledge sharing with suppliers has helped to offer fresh foods
especially pizza to customers (Geisler and Wickramasinghe 2015).
 Structural Support System for Restaurants
Structural support system helps in smooth maintenance of day-to-day based activities provided
the system has all its integral elements. The effective communication process between the
management team and employees is one of the essential elements of such a system. Effective
communication, particularly for a food company, holds an utter significance. It helps to resolve
queries rose by employees in real-time. It, therefore, facilitates informal training effectively,
which is an essential need for a company, purely based on a small profit margin generated from
selling a variety of foods (Marsick and Watkins 2015). Hence, an efficient structural system is an
utmost need for a fast-food company. After analysing the structural support system deployed in
Pizza Express it appears as if the company has a good support system in place. The structural
system at Pizza Express has a ‘Support Manager’ who takes care of managing the shift time and
acting as one of the team members. One of the key roles of a support manager has, is being able
to communicate with team leads appropriately by using the right tools of communication. This is
where the challenges arise (van Osch, Steinfield and Balogh 2015). The challenge lies in driving
people to work for more than their normal shift duration. The structural system also has a

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‘Deputy Manager’. The deputy manager works by being a part of the management team. It takes
care of everything like ensuring quality, profit and sales aspects of the service (Kaur and Saadeh
2018). A ‘Restaurant General Manager’ takes care of the major part of the operations. He
ensures that the operations are running smoothly. Besides, he also takes care of various other
activities like taking care of the financial performance, production, product ordering, quality
monitoring, training and development of staffs, and the customer service. The position requires
leadership input to be able to manage all activities effectively. The challenge lies in nurturing
and retaining the leaders (Hall and Rowland 2016).
 Process
Pizza express has many internal and external processes to take care of various interrelated
activities and to be able to manage day-to-day based activities smoothly. The list of the internal
process includes but not limited to like implementing different policy concerning various
organisational functions like employee turnover, rewards & recognition and performance
appraisal. External processes include identifying and implementing a relevant strategy for
various external business challenges like political, social and legal issues (Adeoye and Elegunde
2012). Internal processes as stated earlier in this paragraph runs on the valuable and collective
supports from each one of the organisational members like the management personnel, the
human resource personnel, the employees and the senior managers (de Guimarães et al. 2016).
For example, the HR personnel assists in designing and circulating the performance appraisal
form to the eligible employees. Similarly, trainers take care of the training and development
programs for employees by following a designed process. Pizza Express has many things in
place to take care of different external challenges (de Guimarães et al. 2016). For example, they
communicate the expected demand to their suppliers by using relevant tools such as emails.

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Forecasting done this way does not just release the pressure significantly from suppliers but also
ensures that Pizza Express does not run out of the stock (Syntetos et al. 2016). Trainers help to
train employees on the nutritional laws and information to follow in the workplace. In this way,
trainers are indirectly assisting in sourcing sustainable materials from suppliers. The training
package includes guiding on ethical practices to consider for the workplace and for dealing with
the suppliers as well. To summarise, it can be said that Pizza Express is vulnerable to many
external factors. These are political, legal, social and ethical issues. In addition to these issues,
Pizza Express is hugely vulnerable to the economic state of the country and the industry-based
competition (Dvouletý, Gordievskaya and Procházka 2018).
 Use of Technology
Like many other industries, fast food companies also require using various technologies to attain
and retain the gained competitive advantage. For example, Pizza Express requires using the latest
technology to keep pizza warm for a longer period. A warm pizza enhances its taste and appears
delightful to customers. Pizza Express does need to look for the latest technology to give
consumers some reasons to visit the place. Notably, Pizza Express has tough competition in the
form of major fast-food companies like Pizza Hut and Dominos (Davies et al. 2016). Pizza
Express must be capable of meeting the local taste and demand to enjoy good market shares in
spite of market dominance by Pizza Hut and Dominos (Davies et al. 2016). This all are the
reasons why Pizza Express is concerned with emerging technologies. Consumers expect their
preferred fast food brand delivering the best solution to their needs and demands. Hence,
consumers want excellent quality food, easy food ordering system and the easy cash payment
system. Pizza Express is constantly working to improve its efficiency in all these areas. Hence,
the online food ordering system was introduced (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019). Pizza

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Express introduced an online booking and payment system to offer consumers an easy food
ordering experience.
Key Findings:
Pizza Express is one of the popular UK-based fast food companies providing delicious
pizza and various other types of foods. The study so far has found Pizza Express as significantly
fulfilling its essential business needs apart from a few areas of concerns. These few areas of
concerns if not managed effectively can even affect its competitive advantage especially in major
markets such as the United Kingdom, Ireland and China. The key areas of concerns are:
 Managing People:
As found in this study, Pizza Express faces difficulty in driving people to work for extra hours.
This is more due to people having less motivation to work for extra hours. If they have at all to
work for extra hours, they will look for an employer that provides the best pay (Buckingham and
Goodall 2015). Hence, this is an area where Pizza Express needs to work into to become more
attractive to people.
 Leadership:
Management personnel need to take care of the various operations activities. Hence, it is
important to have enough resilience for work-related challenges and ability to drive people to
perform. The managers have a dual responsibility to perform. They are answerable to average
employee performance. They are also answerable for their ability to manage external business
challenges efficiently. These set of challenges suggest the need to possess or develop the

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leadership skills to strike a significant balance between the external business challenges and the
overall performance (Adeoye and Elegunde 2012).
 Industry-based Competition:
Industry-based competition is uncontrollable and is manageable only through effective strategies
and utilisation of relevant technologies. There is a need for management to devise new strategies
to help their business keep floating. Hence, there should be more adoption of a transformation
strategy to bring more efficiency to its few key operations areas. These areas are the social media
advertisement, and use of the latest technologies to improve the service standard (Wang, Pauleen
and Zhang 2016). Pizza Express is essentially doing well with social media advertisement. The
use of social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin to engage with younger people just
suggest their efficiency in recognizing their potential customers (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com
2019). However, there is a need to show efficiency in adopting business intelligence (BI) as well
as in the internet of things (IoT) (Corporate.pizzaexpress.com 2019).
Types of Knowledge Management Systems to Improve the KM Activities and strategic
Decision Making:
The current “management information systems (MIS)” in Pizza Express has the
following characteristics (Dwivedi et al. 2015):
 The store manager publishes the profit & loss statement every single month
 The inner outlet performance is measured using various parameters like CMS, MCP,
Team Member Turnover and Top Line