Managing Communication, Knowledge, and Information at Star Food

This report examines the communication, knowledge, and information management practices within Star Food, a new food venture. It details the key decisions involved in setting up a food outlet in the European Union, including strategic, tactical, and operational considerations. The report explores the importance of internal and external information sources, stakeholder identification, and the use of various communication tools. It highlights the need for effective communication with stakeholders, including chefs, finance allocators, and material managers. The report also analyzes stakeholder analysis and its impact on the company's operations, emphasizing the significance of maintaining strong relationships with stakeholders and utilizing tools like stakeholder analysis mapping to improve communication processes. The document stresses the importance of timely and informed communication to ensure business success.

Managing Communication,
Knowledge and Information

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1................................................................................................................................................1
1.2................................................................................................................................................2
1.3................................................................................................................................................2
1.4................................................................................................................................................3
2.1................................................................................................................................................3
2.2................................................................................................................................................4
2.3................................................................................................................................................4
2.4................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
3.1................................................................................................................................................6
3.2................................................................................................................................................6
3.3................................................................................................................................................7
3.4................................................................................................................................................7
4.1................................................................................................................................................8
4.2................................................................................................................................................8
4.3................................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Timely and informed communication, across all disciplines and involving key
stakeholders is the key to successful business enterprise. Therefore, it is essential to make a
proper communication of information to all the stakeholders of the company. This report
provides a description of the decisions involved in setting up a new food venture. Along with
that various information and knowledge required in formulating the strategies have also been
highlighted. This section will also present an overview of existing communication process in the
Star Food enterprise. Along with that, identification of different stakeholders needed to setup the
business unit has also been described. Last but not the least; the readers will get an insight of the
latest technologies and methods used by the company for safely and timely transfer of
information.
TASK 1
1.1
Starting up a business is not an easy task as it requires a lot of efforts, energy and
decisions to be made to open a successful unit. This section deals with starting up a food outlet
that is aiming to sell high quality foods in the European Union. Key decisions required to start up
a new business are arrangement of funds, location of business and money needed to survive the
early stages of a business concern. These judgements can also be termed as strategic, tactical and
operational decisions.
Strategic: These are the most important decisions as it determines success of
organisation’s strategy. Owner of Star food has to make decisions regarding the cost of
implementation, use of resources to be undertaken and overall benefits of business (Jana and
et.al., 2015). Some other decisions include implementation of time scale, cost analysis, etc. To
start-up a food outlet, various assets in the form of chairs, refrigerators and tables are required.
Tactical: These include decisions regarding the human and monetary resources needed.
Moreover, an overlook on the activities of competitors is essential to be carried out. Decision
making matrix, T-chart and Pareto analysis are some of the tools that will assist in making
tactical decisions (Broom and et.al., 2014).
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Operational: Last step is deciding upon the way in which business can be effectively run.
Decisions include place to setup the business unit and various methods of conducting the
operations of business (Jensen, 2013).
1.2
In order to setup a new venture, owner must possess the knowledge and information
about environment in which it is going to operate its business. Along with that, nature and types
of competitors as well as variety of products and services he has to deliver must also be there in
his knowledge. In addition to this, pricing strategy of company and the target segment it is going
to serve must be taken in account by the entrepreneur. In context with the Star food enterprise,
various knowledge and information required have been highlighted underneath:
 It is essential to know about the nature and types of competitors in market dealing in
same segment. As Star food is a small shop outlet serving people with the quality of
products, it is trying to operate its business in the European Sector. Therefore, it must
study the behaviour and various strategies of them (Cassar, Ittner and Cavalluzzo, 2015).
This will enable company to gain competitive advantage.
 In order to start-up a new business unit, one must acknowledge about the type of product
that it is going to deal in. Star food aims to provide the quality of food products to its
customers; thus, it can select that whether it wants to deal in continental, Italian or some
other kind of food products.
 Thereafter comes the pricing strategies of business in which it is decided that whether
company wants to setup up a multi cuisine restaurant or an average food outlet. Some
other knowledge regarding the types of customers and their buying behaviour will aid the
firm in capturing the attention of large number of customers.
 Lastly, it should have a deep knowledge and information about the political and legal
environment of country (Beck and et.al., 2012). It must analyse the current market
conditions and regulations that it is bound to follow.
1.3
As discussed above, an organisation requires plenty of information before the final setup
of business. There are two sources through which an enterprise can gain knowledge about the
environment, its competitors and current market trends. These compasses of internal and external
sources. Accumulating information from the former source is quite an easy task and less costly
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as compared to the external source. Though it is a time consuming method, it is less costly. To
gather required information, company can arrange meeting with the required stakeholders and
exchange information (Joseph, 2016).
Moreover, there are formal as well as informal types of information. These include either
direct or personal interaction with the managers of same ventures to know about their feedback
on the way in which their new system is working. Formal information includes collection of data
from various documents and records.
Apart from the internal source, there exist external source of information. These consist
of information that have been primarily collected by some consultancy firm. Data is presented
more in terms of formal type which comprises of documented training, manuals and user guide.
This is an expensive method of gathering data and company has to be reliant on their expertise.
Star food enterprise can review the results of customer survey that is conducted by some other
new corporation (Rossetto, 2013). This will enable the firm to evaluate the areas of services.
1.4
Star food has adopted an external source for gathering information. This has consumed a
lot of time in consulting and obtaining feedback from several sources. There are various other
methods that can be used by company which would save time as well as the cost. There is a
model which has 3 basic styles of decision making. These are directive or autocratic approach,
informing and involving by consulting and last but not the least, an emphasis on participation
and engagement.
If Star Food has used any of the above mentioned styles, it can easily assess the desired
and suitable information. Several other tools that are available by company were T-charts and
decision matrix (Bray, 2012). Uses of these tools enables the company in making the final
decisions . Therefore, it is recommended that instead of just relying on the external sources of
information, company should make the use of distinct directive approaches that would save time
and money in starting up the venture.
2.1
In starting up a new business unit, there requires a lot of decisions to be undertaken and is
basically all about networking. To make the most out of it, a company must have several contacts
though which it can gain desired funds, resources and knowledge. For instance, it is essential for
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a company to come up with new products and services. In order to accomplish this purpose, the
company aims to bring new product i.e. and excellent quality dish for its customers.
Some of the stakeholders required to be contacted here would be the chef or cooks,
finance allocator and the planning manager. This will enable the Star food to provide a healthy
quality food to its customers that they might not have tasted before. Along with that availability
of funds is also an essential part to start-up a new venture (Cohan, 2016).
Based on the above decision of stakeholders the company then needs to contact the
material manager to ensure about the availability of product. Thereafter, external stakeholders
need to be contacted to place order and decide prices of raw materials. It involves maintaining
good relationship with them as to avail raw materials at cheap rates. Further, various other
stakeholders such as transport suppliers, need to be contacted in regards with the shipping of raw
materials. After the successful interaction with the above stakeholders the final decision can be
taken in this regard and same can be forwarded to the other internal stakeholders.
2.2
Making contact and relationship with the professionals and various stakeholders is
essential as it assist the company at various levels of management. It is easy to make contacts
with the internal stakeholders of the organisation. Maintaining direct and personal contact with
the help of emails, text messages, calls and can quickly meet them over a cup of coffee or
moving onto their places is an effective way of making relationships with them (Gailloux,
Samson and Shah, 2012). The various internal stakeholder comprises of the workers, office
manager, receptionist, consultants, etc.
There are several other stakeholders that are a part of larger global organisation. It is not
possible to make direct contact with them. Several membership groups, stakeholder network or
groups, social and local clubs can be useful to maintain relationships with them. The external
stakeholder comprises of suppliers, shareholders, agencies, investors, etc. it is useful to make
relationships with them because it aids in achieving companies objectives and goals. Moreover,
by assuring them to assist in their need is an effective way of maintain good relations (Lloyd,
2013). It also aids in maintaining different strategies such price, product, promotion, etc.
2.3
In starting up a business venture, there involves a lots of stakeholders whose assistance
and guidance is necessary in decision making. As per the current scenario, Star enterprise a food
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outlet has contacted lot many stakeholders for their assistance and reviews in setting up the unit.
These people play a vital role in deciding upon various strategies, few of them are price and
location strategy (Sublet, Covello and Tinker, 2013).
The owner of the company aims to setup a plan that involves the identified people in
decision making process. The first and foremost is the shareholders of the firm. They are the
spinal cord of any organisation. The funds invested by them play a crucial role. It decides upon
how much fund or amount is required to setup the unit in a particular area. It the company is
aiming to start-up business in the heart of the city then it require prior permission of the
government authorities. The location and the type of business determines the number and kind of
stakeholders involvement.
Likewise to determine the price strategy of any item of the outlet requires the sales,
marketing and commercial managers assistance. This is so because they are aware of the
customers needs, wants, and buying behaviour. If the customer is not ready to spend much on the
food then it is useless to provide them with high and expensive food items. Therefore, the type,
quality, price of product all can be determined by the stakeholders (Hwang and Yoon, 2012).
Moreover, company need to have a comparative analysis of the competitors pricing strategies.
2.4
A stakeholder is a person that is affected by the operations and plans of the enterprise. It
can also be termed as any person or group of person possessing interest in the outcome of the
business, either in a positive or a negative manner. In order to improve the above proposed plan,
stakeholder analysis is a tool which aids in improvising the ways to identify the stakeholders.
The power and interest of stakeholders defines the effective functioning of any
organisation. The plan proposed by Star food enterprise to improvise the process includes
maintaining close alliance with the government and media which will result in effective
functioning of the organisation (Coombs, 2014). Moreover, it aims to provide all the suitable
information to various shareholders and workers about its new strategies. This can be done with
the assistance of stakeholder analysis mapping. Moreover, it aims to keep satisfied its potential
customers, workers and various suppliers by maintaining the quality of dishes and providing
them with new flavours.
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TASK 2
3.1
The flow of information from one person to another is termed as communication.
Different organisation have distinct ways of communicating information to the respective
persons. The process followed in the Star food enterprise is as follows: Telephones: In order to develop a fast two way communication the company uses
telephonic call method. For instance, in case of placing order and acknowledging about
the current material it places a phone and call conducts the communication process. Advertising: This is another method to deliver the information to the large segment of
people. Various ads and banners are printed to make people aware about the new food
items in line (Shichino, 2016). Reports: The start enterprise uses reports to make its stakeholders aware about the
operations and functioning of the organisation. Internet: With the advent of technology, internet is widely being used by the company to
disperse the information to internal as well as external stakeholders.
 Face-to-face: It is the most effective way of communication. The workers of the star
outlet takes order from the customers. This is basically a face-to-face interaction.
3.2
No process of communication is complete in itself. Along with the advantages it
possesses, there are several disadvantages also associated with it:
 For instance, the star enterprise uses telephonic calls to place orders. This is an
ineffective way as it may give rise to misinterpretation of information. Along with it,
there is a communication gap as the concerned people are not face to face. The customer
may have placed something and the final delivery of order may be something else. It give
rise to dissatisfaction among the consumers (Subramanian, 2013). Moreover, there is no
evidence of the given data.
 Likewise, advertising is also a slow process of communication. The gauging of end result
is a difficult task. Quick and instant reaction of stakeholders cannot be found. Therefore,
company needs to follow the different ways of knowing the review of consumers and
stakeholders. For instance, conducting sampling and distributing questionnaire can be a
better way of knowing consumers reaction.
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 Lastly, reports, notice and memos provided to stakeholder also provides one sided
information which is not so effective (Hadas and et.al., 2013).
3.3
The communication process of running business is quite different from that of the newly
setup unit. The former one has a well developed chain of communication through which
information easily flows to all level of management whereas in the newly setup venture there is
lack of integration among the members and the system. It takes time to develop a flawless
channel of network. The star enterprise can implement the following changes to ensure greater
integration of system:
 A common LAN or internet system can be developed by the company to keep pass the
information to all the workers and keep it secure. This will enable the company to
communicate its necessary information freely and securely to all the employees thereby
integrating the system (Jensen, 2013).
 Secondly, in order to avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding of information, star
can arrange meeting and share the requisite data face to face.
 Lastly, emails and chat box shall be used only for the purpose of informal
communication. In order to resolve the employees grievances and complaints the
company should address it through a common channel of face to face interaction
(Bouyssou and et.al., 2013).
3.4
Some of the strengths and weaknesses of my own communication skills are as follows:
Weaknesses: Unable to address large number of people and lack of interaction in meetings.
Strengths: Written and verbal communication and regular follow-up
In order to overcome my above illustrated problems, I would like to be the part of group
communications and maximum possible meetings. This will enable to comprehend my own
communication skills. The motive, objective and agenda of the meeting shall be demonstrated
well in advance. This will assist in free flow of meeting as per the plan. Further, every individual
has a different way of responding to distinct situations. The communication shall be crisp, clear
and concise. Moreover, timely feedback and open communication session will help myself to
overcome the shortfalls that I am currently facing in the organisation.
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4.1
Star enterprise is a food outlet, that has two main resources that are internal and external.
The company receives various data in the form of orders from customers, its products and
services, external data comprises of economy and market. A company's decisions is based upon
the Gathered data of all department. Additionally, annual report of the company provides the
basis of budgeting forecast and analysing for turnover. These reports are further collected and
sent to all the requisite members, such as the CEO of the company, marketing and finance
manager and the account assistant (Coombs, 2014). Besides the annual report of the company,
the research and development manager collects information about the attitude, taste, preferences
and buying behaviour of the customers. It further transfers it to the marketing manager who is
entitled to design programs and services to fulfil the demands of customers.
In the end the company will process the data in the form of tabular reports and balance
sheets. These will be contained in the database system of Star enterprise which can further be
provided to the different members.
4.2
Few changes needed to be implemented regarding the collection, formatting, storage and
disseminating of data for star enterprise can be:
 The company can remove the communication barriers with the assistance of proper
modern LAN network. This will enable the employees to share and transform
interdepartmental information easily.
 In order to ensure the importance of current systems, company must start formatting the
data to keep the information short and clear (Beck and et.al., 2012).
 With the advent of technology the star enterprise is moving onto the use of single central
data warehouse, where all the information about the customers, suppliers and finance of
the company is available. Each staff member of the company has an ID through which it
can access the data.
4.3
In order to minimise negatives effects from the external forces on the performance, the
star enterprise needs to design strategies to improve access to the current information system.
This will enable the firm to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, the advancement
in technology will help to decrease the barriers in the current systems. The company can start
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storing all the information online so that any person can access through internet. This will also
enable customers to search any information about the company's products, services, prices, etc.
further it aids the company in creating its brand image (Hwang and Yoon, 2012). Moreover e-
business is a good opportunity to cater large number of customers as wells restoring of
information. Lastly, data management is vital in this digital age as it provides platform to
compete in the market and become a successful business entity.
CONCLUSION
This report depicts about the various forms and methods of communication in the Star
enterprise a new venture in the country. Along with that, it describes about the various decisions
that need to be undertaken by the business concern in order to enter the new market. Further the
identification of various stakeholders and their involvement in the decision making process of
the company have been highlighted. The Star food enterprise is recommended to use the online
system of storing information. Along with that suggestions regarding the latest and innovative
method of communication have also been put forward.
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REFERENCES
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Cassar, G., Ittner, C.D. and Cavalluzzo, K.S., 2015. Alternative information sources and
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Coombs, W.T., 2014. Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding.
Sage Publications.
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Hadas, D., Loy, I., Rochwerger, B. and Satran, J., 2013. Managing communication between
nodes in a virtual network. U.S. Patent 8,606,890.
Hwang, C.L. and Yoon, K., 2012. Multiple attribute decision making: methods and applications
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Jana, R. and et.al., 2015. Method and apparatus for managing communication sessions. U.S.
Patent Application 14/922,411.
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Lloyd, J., 2013. Hearing-impaired children's strategies for managing communication
breakdowns. Deafness & Education International.
Rossetto, K. R., 2013. Relational coping during deployment: Managing communication and
connection in relationships. Personal Relationships. 20(3). pp.568-586.
Shichino, T., 2016. Communication parameter setting method, communicating apparatus, and
managing apparatus for managing communication parameters. U.S. Patent Application
15/073,425.
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Sublet, V.H., Covello, V.T. and Tinker, T.L., 2013. Scientific uncertainty and its influence on the
public communication process (Vol. 86). Springer Science & Business Media.
Subramanian, K., 2013. Excellence in business communication. Pearson.
Online
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<http://smallbusiness.chron.com/decisions-made-starting-new-business-4203.html>.
[Accessed on 15 September 2016].
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world.html>. [Accessed on 15 September 2016].
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