DBN608: Countdown, Modern Business Practices Report, Semester 1

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Countdown, a leading retail business in New Zealand, examining its organizational culture, social ethics, and the impact of the global economy. The report begins with an overview of Countdown's operations, its ethical initiatives, and its commitment to customer and community well-being. It then delves into Countdown's organizational culture, highlighting its focus on customer relationships and ethical practices. Key social ethical issues, such as those related to cage eggs and microbeads, are discussed, along with their consequences and impact on the company's reputation. The report proposes solutions and recommendations for these issues, including transitioning to cage-free eggs and eliminating microbeads from beauty products. Finally, the report addresses the global economy's influence on Countdown's goals and practices, offering a comprehensive understanding of the company's challenges and strategies in the modern business environment.

Running Head: Modern Business Practices
countdown
Report
MAY 29, 2019

Modern Business Practices 1
1.1 Introduction
Countdown is one of the leading retail business organisations in the New Zealand. The company
is a known for its customer and people oriented business approaches. However, this report has
been prepared to analyse the organisational culture of Countdown and analyse the social
ethical issues of the company in the New Zealand. The purpose of this report is to find out the
ethical issues that affect the performance of Countdown and possible solution for these issues
1.1 Overview of the company
Countdown is a subsidiary of Woolworths group, which is one of giant retail market in Australia.
The first Countdown store was opened in 1981 in Northland, Christchurch. However, Rattrays
Wholesale group started this business. In1993, the Countdown and Rattrayas were both
operating their business under the Woolworths with sperate business units. However, the
Woolworth is a parent company of Countdown and now more than 180 stores are operating
the business of Woolworth under the name of Countdown in New Zealand where more than
20,000 varieties of products sale by each store. Countdown currently has more than 18,000
employees (Walker & Jones, 2012).
The company is selling the household products including vegetables, food items, and several
electronic items such as speakers and Led bulbs etc. The main customers of the Countdown are
those people who bought daily household products and people who bought food items for
house.
The mission statement of the countdown states that company gives the priority to its
customer’s and work together to do a great job and he decision of the company based on the
consumer needs and expectations. The vision statement of the company is to sustain its market
leadership in the retail sector of New Zealand (Gupta, 2012).
1.1 Social Ethical initiative of the company
The company uses the responsible sourcing policy and standards while taking raw materials
from the supplier. The major ethical initiative of the company is to use their own brand tissues,
toilet paper, and kitchen towel products that are made by the certified and sustainable sources.

Modern Business Practices 2
The production of paper in the countdown is comes from sustainable sources such as from FSC
(forest stewardship council) or PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest certification)
(Yang, Song, & Tong, 2017).
The second ethical initiative taken by the countdown is that company has removed the use of
plastic microbead from their own brand of skin care and body wash products. In the August
2017 Company have not a single stock of plastic micro-beads used products in its warehouse or
manufacturing hub. (NZherald, 2017)
1.2.1 Organisation culture
The organisational culture of an organisation generally refers to the value and behaviors that
helps to create a unique social and psychological environment of the organisation. The
organisational culture includes the way organisation treat its employees, customers, and the
community people (Spieth, Schneckenberg, & Ricart, 2014).
1.2.1 Organisation culture of Countdown
The company believes in earning the trust of customers and is committed to act responsibly
towards the society and towards the people. The company believe in doing the right thing for
the community and for the environment. Countdown also focuses on its organisational culture
and provides priority to its customer. The motto of the organisation is “everyone counts”,
which means it gives priority and importance to every people in the organisation. The culture of
the organisation favors the people and customers and its employees. Countdown culture is
generally focuses on the relationship building with its customer through various social and
ethical initiatives and its CSR works (Zhu, Li, Wang, & Chen, 2010).
The approach of the company helps to perform better and create a corporate image in the
mind of people. It also helps the company to establish a good relationship with fair
organisational practice (Liu, Yang, Qu, Wang, Shishime, & Bao, 2012).
The key characteristics of Countdown organisational culture are that their first priority is the
customer and their needs and expectations from the organisation. The Countdown provides a
platform to its customer to eat well access quality products with great customer experience.

Modern Business Practices 3
The company is committed to its community and the environment in which it operates its
business and makes the life of people little better every day. The other organisation while
looking for profit maximization and large share of market, Countdown is looking for building a
strong customer relationship with protecting the interest of customer and fulfilling the social
and ethical responsibilities.
1.2.2 Social Ethics of the organisation
Social ethics of the organisation refers to the ethical commitment of organisation towards the
society and people in which it operates its business. In other words, social ethical practice of an
organisation related to the action of an organisation to protect and improve the wellbeing of
community or society as a whole. Social ethics also helps the organisation to gain a competitive
advantage over the competitors and create a positive image of the company in the mind of
customers (Philpott, 2014).
1.2.2 Social ethics is related with organisational culture and performance
It is the responsibility of a manager to work for achieving the both organisational and societal
goals. The organisational culture is related to positive ethical practices of the organisation. The
organisational culture is related to the values, norms, and ethical practices of the organisation
that is directly related to the social ethical practices of the organisation. A good organisation
culture always drives the organisational motive towards the social approach rather than profit
maximization (Jie, 2012). The social approach of the organisation helps to improve the image of
organisation and create a brand image among the customer and which leads to trust of the
customer, which further help to improve the performance of the organisation. Countdown also
uses the same approach for building its image among the people.

Modern Business Practices 4
1.3 Social ethical issues
In last few years, the countdown was facing problems related to several social ethical issues.
The two-major social ethical issues are as follow that affect the image of Countdown in New
Zealand.
Social ethical Issues Explanation of issue Consequences and
outcomes of issue
Impact of the
issue
Issue related to cage
Egg
The first social ethical issue
is related to sell of cage
eggs. The people who love
animals feel that it is so
awkward and against the
humanity that
supermarket use the little
birds for the eggs and keep
them in the cage for long
time (Ritala, Golnam, &
Wegmann, 2014).
This is against the animal
welfare and company
breaches the law
continuously from last
few years. However, the
impact of this social issues
is that its destroy the
image of company among
the people. The outcome
of these issues was that
people avoid buying eggs
from the countdown and
urged the company to
sale cage free eggs (Das
Nair & Dube, 2017).
Company loses its
reputation to be
an environmental
protection and
care organisation.
Apart from this,
the sale of egg is
also affected.
Issue related to
Microbead
The second social ethical
issue is related to its
beauty and skin care
products, which was
packaged in plastic
microbead. It not only
polluted the environment
The result/impact of this
issue was that company
was involved in
environmental pollution
rather than cleaning and
protecting the
environment.
People avoid to
buy the beauty
and care products
of the company

Modern Business Practices 5
rather the pollution level
increases every day. The
Countdown makes its own
plastic microbead for the
skin care and beauty
products (Sorescu,
Frambach, Singh,
Rangaswamy, & Bridges,
2011).
1.4 Social ethical issues in the Countdown
Social ethical issues Explanation justification Suggestions
1. Workplace harassment The workplace
harassment of people
is the major causes as
large numbers of
people are working
24*7 in the
organization and
some of them use
more than 8 hours of
work on low salary
(Philpott, 2014).
This happens
because
Countdown is
thinking only about
its customers and
sale rather than
employees working
conditions.
The organization
should provide
proper work flexibility
to its workers and
provide only 8 hours
of shift rather than
forcing them to work
overtime.
2. Gender Inequality Large number of
women are doing as
a sales person in the
store, but they are
not treated as the
men. The salary of
women employees is
less than men
employees.
The gender
inequality is a
major problem and
top board
members should
recognize it.
The organization
should provide
appropriate salary to
both and same
working conditions
for both gender of
employees.
3. Using non-renewable
material like plastic for
packaging which affect
the environment
Countdown sales
many products of
other brand which
uses the plastic
materials for the
packaging of
products. This will
affect the
The major problem
with this issues is
that company
allows other
brands to sale their
products under the
Countdown, but
cannot control the
The company should
avoid to sale those
products that are
packaged un plastic
material. Although,
Countdown uses its
own paper packaging,
thus they can also

Modern Business Practices 6
environment of
country.
packaging or other
brands.
provide the products
in their own
packaging (Gupta,
2012).
1.5 Solution and Recommendations for the social ethical issues
The proposed solutions for both the ethical issues are as follow:
Recommendations Solutions Impact of solution
For the first social ethical issue
of selling cage eggs, the
company should contact the
egg suppliers and request to
not supply cage eggs, rather
company should only buy those
eggs which are cage free.
The company should stop
receiving the supply of cage
eggs with immediate effect and
only sell those eggs, which are
cage free.
The best solution for this
problem is that company
should invest in free range or
barn egg farming or buy eggs
only these types of sources.
The company should create a
partnership with egg suppliers
and provide them assistance in
barn egg farming and should
buy only those eggs which are
produced in barn egg farming
or free-range farming.
The impact of this step will be
count on the organisation will
be in both positive ways and
negative ways.
The positive impact of this step
is that it enhances the image of
Countdown among the people
and shows its commitment
towards the animal welfare and
environment.
The negative impact of this step
is that the egg selling of the
company will be impacted for
the short run.
For the second ethical problem,
which is related to microbead
use in its own skin brand
product, the company should
stop the production of
microbead for packaging and
should use paper material
instead of this.
The company can have use the
paper bags or hard paper
packaging things for its skin
care and beauty products.
The production of paper
packaging should be stopped.
The major effect of the step is
that consumption of paper in
packaging work will be
increased while it also affects
the environment because it
needs more trees for paper
production and manufacturing.

Modern Business Practices 7
Conclusion for Task:1
In conclusion, Countdown is one of the ethical organisation, which focuses on customer needs
and their expectations. As company is committed towards the environment and its community,
it takes all the measure to ensure its business operation will not affect its image in the mind of
people. The social initiative actions and ethical practices of the organisation make it more
popular and trustable supermarket in the New Zealand. However, the company is lacking in
facing its social ethical issues and it shows that company is somewhere lacking in identifying the
issue in early stage.
Part-2
2.1.1 Global Economy
Global economy refers to the economic situation of the world or it is the economy of the whole
world. Global economy can be considered as the trade system among the countries in the
world and its impact on the other country. However, the global economy and the world trade
determine the economic conditions of the whole world and every single country’s economy is
affected by the global economy. However, the global economy effects the market institutions,
financial markets, and economic development of a company (Oh, Teo, & Sambamurthy, 2012).
2.1.1The impact of global economy on Countdown
The global economy of the world is continuously growing and it leads to the better income and
living style of people. As people earn more and the disposable income increases in the country,
people spend more on the household products and other products. As New Zealand is a
developing country and the impact of global economy on the country has little impact because
of its small size. The inflation rate in the country is very low and the income of people is high,
people like to spend more on shopping and on their lifestyle. This is the positive advantage for
the Countdown as its sale increase every day (Wang & Yeung, 2017).

Modern Business Practices 8
2.1.2 Impact of global economy on New Zealand Economy
The impact of global economy can be observed everywhere in the world. New Zealand is a
small country and it is the 53rd largest economy in the world. The world economy influence the
New Zealand economy as inflation grow up, the income of people will decrease and they spend
less in purchasing and on their living style. However, the trade volume of the country is always
in surplus, it means its export value is more than import value. Therefore, the dependence of
the country on other economy is very less. This is the reason that a small change or change in
economy does not affect the economy of New Zealand. However, in contrary it may possible
that recession as 2008 may affect the economy of country a little bit (Reinartz, Dellaert, Krafft,
Kumar, & Varadarajan, 2011).
2.2 Nature of the business of Countdown
The company is selling the household products including vegetables, food items, and several
electronic items such as speakers and LED bulbs etc. The company operates in both online
business operation and physical stores to sale the products. The main customers of the
Countdown are those people who bought daily household products and people who bought
food items for house. Therefore, it can be said that organisation targets the middle and high-
income group people and provide best quality products in low prices with great customer
experience (Spieth, Schneckenberg, & Ricart, 2014).
2.3 Modern Business Practices of Countdown
Countdown is known for its modern business practices and its ethical approach towards the
society. Countdown is known for its environmental and sustainable business approach in the
New Zealand. However, the two modern business practices of the organisation are as follow:
Modern Business Practices of Countdown
Modern Business Practices Impact of Global Economy Suggestions
Sustainable Business operation The main motive of the organisation is to
operate sustainable business operations
in the country. Countdown focuses on
The Countdown should
focus on adopting the
changes in global

Modern Business Practices 9
the environmental factors and societal
approach, which is the need of the global
economy. The world economy is focusing
on sustainable development rather than
economic development.
Positive Impact: The positive impact of
global economy and market is related to
overall demand of product and services
in the market and it will increase the
profit of Countdown through the
company can focuses on more
sustainable activities in the country.
Negative Impact: The negative impact of
global economy and market is that
people have now more alternatives of a
product or brand. A little change in the
sustainable policies or prices of the
company may leads to reduced customer
size and less profitability. It will directly
affect the sustainable activities of the
Countdown.
economy and should
focuses on continuous
improvement on its
business innovation part
and innovation in
sustainability. Greater
effort in sustainability
and adopting the new
changes of global
economy will also help
the Countdown to fulfill
the customer demand.
Focuses on great customer
experience rather than profit
maximization
The Company is focusing on providing a
great customer experience to the
customer, instead of focusing on profit
maximization.
Positive Impact: The positive impact of
global economy is that it helps the
company to earn more with better
customer relationship. As income of
Countdown should focus
on identify the changing
needs and preferences
of customer according to
change in the global
economy and then
strategies its services
and products according

Modern Business Practices 10
people is increasing every day, company
operates its business with high income of
people in the country so company can
spend more money and resources on
raising the customer experience instead
of earning profit.
Negative Impact: The negative impact of
global economic will change the
customer choices and preferences.
Therefore, Countdown will face many
problems in fulfill the customer
experience.
to the demand and
preferences of
customers, which is
subject to change
because of change in
global economy.
2.4 Organizational goals:
2.5 Organisational goals and how impact of Global economy on the organisational goals
The two organizational goals are as follow:
1. The first organizational goal of the organization is to provide great customer experience
with sustainable business practice. This goal of the organization shows its intention towards the
society and customer that customer and society are its first priority.
Countdown
MBP-1
Sustainable Business operation
MBP-2
Providing great customer experience
rather than profit maximization

Modern Business Practices 11
2. The second goal of the countdown is to provide best quality services and products to its
customer on low cost. This will related to its mission to become market leader in New Zealand
retail sector.
The goal of the Countdown is to provide best customer services with great quality products on
low prices. The organisation also wants to maintain a good relationship with the customer and
its organisational people. To maintain a good relationship the organisation mainly focuses on
social ethical practices and various CSR activities in the country. Apart from this, the country
also remove those activities which affect the social norms or against the ethical practices such
as selling cage-eggs, using micro bead for beauty care products, avoid animal testing etc.
(Stroebel & van Schalkwyk, 2012)
The impact of global economy on the Countdown is that the company is mainly focuses on
providing best quality products in low prices. However, the increase in inflation rate due to
world recession may affect the decision of the country, because inflation affects the prices of
goods and services and it also reduce the income of people. The result of this recession in
global economy may affect the objective of the organisation and the organisation will have to
reduce its budget for the CSR practices. The increasing prices of goods, higher cost services and
products may lead to the poor customer relationship in Countdown (Veit, Clemons, Benlian,
Buxmann, Hess, Kundisch, & Spann, 2014).

Modern Business Practices 12
2.6 MBP and its impact on the Countdown
MBP PRACTICES in COUNTDOWN
MBP MBP explanation Benefit for the
organisation
Its weakness and
future risks
suggestions
Sustainable
Business
practice
Organisation focuses on
sustainable business
operation and
development. The
organisation removes
all those activities from
the organisation, which
are harmful for the
society. The
organisation focuses on
ethical and CSR
activities that helps it to
connect with its
customer in the long
time with a positive
impact in their mind
(Shankar, Venkatesh,
Hofacker, & Naik, 2010).
The
organisation
creates a
positive image
through its
societal
approach and
CSR activities.
Its increase its
popularity and
increase its sale
in future.
The major
weakness of this
approach is that
somewhere
organisation uses
the other non-
renewable
resources such as
forests (trees)
instead of plastic
material, which
may affect the
environment in
the future.
The
organisation
should find out
a source, which
not affect its
image and even
not affect the
environment of
the country. For
example, buying
eggs from the
free range
farming a good
option and
avoid the cage-
eggs.
Focus on
great
customer
experience
rather than
The organisation is
focusing on great
customer experience by
providing them a great
deal of services after
The
organisation
establishes a
good
relationship
The huge
spending on
customer
experience and
after sell service
The company
should provide
best quality
products on low
profit margins.

Modern Business Practices 13
profit
maximization
sale process. It
increases the customer
experience (Wang, Ji, &
Chaudhry, 2014).
with customer,
which makes
the customer
loyal towards
the count down
affects the profit
of the company.
The profitability
of the company is
also impacted in
the future.
It will not affect
the long time
profitability of
the company,
rather low
pricing of the
product may
reduce the
additional
service cost.
1. Recommendations
The two best MBP practices that can be suitable for the countdown are as follow:
1. The organisation should focus on using the latest technology to in establishing a good
relationship with customers such as messaging on phones, collecting data related to
customer shopping, giving best wishes on customers’ birthday etc. It not only reduces
advertisement cost of the company, it also increases the number of customers of the
company. The use of technology in enhancing the customer experience and establishing
a good customer relationship positively affect the business operation of the Countdown
and increase its turnover and revenue with growing number of customers.
2. The second business practice that Countdown should adopt is latest innovation
technique in its products manufacturing and packaging. Using paper for packaging,
somewhere affect the environment because Countdown uses lots of tree for paper
production. The company should use its innovation technique to identify biodegradable
material for packaging of products.

Modern Business Practices 14
This modern business model practices may help the Countdown to create a positive image
in the country and it helps to enhance the business performance of the organisation with
increased sales and revenue.

Modern Business Practices 15
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