Business Operations and Management: ALDI, Ethics, and Strategies

This report provides an overview of business operations and management, focusing on ethical practices and strategies for mitigating operational issues. It analyzes ALDI's business model and its applicability to other industries, examining the trade-offs customers make to access their shopping experience. The report identifies positive ethical practices within organizations like Morrison, particularly concerning customer relations and employee management, highlighting the importance of ethical trading codes and safe working conditions. It also covers the impact of human resources on operational and business management, discussing the challenges and importance of HR in decision-making and employee training. The analysis emphasizes the necessity for companies to address operational issues promptly to maintain competitiveness and ethical standards to build trust and brand reputation. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and resources for students.

Introduction to
Business Operations
and Management

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1: Contemporary Research......................................................................................................3
Operational issues and their mitigation strategies.......................................................................3
Task 2: ALDI...................................................................................................................................4
Did similar business model will work on other industries for their growth like retailing
industry?......................................................................................................................................4
What are the sacrifices customers have to make in order to have access to their shopping
experience?..................................................................................................................................4
Task 3: Business Ethics...................................................................................................................5
Identify organisational positive ethical practices for facing their customers and managing their
employees....................................................................................................................................5
Task 4: Class discussion..................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
Online-...........................................................................................................................................12

Introduction
It is essential for every organisation to focus on their business operational activities and
adopt those strategies which will improve the productivity and profitability (Le and et. al., 2019).
Analysing business environment will help the companies to analyse their operational
management issues which can be mitigated by effective actions and strategies. It is also essential
for the business to perform their operational activities in ethical manner which will not harm any
employee, customer or environment. Morrison is one of the largest chains of retailing company
which is based in Bradford, UK. It is founded in 1899 by William Morrison. The following
report covers operational issues and the solution for the issues, answers for the case study which
was given and implication of positive ethical approach.
Main Body
Task 1: Contemporary Research
Operational issues and their mitigation strategies
Customer product shortage is one of the biggest issues which can be seen in operational
activities of the retailing companies (Lee, 2018). Shortage of products issue can be created due to
mismanagement of inventory at stores as well as in warehouses. The main reason behind this
issue is that the store managers are unable to predict their customer demands and due to which
they are unaware about which product could be more purchased by their customers at what time.
They did not order to manage their inventory and keep quantity item of same product in their
inventory room. Hence, when customers prefer to buy only one or little variety of items from
supermarkets and they are unable to fulfil their customers demand to offer them adequate
quantity of products than this could be create shortage of product. This is the issue which must
be focused by Morrison stores and if they neglect to focus on this issues than they can face
curtain more issues like customers will no longer show their interest and loyalty to purchase
products from them, their market reputation will be decline, they will not achieve competitive
advantage within their industry, employees will be demotivated and they can also face huge loss.
Hence, they are required to pay proper attention to mitigate these issues of product shortage. This
is essential for the chosen company to conduct marketing research and analyse customer’s
demand, needs and wants. This will help them to focus more upon those goods which are in
more demand as compared to other products. Secondly, it is also recommended from the

mentioned company that they must maintain good relationship with their suppliers so that in case
of any shortage of product than they can contact to their suppliers and manage the ordered
products as soon as possible (Wei and Zhang, 2018). Hiring experienced and active inventory
manager will also help to mitigate the issue by recording all items in their list and order those
products on the spot which is found in shortage in the stores. Hiring new and advanced
technology will also help to mitigate this issue for the company by tracking the quality as well as
quantity of products in their inventory rooms as well as in their warehouses. This can reduce the
manual work and also helps to reduce the chance of human error in identifying total number of
items they required in their stores.
Task 2: ALDI
Did similar business model will work on other industries for their growth like retailing industry?
Few of the industries can gain benefit from the same business model and idea followed
by ALDI and other retailing companies to operate their operational activities (Slack and
Brandon-Jones, 2018). In context of clothing industry, their stores can also focus on managing
their inventories for future growth. For example, in context of Premark clothing stores are having
all kind of stores like big stores and small size stores. They focus to offer different customer
experience and they try to influence their customers to visit their main stores to look for more
variety of cloths which they prefer. Keeping a large variety of products and offering a quality
product to customers always help industries to gain high customer satisfaction and achieve
competitive advantage. Like ALDI, Premark also chooses highly populated cities and towns to
open their stores so that their customers will not face any travelling issues for shopping from
their stores.
What are the sacrifices customers have to make in order to have access to their shopping
experience?
There are few of the sacrifices which a customer has to make to access their shopping experience
and few of the sacrifices are mentioned below-
Expectation of different variety of products in small stores- Few of the customers
expect that they will gain large variety of products to their near shops (Boscari and et. al., 2018).
This is the sacrifice a customer has to make when they plan to receive a small store. As per the
case study, ALDI’s supermarkets are having large variety of products but on the other hand, their

small size stores are having only one variety of different products. Hence, it is evaluated that
customer have to sacrifice their choice of different varieties if they are entering in small size
store because they are having limited stock for each product.
Task 3: Business Ethics
Identify organisational positive ethical practices for facing their customers and managing their
employees
It is essential for a company to focus on their ethical practices and perform those positive
practices with their customers who will help them to attract toward the company and behaving
ethically with employees will help to retain them for longer years within the company (Chahal
and et. al., 2020). Hence, ethical practices will also help the company to develop their brand
image within their market and further help to gain competitive advantage. In context of
Morrison, they are having Ethical Trading Code (ETC) for their employees to protect their rights
and make them satisfied to work with company (Ethical Trading Policy, 2022). Few of the
Morrison’s ethical practices toward their employees are mentioned below-
Employment is freely chosen- In Morrison, employer will not ask for any monetary
deposit or their identity papers. They are free to leave their employment after providing a
reasonable notice to the organisation. They did not force their employees to serve any fixed
period of time within the company or they also did not ask their employees to sign any fixed
period of time bond which is compulsory for them to work.
Working conditions are safe and hygienic- Morrison makes sure that their employees
will be protected from any kind of injuries and accidents at workplace. For this, they make sure
that their employees will use their safety kit such as helmets, gloves and many others while
working with big electrical tools and machines (Turyakira, 2018). Workers in Morrison get
regular and recorded health and safety training and this training is getting repeated for new
joiners. Through this training they want to enhance the skills and knowledge of their employees
that how they must work within the organisation which will reduce accidents and injuries. Clean
toilet facilities are provided to workers and an appropriate sanitary facilities for food storage
(Ethical Trading Policy, 2022). The managers and supervisors always monitor the safety
measures for their employees within their supermarkets and hypermarkets.

No discrimination is practices- In Morrison, employees are free to express their
experience and issues which they are facing while conducting their job roles. There is no
discrimination regarding job position, skin colour, gender, culture, religion and many other
factors in the organisation. They hire employees according to their skills and talents not on the
basis of their appearance and gender. They train all employees equally and they promote only
good working employees to motivate them (Chouaibi and Chouaibi, 2021).
Task 4: Class discussion

Morrison is founded in the year 1899 by William Morrison and it is headquartered in Bradford,
UK. The Following PPT covers impact of human resource on operation management, impact of
HR upon business management, challenges of human resources within chosen organisation and
importance of HR for the company due to which they could not operate without HR.

Employees of Morrison are allowed to make suggestions in decision making process to their
management team so that they will analyse best alternative out of various options of alternative
for making particular decision (Koster and Benda, 2020).

Secondly, it is also challenging for Morrison to provide training to their employees. Morrison
provides training to their employees to enhance their skills and talents and due to this they have
to spend huge amount of expenses on the training sessions.
If there is no human resource within the Company then no one could make growth strategies for
company and the company is unable to grow.

While preparing this PPT we all get to know about the importance of human resource within the
organisation and how companies work well to satisfy their employees and influence them to stay
within the company for longer period of years of their professional life. There is also a personal
benefit to me for this presentation and that is I am able to enhance my communication skill,
decision making skill, problem solving skill, presentation skill and few other skills which further
help me to develop my professional life.

Conclusion
From the above information it is concluded that every organisation is required to focus on their
operational activities and gain competitive advantage within their industry. There are various
kinds of issues which can be faced by companies regarding their operational activities but it is
essential for them to mitigate those issues as soon as possible before it impacts negative upon
company’s overall performance. It is also essential for company to focus on customer experience
to gain high profit and future growth. Ethical practices will help the company to gain the trust of
their customers and employees which further help them to gain high brand reputation within their
market.

References
Books and Journals
Boscari, S. and et. al., 2018. National culture and operations management: a structured literature
review. International Journal of Production Research, 56(18), pp.6314-6331.
Chahal, H. and et. al., 2020. Operations management research grounded in the resource-based
view: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 230, p.107805.
Chouaibi, S. and Chouaibi, J., 2021. Social and ethical practices and firm value: the moderating
effect of green innovation: evidence from international ESG data. International Journal
of Ethics and Systems.
Le, T.V. and et. al., 2019. Supply, demand, operations, and management of crowd-shipping
services: A review and empirical evidence. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging
Technologies, 103, pp.83-103.
Lee, C.K.H., 2018. A review of applications of genetic algorithms in operations
management. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 76, pp.1-12.
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones, A., 2018. Operations and process management: principles and
practice for strategic impact. Pearson UK.
Turyakira, P.K., 2018. Ethical practices of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing
countries: Literature analysis. South African Journal of Economic and Management
Sciences, 21(1), pp.1-7.
Wei, M.M. and Zhang, F., 2018. Recent research developments of strategic consumer behavior
in operations management. Computers & Operations Research, 93, pp.166-176.
Online-
Ethical Trading Policy, 2022 [Online] Available Through:
https://www.morrisons-corporate.com/globalassets/corporatesite/corporate-responsibility/ethical-
trading/morrisons-ethical-trading-policy-1.pdf/