Investigating Transparency at Pret a Manger: Customer Trust Impact

This research project investigates the lack of transparency at Pret a Manger and its impact on customer trust and corporate governance. The report begins with a literature review exploring the importance of transparency in organizations, its effect on corporate governance and business performance, and the potential consequences of its absence. It examines whether Pret a Manger exhibits a significant level of transparency and analyzes the possible impacts of its shortcomings, particularly concerning customer trust. The study further discusses secondary and primary research undertaken, critically reviews the results, and provides recommendations and an action plan for improving transparency within Pret a Manger. The ultimate aim is to evaluate the concept of transparency within the company and determine its effect on customer relationships, suggesting actionable strategies for enhancing transparency levels.

RESEARCH PROJECT
(The lack of transparency at
Pret a Manger)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITTERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................5
What is meant by the importance of transparency within an organization along with
determining its impact on the corporate governance and business performance?......................5
Is a significant transparency level being present within Pret a Manger?....................................6
What possible impact of Pret a Manger's lack of transparency is seen along with its effect on
the customers’ trust?...................................................................................................................7
Which can be the set recommendation on strategies that can be adopted by the Pret a Manger
to have improvement in their transparency level?......................................................................8
DISCUSSION OF THE SECONDARY AND PRIMARY RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN........10
CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH..............................................12
RECOMMENDATION AND ACTION PLAN............................................................................22
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................22
Action plan................................................................................................................................22
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................25
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................26
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................28
Questionnaire............................................................................................................................28

INTRODUCTION
Overview of the topic
Corporate governance is related to a combination of all the set policies, laws and rules
adopted by an organisation for performing various activities and tasks. It is known as the vital
part of an enterprise because it helps in maintaining level of transparency and confidentiality.
This assists in increasing the interest of stakeholders with the objectives and targets of the
company (Spagnuelo, Ferreira and Lenzini, 2019). With the present investigation, the report
shows that an enterprise maintains transparency in the operations and functions of the
organisation so that they can gain large number of customers (Taştan and Davoudi, 2019).
Therefore, the present investigation carries out in-depth information about the significance of
transparency within an organisation (Gold and Heikkurinen, 2018). This report also highlights
the impact of lack of transparency on the trust of customers and the strategies they can adopt for
increasing the transparency level within the activities of the company.
Research Aim, Objectives and Questions
Research Aim
The aim of current study is, “To evaluate about the concept of transparency within a firm
along with determining its impact on customer’s trust.” A research project on Pret a Manger.
Research Objectives
 To analyse about the importance of transparency within an organization along with
determining its impact on the corporate governance and business performance.
 To investigate about the transparency level present within Pret a Manger
 To examine the impact of Pret a Manger's lack of transparency along with its affect on
the customers’ trust.
 To make a recommendation on strategies that can be adopted by the Pret a Manger to
have improvement in their transparency level.
Research Questions
 What is meant by the importance of transparency within an organization along with
determining its impact on the corporate governance and business performance?
 Is a significant transparency level being present within Pret a Manger?
 What possible impact of Pret a Manger's lack of transparency is seen along with its effect
on the customers’ trust?

 Which can be the set recommendation on strategies that can be adopted by the Pret a
Manger to have improvement in their transparency level?
Background of the company
The selected company for the present research is Pret a Manger. It is an international
sandwich shop franchise chain based in the UK. The headquarters of the shop is located in
London, United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1983 by Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair
Beecham. The owner of the company is JAB Holding Company.
Review of the problem faced
The problem of the current investigation is that Pret a Manger has many branches
worldwide and these branches deal with challenges and issues of lack of transparency on its
offering services. Along with this, the other major problem determined is ineffective corporate
governance strategies and this ultimately reduces the trust of stakeholders regarding the
organisation (García-Sánchez and et. al., 2019). Therefore, the current investigation carries out
detailed information about the challenges of maintaining transparency with the customers of the
organisation.

LITTERATURE REVIEW
Literature review contain all the secondary information related to the chosen study. It can
be defined as a section which has past publish data so that research can gain more detailed
understanding about the selected topic. This also help the investigator to know the gap between
past resercxh and present investigation.
What is meant by the importance of transparency within an organization along with determining
its impact on the corporate governance and business performance?
As per the view of Erickso (2021), transparency is vital business concept which basically
means be honesty and have openness approach with their stakeholders. It is one of the important
pillar of having good corporate governance and improving business performance. In the
workplace having a transparent approach is very important because it not only help inn sharing
information within the team or organization but also helps in building a great customer base for
the company’s product. Importance of transparency within the organization are;
Increased customer engagement: One of the importance of having customer
transparency is that it assists in making customer happier. Customer engagement can be
maximized if organization provide honest and true information to their buyers regarding the
goods and service they are manufacturing or producing. If companies on continuously basis
update their consumer about their product, then customer feel more engaged with the
organization. So if business is aiming to build a loyal customer base then it is vital for them to be
more transparent and use reliable way to enhance more customer interaction. Every bit of
information related to the product which customer has the right should be delivered in honest
manner without any false modification. This approach will also help them to build their positive
market image in front of the purchaser.
Minimize barrier to innovation: Another great advantage of customer transparency is
that it will help the companies to reduce the hurdles which occur will developing any innovative
idea. Openness about the thought helps organization to know the perception of buyers towards
the creative thought which they will be using to produce or modify their goods and services.
Barrier act like a noise which reduce company’s performance by the side of buyer. Organization
with transparent approach will gain advantage as buyers will be aware of companies’ new

approach. Customer will be open to accept the change as they already know what organization is
thinking.
Increase customer satisfaction: Next impact of transparent organization toward the
customer is that it will aids them to satisfied their customer in more effective manner than that of
those companies which are not implementing this approach in their business. Customer will be
more satisfied by the companies honest and openness approach and will ready to make a
repetitive purchase without giving any second thought. There quires and problem will be solved
in great manner which helps the companies to attract more buyers because the existing consumer
are satisfied with the organizational performance in effective manner (Schwartz, 2020).
In recent world were competition is so high it is very important to adopt the concept of
transparency because this contributes more towards organization goal and market share. It also
impacts the corporate governance strategy and productivity in greater sense.
Is a significant transparency level being present within Pret a Manger?
As per the view of Zhang (2020), there is a significant level of transparency present in
Pret a manger. The company operates at international level and the customer base of the brand is
quite good. So it is very important for them to manage the transparency because this will impact
their overall performance. The company follow transparent working environment with higher
ethical standard so that corporate governance can be maintained. The importance the Pret a
manger gets will having a good level of transparency are:
Attaining vision in effective manner: The company has the vision to operate globally
and become one of the leading sandwich shop chain. This has been attained by them in effective
manner as buyers are happy with the approach they use. They get all the detailed information
about the food they are dealing with, which help them to gain market share. Many stakeholders
are happy with the openness approach and feel that with this the company is able to achieve their
overall vision.
Make information more actionable: The another significant benefit that is obtained by
the company is while using the concept of transparency is that they make their information into
more actionable form. The customer trusts the data which are provided by them which help them
to attract more buyers and bring loyalty among them. Pret a manger provides a piece of
information that help the buyer to know all the detailed regarding the product or goods. Their

transparency approach helps the brand to provide information to their buyers which in turn assist
them by gaining opportunity which are more actionable towards the company performance.
Productivity enhanced: The another benefit that is obtained by Pret a manger by having
openness and honest practice is their organizational productivity is been enhanced. Buyers are
happier and are satisfy by brand. Reparative purchase is being made by them and further
customer base is being extended. This help them to increase their sale and enhance their
production. The significant level of transparency in Pret a manger also helps them to develop
innovative ideas which they can share with their stakeholders without any fear and get reviews
which helps them enhanced productivity.
Pret a mangers benefited as Trust in management process is also improve and company is
competing with their rivalry in effective manner. Their risk and uncertain is also reduced as the
information and feedback that they received help them to analyze their performance and
improvement is made on the areas where requirement is there (Ford, Thomas and Grove, 2021).
What possible impact of Pret a Manger's lack of transparency is seen along with its effect on the
customers’ trust?
In the view of Gardner and et. al (2019), there is a negative impact of lack of
transparency that can be seen in Pret a manger’s. this lack of transparency also impacts the
customer trust towards the company. To build customer trust it is very important to have
effective transparent approach. Many companies lose their potential customer if they are not able
to provide information which is necessary for them. The downward impact of lack of
transparency in Pret a mangers customer trust is:
Ineffective customer engagement: One of the problem that can be faced by the brand is
that there is less customer engagement. There will be a gap between the buyers and the
organization, which will also impact their communication. There will be less communication and
interaction as customer will not get the useful information which they are looking for. This
ineffective customer engagement will affect as customer cannot built trust among the company.
Their trust for the company will be minimum as compare to other as lack of information for
product will not satisfied them.
Lack of openness: Another negative impact of lack of transparency is openness. If
company will be close minded towards the approach they are using, then organization cannot
adopt the change and uncertainty by the side of customer. This will affect them and their

customer base because taste and preference of the buyers keeps on changing on continues basis.
So it is very important for the business to be flexible and stop rigidity because this will help them
to build trust among the buyers. Customers trust is very important in organizational success and
overall performance. The Pret a manger cannot gain the opportunity which will reduce their
market share and performance because of the rigid approach they are using and not changing the
working environment into more transparent manner.
Lack in attracting new customer: Next bad impact of lack of transparency in Pret e
manger is that they will not able to attract the customer. If existing customer base is not satisfied
by the company’s ethics, then they cannot trust company’s goods and service which will
indirectly create a bad market image of the brand. This market image will then hinder them as
new buyers will not get attracted towards the organization. Lack of transparency in Pret e
mangers will reduce their market share and sales, purchaser will not get happy as they will not
get honest information and will avoid using company’s product. Customer satisfaction is very
vital for attracting new buyers and expanding their business in other part of the world.
Resistance to change: Another big challenge that can be faced by Pret a manger is
resistance by the buyers towards the innovative goods. As their will be less trust among
purchaser and the organization which will impact them as buyers will not ready to accept the
modification made by the organization on their good. This resistance will affect them as high
cost is involved by the brand for manufacturing innovative sandwich, innovational information is
not being delivered to the buyer before (Che and et. al, 2018).
Lack of transparency can heavily impact the brand image of Pret a manger because this can leave
a permanent satin in company name if buyers are not happy and satisfied by the dishonest
approach by brand.
Which can be the set recommendation on strategies that can be adopted by the Pret a Manger to
have improvement in their transparency level?
As per the view of Aguinis and Solarino (2019), in recent having effective strategies of
transparency is very vital for the company to improve their performance and also to gain
competitive advantage. If Pret a manger wants to improve their transparency level, then they
should adopt and design strategies according to the need and wants of their stakeholders. Some
of the approaches that can be recommended to the brand are:

Strategic management practice: Having strategic performance management helps the
company to know about the goals and objective that they want to attain for longer time period.
So if transparent plan can be designed then number of task can be done easily as well as
appropriate information can be provided to those stakeholders which actually want. Unnecessary
data cannot be leaked and customer will also only get information what they want. This will help
Pret a manger to maintain a proper balance between their transparency level and also openness
can be made.
Prioritize communication: Another strategy that can be recommended to the brand is
giving more focus on communication system. It is very important to establish a good interaction
and communication channel which can open the path for both organization and customers. The
size of communication media depends upon company structure and product they deal in. if Pret a
mangers give more priority to the communication then they can have built an environment which
is transparent. This will help also help them to easily provide all the information to their buyer
with honest approach.
Invite feedback: Next strategy that can be suggested to the company is to get feedbacks
and review by their customer about goods they are purchasing. Inviting buyers to share their
feedback and thoughts regarding organization will create more transparent environment. Trust
among the customers can be built and they will also feel as part of the company and loyalty from
them towards brand can be enhanced. This will also aid company to know whether buyers want
any modification in their service so that they can design innovative idea and start working to
satisfy their purchaser. Suggestion by buyers will helps in clarifying the transparency level
matter in more effective manner than that of others.
It is also suggested that having an effective corporate strategy will also help the brand to have
proper accountability which will aids them in higher transparent workforce. Even effective
leaders can be made which will assist in making proper coordination of the activities and
improve organizational performance. If the above transparent strategies will be adopted by Pret a
manger then they will control all their information in very honest way and will able to create a
workplace which is open minded rather than rigid in their working, flexibility in performance
can be gained (Vaishnavi, Suresh and Dutta, 2019).

DISCUSSION OF THE SECONDARY AND PRIMARY RESEARCH
UNDERTAKEN
Research methodology is the section that gives methods for the collection and analysis of
data in systematic manner. It includes Saunders research onion framework which gives certain
layers for the accumulation and evaluation of information in systematic manner.
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is the methodology that gives three three
significant kinds that are: positivism, interpretivism and realism philosophy. Researcher has
selected positivism philosophy as it assists in the evaluation of numerical information in
systematic way so that it could be used in attaining objectives of the research with reliable and
relevant data. The major advantage of positivism philosophy is it only concentrates on numerable
piece of information (Snyder, 2019).
Research Approach: Research approach is the other research methodology that provides
two important forms which are: inductive, deductive and abductive approach. Researcher has
chosen deductive approach because it facilitates in the measurement of information which is
present in numerical format. The main advantage of deductive approach is it separates reliable
and relevant numerical data aside for the accomplishment of aim and objectives in a timely
manner (Kumar, 2018).
Research Strategy: Research strategy is the other methodology that provides several
kinds of strategies which include: grounded theory, action research, survey, systematic literature
review, interview, case study and many more. Investigator has chosen survey strategy because it
facilitates in the accumulation of first hand and numerical piece of information. Questionnaire is
made under survey strategy for accumulating numerical data in the raw form. The other strategy
which is used in the present investigation is systematic literature review and this has helped
investigator to collect secondary piece of information (Pandey and Pandey, 2021).
Research Choice: Research choice gives two important types: qualitative and
quantitative research choice. Investigator has selected quantitative research choice for the
collection of numerical piece information so that objectives could be attained with statistical
facts and figures (Novikov and Novikov, 2019). The main advantage of using quantitative
research choice is it helps in the carrying out statistical facts and figures in effective and efficient
way.

Data Collection: Data collection is the methodology that provides two significant kinds
which are: primary and secondary data collection method. Researcher has used both the methods
so that investigation could be more effective and useful. Primary data collection is used with the
purpose of collecting raw information with the assistance of questionnaire. On the other hand,
secondary data collection method is also used so that second-hand data could be collected from
the sources like books, articles, journals, publications and many more (Nayak and Singh, 2021).
Time Horizon: Time is the main element for conducting investigation in systematic
manner. Time horizon is divided into two elements which are cross-sectional and longitudinal
time horizon. Researcher has selected cross-sectional time horizon so that pre-determined
objectives could be attained in real time situations (Mohajan, 2018).
Sampling: Sampling is the research methodology that helps in the selection of
respondents with two major types which are: probability and non-probability sampling (Babii,
2020). Investigator has selected probability sampling so that large number of respondents could
be selected and this also follows random method. 30 employees are selected as participants from
Pret a Manger to collect relevant and reliable information.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH
The current investigation has carried out numerical piece of information through
questionnaire method. Frequency distribution analysis is used by researcher so that reliable data
could be carried out. MS-Excel is also used so that graphical representation could be done.
Frequency Distribution Table
Q1) Do you think corporate governance holds great importance within
Pret a Manger?
Frequency
a) Yes 24
b) No 6
Q2) Do you think transparency is important within Pret a Manger for
improving business performance?
Frequency
a) Yes 22
b) No 8
Q3) As per your opinion, what is the main importance of transparency
within Pret a Manger?
Frequency
a) Builds trust 7
b) Employees committed to the vision of organisation 8
c) Engaged customers 10
d) Gains competitive edge 5
Q4) According to your perspective, what is the impact of lack of
transparency on the trust of customers within Pret a Manger?
Frequency
a) Positive implication 7
b) Negative implication 18
c) Neutral implication 5
Q5) According to your view, what is the main reason of being
transparent with customers within Pret a Manger?
Frequency