Analysis of Randstad Holding's Business in Singapore

This report analyzes the business challenges faced by Randstad Holding in Singapore, focusing on issues such as building a competitive market, branding, operational management, and market penetration. The report examines the company's position within the human resource service industry, the competitive landscape, and the difficulties encountered in establishing a strong brand presence. The analysis includes an overview of the company's operations, the challenges in operations management, and the disparity with the government's perspective on recruitment. The report provides a detailed discussion of the issues, supported by references to journal articles and company websites, offering insights into potential solutions and strategies for Randstad Holding to improve its market position and overcome operational hurdles in Singapore.

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
Business Capstone Project
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
About the Industry...........................................................................................................................5
About the company..........................................................................................................................5
Issues faced by the company:..........................................................................................................6
Building a competitive Market in Singapore...............................................................................6
Branding issues of the company..................................................................................................7
Challenges in operations management........................................................................................7
Market penetration in Singapore.................................................................................................8
Disparity with the government’s perspective..............................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
Reference List................................................................................................................................11

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
Executive Summary
This report is a part of the course structure it includes a brief discussion about the industry as
well as the company that is being referred in the video which is critically analyzed in the report.
The purpose of this report is to analyze and identify the issues a multinational company is facing
in international market. The report includes a detailed discussion about the challenges that are
being referred in the video by the higher management of the company. The issues are identified
and the reasons are analyzed from the perspective of a management student. The plausible
solutions are also defined and identified from the various concepts and theories that have been
taught throughout the course. There is an introduction, discussion as well as a conclusion part to
the report. The report backed up by references from journal articles and company websites.

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
Introduction
This report deals with some of the issue that has been discussed in the video that was
provided as a part of this assignment. The company that has been discussed in the video is
Randstad holding in Singapore. It is a multinational company and the person who is being
interviewed in the video is Michael Smith he is the Managing Director of Randstad holdings in
Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. In the video Smith discusses about several issues that the
company is trying to overcome in the process of business operation. In this report a plausible
solution to all the issue that has been discussed. In the process of assessing a solution to the
challenges faced by the company an analytical procedure has been undertaken which provides
with an in-depth understanding of the business environment the company is in at the situation as
well as an overall identification of betterment of the business operations. All the references used
in the report are from journal articles, reports from recognized companies as well as articles from
renowned publishers. This introduction is followed by a detailed discussion about the
background of the company and its position in the Singapore market, and then one by one issue
that has been discussed in the video is identified and analyzed (randstad.com 2017).

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About the Industry
The human resource service industry deals with recruiting human resource in various
sectors and industry as per the requirement of the company and the job description. These
companies that provide human resource services behave like a third party contributors to
organizations form other industry to help them find the right person for the job vacancies in the
industry. Led by technological advances and growth in all over business the HR services industry
has grown with leaps and bounces. Adecco and Randstad Holding are some of the market leader
in the industry. The list of services that are provided by the HR services apart from hiring a
professional to asking a person to leave the organization are: developing organizational graphs
and determining a corporate culture post merger or acquisition of two companies, dealing with
the internal communication process especially employee communications, looking after the
disputes among the employees of the company, ideating and developing programs for the
employees regarding benefits and protection, directing government rules and guidelines, dealing
with legal issues such as sexual harassment and occupational safety, and setting up policy and
programs for measuring performance, compensating, recognizing, and training employees.
About the company
The Randstad holding is a human rescore consulting services, it is a multinational set up
and is regarded as one of the market leader. The company is headquartered in Netherlands and is
established in 1960. Currently the company is operating in more than 39 countries; the company
is listed in AEX of Euronext Amsterdam. The mission and vision of the company is to lead the

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
organization with the help of combining the passion of Randstad regarding people with the
potential of technological advances that are available in current scenario, the company supports
and backs up other business organizations as well as individual professionals in finding the right
job for the right person at the right time. The company views that unemployment is a severe
issue that has to be combated in order to ensure progress and development not only for the
organization but also for a country. The company uses several technologies to hire people and
organize interview, there are many brand that work under the company for example in India,
Monster.com is one of the brands operating under Randstad (randstad.com 2017).
Issues faced by the company:
Michael Smith is the Managing Director of the company of the South/South East Asia
discusses about some of the issues that the organization is facing in Singapore.
Building a competitive Market in Singapore: Smith says that the company was not the first or
one of a kind in the Singapore market when he had taken over the company dealing in October
2012, the HR services industries in Singapore was already at 2.65 billion dollars. Randstad has a
name and goodwill associated with the company and hence the challenge to establish itself
should not have been a challenge for the company but the population of the country is 3.3 million
and according to Smith there are 2800 agencies that operate within the country. Hence the best
way that the company can gather public attention is to take the route towards differentiation and
placing the company within the minds of the people as a different brand and a different image.
But the company has a reputation of being the market leader and that is what the company
wanted to keep the focus on (Viktoria and Peter 2014). The concern of the company here was
that the performance was lowering in the Singapore market. From being a market leader the

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
company was at the eighth position in the industry from a prolonged period of time. The
economy of Singapore at that point of time was full of opportunities which the company was
concentrating on. The reputation of the company along with the opportunities available in the
market will give the company support in building a competitive market in Singapore. Since, the
other companies in the industry are also well established Randstad even though being a global
player faced tough competition from the established local companies (Zonneveld 2014).
Branding issues of the company: The HR service industry was huge in the Singapore market,
hence the company was had faced issues in establishing the brand the company seemed to be
doing everything at a time, they were deemed to be an organization that was serving every ends
but was not focusing on one idea. This is a problem when a company is well known and an
established brand in the international market the consumers of the service become confused as
they compare the brand in the international level. In Singapore the challenge was that there was
no point of focus for which the company was known for. There was not particular industry or
sector that the company was focusing on, this makes the of the company blur in the minds of the
consumers. In this case the management of the company should immediately start focusing on a
particular area of expertise and highlight that with the help of communication channels. The
company should not stop other services but it should have a focused communication in order to
promote the brand after the brand is established in the minds of the people the company can
work towards telling consumers stories about other services as well (Campelo et al. 2014).
Challenges in operations management: the company faced a high rate of turnover in terms of
employee and consultants which according to Smith was because of a lack of direction in the
company. The productivity of the employees was also at a lower level than the competitors
which has led to the overall decrease in the productivity and performance of the company. The

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
employees of the company need motivation and appreciation the company recognizes the fact
that the employees are the backbone of the company’s expansion and growth. In order to combat
the operational management issue that is being recognized in the Randstad can be tackled with
the help of six sigma model or a simpler lean production model, these theories if used in practical
issues can help the company to understand the root cause of the low production rate and high
turnover as well as find a plausible solution to the problem as well (Goetsch et al. 2014).
Market penetration in Singapore: the organization has faced severe issues during their market
expansion in the Singapore market. However, they are considered as the weak brand in the
Singapore market. There are many competitors in the local market of Singapore that resisted the
business to make their expansion. Their consultants tried to understand what is going wrong to
the human being in the Singapore market. Their consultants were facing issues in penetrating the
Singapore market. However, market penetration is a big issue for each organization while
entering a new country. However, often they face massive competition to get the entry in a local
market of a new country.
According to the managing director of Randstad, they have struggled to penetrate in the
Singapore market as it was too difficult to get the attention of the public as a new business in this
particular country. However, adoption of the new strategy was helpful for such organization in
this new country, which gives a light at the end of such dark tunnel. The collective aspiration is
missing in this context that is a big barrier of such organization in the new market. However,
lack of collaborative work affects the market share in the new country in the context of
Randstad. Collective aspiration is required for an organization to improve their strategy while
operating in a new market (Yeung et al. 2016). Their company was operating from a client to
candidates and the consultants. However, there is lack of proper information regarding the

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operation process. This led Randstad to a position, which is not favorable to win the business
goal in a new country. In-depth information of a business operation is crucial for an organization
as due to lack of information integrity of the work is affected. There is no complacency both
internally and externally and the organization fails to get granular enough regarding the details of
the business operation in the new country. It has been received clearly that during the market
share Randstad was facing many issues in the Singapore market. During this critical situation,
such organization focuses on the generalized recruitment (Ran et al. 2016).
Disparity with the government’s perspective: Recruitment is the great part of a business to a
business in the new country (Wang et al. 2016). In order to make a business successful selection
of the proper candidate is essential. In the context of Randstad, it was difficult for them to invest
more to find candidates in a new country where they are not economically stronger. It was
essential for this organization to find sales and marketing executives and a CEO to expand their
business in the Singapore market. However, there were not many applications and it was difficult
for such organization to identify the right candidates for the desired position through the
generalized selection process. Many applications came through the advertisement process and
made the selection process more complex. In order to penetrate the market in new country skilled
and efficient employees is the basic requirement for an organization (Meng et al. 2016). By
including 2 percent of unemployment it was difficult for this organization to manage the
recruitment process in Singapore.
Government regulation is another barrier for Randstad in an expansion of their business
in Singapore market. However, in a new market often the rules and regulation of the government
become a big challenge for an organization, which resists the market share (Wang et al. 2016).
Singapore government focuses on the skill development of the employees to improve the service

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
quality in this country. However, Randstad provided short contractual job instead of permanent
position, which affects its recruitment process as well as the business expansion in Singapore.
Conclusion
The above piece of work reveals the issues regarding the business expansion in the
context of Randstad in the Singapore market. However, in the huge competition in the local
market of the new country was a big challenge for this organization. On the other hand, branding
is another issue for this company, which resists them to increase their market share in the
Singapore market. However, market penetration was too difficult for such organization in
Singapore as there were existing competitors. On the other hand, lack of proper information
sharing during the business operation also affected the market expansion in Singapore. Apart
from these Ransted had been facing problem regarding the generalized section process due to
their short contractual offer. Hence, it can be concluded that adoption of well-developed strategy
would be helpful for such organization to minimize such barrier in the Singapore market during
the introduction of their business.

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Reference List
Michael Smith; Managing Director; Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia; Randstad.
2017. Youtube.Com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7kffnb5FhU&feature=youtu.be.
Campelo, Adriana, Robert Aitken, Maree Thyne, and Juergen Gnoth. "Sense of place: The
importance for destination branding." Journal of Travel Research 53, no. 2 (2014): 154-166.
Goetsch, David L., and Stanley B. Davis. Quality management for organizational excellence.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson, 2014.
Home Page. 2017. Randstad.Com. https://www.randstad.com/.
Meng, X. H., S. X. Zeng, X. M. Xie, and G. Y. Qi. "The impact of product market competition
on corporate environmental responsibility." Asia Pacific Journal of Management 33, no. 1
(2016): 267-291.
Ran, Weijia, Holly Jarman, Luis F. Luna-Reyes, Jing Zhang, Deborah Andersen, Giri Tayi,
Djoko S. Sayogo, Joanne Luciano, Theresa A. Pardo, and David Andersen. "Supply-chain
transparency and governance systems: Market penetration of the I-choose system."
In Information, Models, and Sustainability, pp. 67-92. Springer International Publishing, 2016.
Viktoria Rampl, Linn, and Peter Kenning. "Employer brand trust and affect: linking brand
personality to employer brand attractiveness." European Journal of Marketing 48, no. 1/2
(2014): 218-236.

Running head: BUSINESS CAPSTONE PROJECT
Wang, Kun, Kan Wai Hong Tsui, Liping Liang, and Xiaowen Fu. Entry patterns of low-cost
carriers in Hong Kong and implications to the regional market.Journal of Air Transport
Management(2016).
Yeung, Godfrey, and Kim Leng Ang. Online Fashion Retailing and Retail Geography: The
Blogshop Phenomenon in Singapore. Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 107, no.
1 (2016): 81-99.
Zonneveld, Wil, and Marjolein Spaans. Meta-governance and developing integrated territorial
strategies: The case study of MIRT territorial agendas in the Randstad (Netherlands).Planning
Theory & Practice 15, no. 4 (2014): 543-562.