Mars is an incorporated business; this means it has a separate legal identity from its owners. The business can be sued, taken over and liquidated. It is also a public limited company and can sell shares to raise finance and production costs can be lowered to gain economies of scale and Mars therefore can dominate the market share.
- In which sector of the economy is the organisation?
It is in the private sector as all the decisions about what is produced how to produce it and where to produce it are made by private individuals based on free market information.
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What is its product or service?
Mars is best known for its confectionary range and there are lots of products that can be named but it has diversified into other areas such as:
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How large is the organization? and
- Where is it geologically located?
It is a large multinational and many Mars brands are now available in over one hundred countries on five continents. In Europe, South America and North America, Asia and Australia the combined core businesses are run on a regional basis, each reporting in to a Regional President. Mars does not have a large central headquarters. The Slough branch is where he currently works but has been offered a place in a smaller business owned by Mars.
- What types of staff are employed and what are the contracts of employment?
There is a contract with all the terms of employment such as responsibilities, wages, bonuses and other information contained within it and it states it can be terminated if breached. As far as recruitment at Mars they have a scheme where they have university recruitment in which they recruit graduates. But anyone with the experience and qualification can be successful at Mars.
- What is the physical environment like?
In the department he works in it is fairly relaxed atmosphere and everyone has their own space but easy communication is possible as you can see each other regularly as you are not isolated. He enjoys it as he can leave his office whenever he wants and go home also so no pressure is put on him. But their is a good team ethic and they work to achieve one goal.
- How is Performance assessed and rewarded?
After you have a good understanding of the business mission, strategy and goals, you will write your own personal development plan for the year. Your achievements are reviewed against current and any previous plans and your overall performance rated. A new plan is then developed taking into account any relevant issues. Detailed analysis of your achievements and constraints, lack of resources, knowledge or training is discussed between you and your line manager to identify key areas of future development.
- What are the departments within the organization?
- Who are the competitors?
They are Cadbury’s and Nestle. The top three companies - Cadbury, Mars and Nestlé - jointly accounted for 64.4% of total confectionery sales value. Cadbury is particularly dominant in chocolate confectionery with a 33.1% share, ahead of Mars (27.4%) and Nestlé (22.2%). In sugar confectionery, Trebor Bassett had the leading share, (23.6% of sales value in 1998) compared to Wrigleys (17.3%), Nestlé (12.3%) and Mars (7.2%).
Overall as the discussion went on I felt that he really enjoyed working with his team and that he worked for the team not just for himself. However I did ask if he felt the company was achieving its objectives and is it expanding and growing and meeting his expectations. He said it was and it with the business diversifying so much it may not be the dominant force in the confectionary sector but it can be in other areas and has more range than its competitors.