Coca cola enterprises needs to be react quickly to these sorts of external factors that could even ruin the whole company. It is not just external factors that can affect the way Coca cola enterprises runs their business there are many internal factors that could also have an adverse effect on the company. There could be some certain things inside the business that is bringing down profits, these issues cannot always be seen by the management and they need to be looked at and resolved by lower management. Aspect such as poor quality of customer service – customers prefer to go to a store that provides better quality of service. Not only do they prefer to have better quality of service but also to have more service available to them within the business. The business has to stay competitive with each other by offering more quality service than each other. This could mean that the business has to change so that the managers have to give extra training to the staff so they have a higher knowledge of the goods they are selling so when customers have questions to ask then the staff will know the answers in full detail. Good customer service could be as simple as having someone standing by the entrance that greets the customers as they come in. This will make the customers happy as they will feel as if they are being cared for.
Quality of goods being offered could cause problems for a business, customers will expect to have high quality goods when they spend a lot of money but if they buy the cheaper products they should know that the quality will not be as good. If the quality of goods is not being offered then the business will begin to lose its customers. This is why the businesses have to compete with each another to bring the customers to them by offering the best quality merchandise. This affects the business, if its competitors have better quality products then the customers will go to its competitors so by changing the quality of the goods, they can gain more customers than their competitors. This is being ‘competitive’ and without being competitive the business will lose customers and to every business, customers are the people who bring in the capital.
For Coca Cola enterprises to improve the performance, managers need to do many things one thing that they can do to lead to success is benchmarking. Benchmarking is a process used in management and particularly strategic management, in which organizations evaluate various aspects of their company’s status. This then allows organizations to develop plans on how to improve their business, usually with the aim of increasing performance. Benchmarking may be a one-off event, but is often treated as a continuous process in which organizations always check on the status of their business.
Benchmarking is a powerful management tool because it overcomes "paradigm blindness." Paradigm Blindness is the psychology of some people they think, "The way we do it is the best because this is the way we've always done it." Benchmarking opens organizations to new methods, ideas and tools to improve their effectiveness. It helps crack through resistance to change by demonstrating other methods of solving problems than the one currently employed, and demonstrating that they work, because they are being used by others.
Benchmarking is a moderately expensive process, but most organizations find that it more than pays for itself. The three main types of costs are:
- Visit costs - This includes hotel rooms, travel costs, meals, a token gift, and lost labour time.
- Time costs - Members of the benchmarking team will be investing time in researching problems, finding exceptional companies to study, visits, and implementation. This will take them away from their regular tasks for part of each day so additional staff might be required.
- Benchmarking database costs - Organizations that often use benchmarking into their daily procedures find it is useful to create and maintain a database of best practices and the companies associated with each best practice now.
Management need to evaluate the aims and objectives all the time, they need to identify what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Not just identify these things but need to evaluate where they are going wrong, drawing graphs, charts and making tables could help with this process. If it is easy to see what they have done in the past then it will become easier to see what they need to do in the future. Performance of a company is in the hands of managers, they need to ensure that the company they are working for becomes more and more successful.
assignment 2 The role of managementmanagement
Management can make the jobs easier for their co-workers by providing more material and equipment; this would in term improve the businesses performance as jobs would get done more accurately and quickly. For example if management were to provide new state of the art computers with custom made software for the finance department then the jobs that the finance department currently have then their work would become easier, their work would be more accurate and would get done a lot quicker. In fact this may mean that less people are require on the job, this will actually save the company money so already they are heading towards success.
Management could invest money in all departments, this will mean that all the departments will contribute to the success of the Coca Cola enterprises and in term the company will become more and more successful.
Organisation of the workforce.
In a business the workers are organized in terms of power, at the top come the managers and directors and at the bottom come the actual manual workers. A business can sort the workforce in many different ways
A functional area is usually a department which is part of the organisation. Each department has a different function therefore does different activities. These activities are carried out, to meet the business objectives and to help the business to operate.
Examples of functional area:
- Production
- Sales
- Marketing
- Finance
- I.T
- Personnel
- Customer services
- Human resources.
The Human Resources
The purpose of the human resources function is to recruit the employees needed by the business and to try to meet their needs once they are employed. Human resources are involved in the following areas:
- Health and safety – checking that the staff abides the health and safety laws.
- Working conditions – high quality staff will be more attracted to an organisation which has good working conditions.
- Recruitment, retention and dismissal – human resources aims to attract and retain high quality staff.
- Training, development and promotion – these are key areas because most staff wants to develop their skills and improve their career prospects.
- Employee organisations and trade unions - staff we like to think their views are being taken into consideration if there are major changes and developments planned within the business. They also need advice if they have a serious problem this is often the role of the employee organization such as: staff association or trade union, which we will discuss, matters with the human resources manager.
Staff Turnover
If the staff turnover is high ⇒ negative ⇒ lose employee
- Lose skills
- Cost more to employ again
- Cost more to train again
- The company gets a load reputation as people don’t want to work there.
Recruitment
All businesses want to recruit the best employee. This means that they need recruitment procedures and trained staff who can:
Identify the vacancy
- Decide which applicants should be interviewed
- Decide where to advertise it.
- Interview candidates (or arrange interview)
- Select the most appropriate candidate
- Notify unsuccessful candidate.
Retention
All businesses want to keep good staff, otherwise they have to hire and retain someone else and this costs money. Human resources staff are often responsible for checking and analysing staff turnover. Staff turnover is the rate at which the staff live. This is why it is associated with retention. People may want to leave because they are unhappy or dissatisfied therefore it would be cheaper to offer the staff a little bit more, maybe a perk.
An Induction Programme
An introduction programme to help new staff settle in quickly. The new employee spends short time learning about the business, touring the premises and meeting the colleagues.
In a large organisation, people work together in functional areas. These areas undertake key functions which must be carried out within the business. Each has a specific purpose. Below are the main functional areas:
- Human Resources – relates to the people who work for the organisation. You would contact the human resources (sometimes referred to as personnel) department of a business if you are applying for a job there.
- Finance – responsible for checking the money going in and the money coming out of the business. If there are problems, action swiftly must be taken. Computers and IT mean that financial transaction can be recorded and immediately analysed.
- Administration & IT support – all businesses receive information daily, in many different days. This must be dealt with quickly so that the customers and supplies receive prompt answers. Each business has its own paperwork which must be stored safely in case if it’s needed again. Computers are essential part of business as they are used for many administrative tasks. For this reason, many organisations have a section for maintaining an IT system.
- Operations – responsible for producing goods and services by making the best use of resources (e.g. people and equipment). In manufacturing company, it may be known as production, manufacturing or works department. In a business providing a service the operation manager is responsible for making sure all activities are working smoothly.
- Marketing and Sales – responsible for making sure customers known about the business. This may include market research, advertising or sales promotion, the creation and development of a website or web store (although it may be undertaken by it staff). The sales department is responsible for selling items to customer and keeping a good sales record.
- Customer Service – provides information advice and after-sales service, and deal with customer’s complaints. Staff need to know about consumer laws which are designed to protect customers’ rights.
- Research and Development – concerned with technological and scientific developments that can improve the product in the future. This is important in many industries, such as cars and pharmaceuticals.
Training
Training relates to specific opportunities to learn a new skill or extend previous skills or knowledge. It may be undertaken at work or elsewhere such as at a college or specialist training centre.
A large organisation may have own training facilities and run many of its own training courses and events. Its human resources department may have a training officer or even a separate training section.
All human resources departments will be involve in keeping staff training records, overseeing the procedures for applying for training and monitoring the training budget that is the amount of money allocated for training.
Normally, an application is made by the employee and agreed by that person’s line manager before it is accepted. After company training event, staff are often asked for feedback. This ensures that popular events are noted – and probably repeated – whereas unpopular ones are reviewed and improved.
Dealing with grievances
All of the staff grievances are recorded down for any future reference and this is done either informally or formally through Coca Cola Enterprises ’ grievance system. They have to make sure that action is taken promptly and recorded accurately.
Dealing with disciplinary actions
The colleagues that have done things wrong are disciplined and ‘colleague support’ has to deal with it. They are responsible for handing out letters of warning or handing out letters confirming suspension to the disciplined colleagues. Then they have to send out letters that inform the colleagues of the outcome of the disciplinary action. If it becomes worse than they have to arrange appeal meetings as appropriate and then record the outcome at the end of the meeting.
Liaising with marketing
The colleague support department communicates with marketing within the business; they decide which items to put inside the welcome packs that the staff receives when they become an employee at Coca Cola Enterprises. They communicate using emails and on occasions they contact one another by fax.
IT and Stores operations
The store operations only need to use IT for the tills as the tills are linked with the computers to record all of the actions that the till makes e.g. the cash coming in, the time people buy goods etc.
In the stores they have the EPOS tills which are linked up to the main computer system – this record the time and the date of every time the till is used. Not only do the computer record what cash comes in but also it automatically updates the stock in the store. This is also linked with the customer services because they need to know what stock is available for when customers ask about what products are in stock. The records always show accurate information.
Also the tills keep record of the customer details, this is useful for when there is a return to be made. If a customer buys a product from one store and wants to return it to another store but doesn’t have a receipt Coca Cola Enterprises can check on their database to see when and where the item was bought. With this information the customer will be able to make a return or an exchange as long as he has the original boxing and everything is packed to how it came. The computer can track any customer details even from a different branch of Coca Cola Enterprises; this means that you do the same things as your local store with the other branches. E.g. if you want to buy a computer but they didn’t have it at your local branch you could buy it at your local branch and pick it up from another Coca Cola Enterprises store as it will have the customers details on the computers.
Like all of the different functional areas the store operations department uses the computers to send emails to the other departments internally.
Consequences of effective management
If management is good then so will be the success of the company. The status of a company, how well it does and ether it will succeed or not lies purely on the management, if they speak then the workers will produce work of a high standard, if they do not say anything then the work will continue to lack and so will the performance of the company. If the company does well then the reputation of the company will continue to go up this will mean that the company will get more and more customers.
This will mean that the company will grow and consequently they will get more revenue leading to increased profitability. The company shares will have a huge rise, which will mean that the company capital will also increase. Better management has a lot of advantages such as reputation within the market will become a lot higher and they will be able to complete projects before time, this will mean that they will be able to charge more for their service as it is better! If Coca Cola Enterprises do meet all their targets it will mean they are market leaders and ahead of their competitors. Overall improvement of the management will mean improvement of the company there is a direct link between the two.
Consequences of ineffective management
However! If Coca Cola Enterprises do not meet targets then they will be in trouble not meeting targets will mean that customers will not be happy which then leads to losing customers. If customers are not happy then revenue will go down, as they are unlikely to be shopping with Coca Cola Enterprises again. If they do not meet targets then the company will have a loss in terms of getting an income late. They need to ensure that they deliver the items when customers need them if a supermarket ordered products and they are not received on time then it will mean that the reputation for Coca Cola Enterprises will decrease even for the customers of the supermarket.
Coca Cola Enterprises cannot lack in their quality to meet their delivery targets, they need to ensure that they produce high standard products as well as providing them on time, this is a hard job but to keep on track management need to ensure this happens. If the quality goes down then the reputation will also have an adverse affect, this will mean that people will purchase alternatives such as Pepsi and own branded cola.
If they continue to cause problems then the company will suffer a huge financial loss and they will have to close down and declare bankruptcy this will mean that thousands will be without work and Coca Cola Enterprises’ customers will suffer due to lack of service. If they get taken over then the company may not get ran in the same way ingredients could change and overall the company’s reputation could suffer hugely.
Management of resources.
Physical resources
For Coca Cola Enterprises to continue to trade they require some very important things. They cannot do what they specialize in without a few basic facilities, these are known as needs, and they can do without some other things however a building is very important.
They would not be allowed to trade without actually having a business under which their company is licensed there is a very clear reason to this, they need to for health and safety reasons be covered when producing consumable products, a building is vital for them to continue trading. They require building for storage prior and post production, the storage area needs to be safe and sound. Additionally it needs to be in line with health and safety requirements.
Coca cola Enterprises need some equipment, material and facilities for them to be able to continue production. Without machinery, electric and general day to day items it would become almost impossible for them to continue trading. They probably would be able to produce their items without machinery but it would take a lot more time and just would not be cost effective plus they would not be able to produce according to demand. They also need to be within an area that is suitable for the job, so the rooms need to be large enough, they need to facilitate with areas where workers can have lunch and breaks, and overall the plant needs to be regularly maintained to meet health and safety requirements. Health and safety requirement also require that there are fire exits within the factory and that staff can get out quickly and easily in case of a fire. In addition to this they need to ensure that there is enough security in the factory so no unauthorized people can enter and that outside of trading hours the factory remains safe.
Human resources
Coca cola Enterprises need to ensure that they have the correct amount of workers employed at any one time. If they do not have enough workers then production will not go as plan and Coca cola Enterprises will lose out. There will not be enough workers actually on the floor producing the products, they don’t only need to ensure there are enough production workers but the same applies across the whole business, there needs to be enough people in the finance department to take in and deal with the money coming in and going out of the business. There also needs to be enough people in the marketing department who are able to promote the company and their products so that we they can have the potential amount of customers. If the marketing department promote their needs to be enough in the sales department to actually sell the consumables. There is no point having too many people employed otherwise they will be sitting doing nothing and still being paid this is incurring a loss for Coca cola Enterprises and they need to be sure that all the workers are busy at all times and they do not slack.
There may be times when Coca cola Enterprises require more staff and sometimes when they don’t require as many. At Christmas it is more than likely that they will require more staff they can employ temporary workers at these times so that the workers are only there when they are needed also at bank holidays, Easter and during seasonal breaks. This will mean that Coca cola Enterprises only pay workers when they are needed and do not have to pay unnecessary wages.
Workers need to ensure that they keep up to the contract that they signed at the beginning of their job, if they signed that they will work 40 hours they must do it. There are many little terms within the contract that the employee needs to ensure that they fulfil. For the employee to fulfil their contract they expect the employer to also keep up to what they said they will do. If within the contract it states that the employee is allowed 20 days of holidays per annum then they need to ensure that they get that holiday. Within the contract the employer signs that they will ensure that the worker stays safe and healthy during the time they are in the workplace.
Being safe within the workplace involves knowing what to do in case of emergencies; the employees need training for evacuation and what to do in case of an emergency.
Within each department staff are structured very effectively, for example within the sales department, working from top to bottom it will be structured like;
Company director
Assistant director
Sales manager
Assistant Sales manager
Team leader
Sales assistants
If the Coca Cola enterprise wants to tell the sales assistant about how to use the new tills they have purchased then the company director will not personally come and the sales assistant, the message will be passed down through the structure in a meeting, finally the message will reach its destination. The same goes when the sales assistant wants to give a message to the company director, he will have to initially pass it to the team leader and then the message would progress. Team leaders have some power, they have the authority to do a limited things, if the sales assistant wanted a day’s holiday then most probably the team leader would be able to authorize this however if he/she wants a pay rise then the team leader would have to consult a senior member of staff.
Senior staff will ensure that the company runs efficiently and effectively by setting targets for each department, they will explain the target to the team leaders, the performance would be monitored after a week or a month and the department are expected to meet all targets. If the targets are not met then disciplinary action or investigation may be a necessary step. It is crucial for the departments to reach the targets that have been set for them.
All business regardless of their size is governed by certain legislation. This legislation covers both the employer and the employee. Some examples of these rights are;
Rights of Employer:
- Expects the worker to come to work on time.
- Expects the worker to have qualifications they have stated.
- Personal characteristics.
- Do the job you are asked to do.
- Expects the worker to do his/her job.
- Work as hard as they can.
- Carry out duties and responsibilities.
Rights of the employee:
- Appropriate health and safety training.
- Expects breaks.
- Paternity leave
- Not asked to do anything dangerous.
- Toilet.
- Expects wages on time.
- Expects the employer to tell the employee only work related jobs.
- Maternity leave.
- Correct pay.
- Treated fairly - sick pay.
- Expect a holiday.
- Fully itemised payslip.
- Safe, clean place to eat.
- Appropriate training.
- Written contract.
Rights of the employer
Expects the worker to come to work on time
The employer has a right to expect the employee to come to work on time. This means that the employee should not be late coming into to work. When the employee signs the contract for applying and becoming an employee at Coca Cola Enterprises the contract will state the hours. This will have to be obeyed as he or she has signed the contract. E.g. if a person that works on the tills come in late then Coca Cola Enterprises would have to tell other employees to come and work on the tills to avoid customers getting angry about the service.
Expects the worker to have qualifications they have stated
When the employer hires the employee he/she expects to have the qualifications stated in the CV. In the CV you must state what qualifications you have so that the business knows what you are good and what you’re not good at. When you get interviewed about getting the job at Coca Cola Enterprises your qualifications will come up. If you get the job you have to sign a contract which shows all of your qualifications and skills and if you sign the contract it means that you have all of the qualifications and skills stated. If you lie about what qualifications you have wasted the employer’s time and money and contract can be terminated at any time. This would lead to start the whole recruitment process again and this would cost more money and take a lot of time. This means that you could be sacked from your job and will have to re-write the CV. For example if someone wants to work at Coca Cola Enterprises, as a producer he/she must have some sort of qualifications. This would be stated in the CV. If it is stated in the CV but still does not have any qualifications of handling food then he would get sacked as he would not know how to produce or do anything in the factory.
Personal characteristics
Personal characteristics are the way the people act and do things. You need to have a good personality so that when you work the people you work with you will get along with. If you did not have a good personality the people you work with will probably complain about you as you are not being nice to none of the employees and the customers. Personal characteristics also include the way you look and the way you dress. If you come to work looking very untidy, not in uniform and smell then this would affect the customers and that employee that hasn’t dressed well would probably receive many complaints. If the staff at Coca Cola Enterprises didn’t dress well or smelled bad the amount of customers that come into Coca Cola Enterprises to shop would reduce. Hygiene also comes into the personal characteristics. If an employee does not care about their personal hygiene this would affect Coca Cola Enterprises. If the employee works
Do the jobs asked to do
The employer expects the employee to do the jobs they are asked to do at their job. This means that when an employer asks a member of staff to do a small job for him/her the employee must do it. This is only if the job is sensible and work related. The job asked to do should be something that is related to the employee’s job as if it isn’t this would counteract with the rights of the employee. E.g. if an employer asks an employee to print out some papers and file them into a cabinet and the employees work is a secretary then this is related to the job that has been asked to do. On the other hand if the secretary was asked to clean the toilets then this would be a job that does not relate to the job that the secretary does.
Expects the worker to do his/her job
The worker is expecting to do the job that he/she should be doing. The jobs that are stated in the job description should be done when that person signs the contract to work for that business. If the work is not being done then the employee could be dismissed after several warnings or maybe even one warning depending on how the company works. E.g. if in the contract it states you have make products for the customers at Coca Cola Enterprises the employee is expected to produce all the time he/she is at Coca Cola Enterprises working. If the employee constantly comes into Coca Cola Enterprises and does no production at all what so ever then there would be consequences. The consequences could lead to a dismissal of the business.
Work as hard as they can
The employee not only expects the employee to work whilst they are at work but also to work as hard as they can. This means that all of the work done at Coca Cola Enterprises should be of their best ability and all of the employees effort should be put into whatever they may be doing. If people slack with the work they are doing it may show in the quality of work being produced. This would be then noticed by other people and complaints may be made against the employee. If the employee constantly gets complaints then further action may be taken upon them. But if the employee works as hard as they can all the time they will be rewarded. This could then lead to a raise in pay or an award for the amount of effort that is being put into the employees work.
Carry out duties and responsibilities
The employer expects the employee to carry out any duties that are told to do to the employees. Employees are told their duties and responsibilities in the contract when the employee signs to be a part of the business. The duties and responsibilities are stated and are expected to be done and the more duties and responsibilities are the higher paid job it is. These higher paid jobs have duties and responsibilities that are a lot more important than those who have a lower paid job. On the other hand these duties can only be done if it is related to the job the employee is doing. E.g. If a producer at Coca Cola Enterprises is told to clean the toilets by an employer the employee has a right to not do the job asked to do. If a cleaner is told to clean the toilet then it is because it is work related the employee has to do the duty that has been asked to do.
Rights of the employee
Not only the employers have rights but so do the employees. The rights of the employees are to have:
Appropriate health and safety training
The employee is entitled to have appropriate health and safety training. This means that the employee should get health and safety training before he or she begins working. Some employees are also trained during they are working but they are obviously little extras that they may need to know if a new piece of equipment comes in. Health and safety training consists of getting trained on how to operated equipment and how to do their job responsibilities with safety. Also the health training consists on learning how to make all of the tasks hygienic so that it doesn’t endanger the customers when it comes to dealing with products in the factory. Every employee need the training as without it the business will come down e.g. if a customer comes in and asks for a few cases of Coca Cola and the employee deals with it without any care and without being hygienic then the customer may get some sort of illness and the customer could sue the company. This would give Coca Cola Enterprises a bad name as they have been sued for being unhygienic.
Expects breaks
The employee is expected to be given a break from the work they are doing. The break can be either a lunch break or a just a break before the lunch break. The lunch break is usually half an hour to an hour long. The breaks before that in the morning are usually around 10 minutes. The breaks are used to give the customers time to relax and do personal things. Also the lunch breaks are obviously used to have lunch as well as other things depending on how long you are given to eat your lunch.
Paternity leave
Employees are permitted to have paternity leave. Paternity leave is where you take days off work to look after your new born child as the mother of the baby needs help looking after the baby until the baby is capable of doing things for themselves. The paternity leave depends on how long it takes for your baby to be able to do things that will make it easier for the mother to look after the baby without the fathers assistance until the person on the paternity leave comes home from work. The paternity leave only applies to males as for the females the period of time taken off to care for a baby and to actually give birth to the baby is called maternity leave.
Not asked to do anything dangerous
The employer cannot ask any of the employees to do anything that could end up damaging their health unless if the employee’s job is to do something that can risk their health. E.g. if an employee’s job is to work in the office and do tasks on the computer and the employer asks the employee to go lift heavy boxes and operate fork lift trucks the employee has a right to not obey the employers command. This is due to the fact that the employees job is in the office where no work is done that could endanger his or hers health and the heavy weight lifting and forklift driving can cause a danger to other employees and also to the employee himself whilst lifting the heavy boxes. If the employer is forced to do anything that is dangerous the employee can take legal actions against the employer or company as none of the work that the employee was forced to do is not on the contract.
Toilet
The employees all have rights to have a toilet on the premises and be able to use them when freely. The toilets should be open to all employees and in all circumstances should be open to them. This includes if the employee is in a meeting or doing work in general. The employer can’t stop you from going to the toilet. If the employer does try to stop you from going to the toilet then this would be against the rules and the employee can go and tell the manager to get the problem sorted.
Expects wages on time.
Every employee wants their wages on time, this is something they expect, they have bills to pay and things they need to purchase so getting wages on time is something Coca Cola Enterprises will have to ensure they do. The finance department should have all payrolls ready in time for payday disregard of it being end of the month or end of the week. It is vital that every employee gets the correct wage on the correct day at the correct time.
Dealing with disagreements
Like all businesses there are disagreements internally, these are dealt with in different ways depending on the company itself, businesses deal with these situations in different ways however most businesses follow the same rule. Coca Cola Enterprises follow this common rule. It depends on the type of disagreements that they have. Here are three examples,
E.g. if there was a disagreement with the jobs that were asked to do by an employee by the employer then they could resolve this dilemma by looking at the application form as it clearly states in the application form what is involved in the job that he/she has.
Another example is that if an employee has been asked to do a job that is dangerous then this problem could be resolved first of all by just talking to the person that asked the employee to do it, if this fails then the employee can go and talk to the manager as the employee is not meant to do anything that can harm the employee.
The third and final example is an employer expects the employee to come in on time. If the employee constantly keeps on coming in late then the first step an employee would do is just to talk to them and give them a warning. If the employee decides to ignore this warning and continues coming in late then he/she would receive another warning. After this if the employee still has not listened or taken notice of these warnings then the third and final step is to dismiss them from the business or to reduce their pay. At Coca Cola Enterprises, their disciplinary procedures are to give, in this order,
- Verbal warning
- Written warning
- Disciplinary suspension
- Disciplinary demotion
- Dismissal
These are the 5 stages in which the business goes through when there is any sort of punishment to be made to an employee or employer, they always follow these rules, and they cannot be changed.
Coca Cola Enterprises need to ensure that they don’t only have grievance procedures in place but they also have incentive schemes. Many companies introduce these schemes for motivation purposes, this has been proved to make employees feel more valued and will make them work better. Within the company schemes such as employee of the month have been proved to be very effective, employees will work a lot harder to become the employee of the month. Usually employees don’t want much, a small trophy and a good presentation along with a bottle of champagne would make any worker work thousand times harder that they usually do!
Financial resources
Costs need to be managed within budgets, departmental managers need to ensure that they use their money effectively and that they do not use their money unnecessarily, if they foresee problems with their budget then they need to contact a senior member of staff prior to meeting the problem, this will ensure that they do not all of a sudden run out of money and there is nothing that could be done.
The business needs to make sure that they have enough money to continue trading normally; they need to have a working capital to be able to purchase raw materials and ingredients. Budgets need to be compared to the income there is no point having a budget that is higher than the actual income they need to calculate how much the business is getting as an income, they also need to consider the profits that the company wants, if the expenses and income are not correctly proportion then they need to find the reason to why this is the case!
For this reason the company needs to ensure that they have provisions for unforeseen circumstances, they need to ensure that there is enough provisions to keep the business running until other finance can be arranged.
Technological resources
Intellectual property laws give a bundle of exclusive rights to the way or form that ideas or information are expressed or shown, and not in relation to the ideas or concepts themselves. Intellectual property shows the specific legal rights, which authors, inventors and other Intellectual Property holders may hold, and exercise, and not the intellectual work itself.
Intellectual property laws are designed to protect different forms of subject matter, although in some cases they do the same things.
Copyright may exist in creative and artistic works (e.g. books, movies, music, paintings, photographs, and software) and give a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of these things for a certain period of time (historically a period of between 10 and 30 years depending on authority, more recently the life of the author plus several decades).
A patent may be granted for a new, useful, and non-obvious invention, and gives the patent holder a right to prevent others from practicing the invention without a license from the inventor for a certain period of time (typically 20 years from the filing date of a patent application).
A trademark is a distinctive sign which is used to distinguish the products or services of different businesses. An industrial design right protects the form of appearance, style or design of an industrial object (e.g. spare parts, furniture, or textiles).
A trade secret, which is sometimes either associate with confidential information, is secret, non-public information concerning the commercial practices or ownership knowledge of a business, telling the public of this information can sometimes illegal.
Patents, trademarks, and designs rights are sometimes collectively known as industrial property, as they are typically created and used for industrial or commercial purposes.
Key management skills.
Interpersonal skills.
For any business regardless of its size it is vital that all colleagues work together to ensure that the business succeeds. In some cases it would make the whole process a lot more effective however there are situations in which it is absolutely necessary for colleagues to work together. Many times colleagues from other functional areas need to also work together so that things can get done.
There are many functional areas that need to work together so that jobs such as payrolls and advertising can get done.
IT and Customer Service
The IT department enhances the performance of the customer services. They do this by:
- Letting the store colleagues know what stock is available within the store. Not only do they know what stock is available but they can also check when the next delivery is due or if the product is in another nearby store. This is useful as if a customer wants to buy a specific product and it is not out on the shop floor then the staff can check if there is the product within the store. Also they can check if they will have it soon or if the product is in another store. This is more practical than going looking for the product throughout the store and running to the other stores to check if the product is in there.
- Having an EPOS system that is continually upgraded which also enable the staff to check or track down a purchase made within the store. They can also check if the product has been sent back but not only send back to the same store but any other branch of Coca Cola Enterprises.
- Coca Cola Enterprises has an internet site in which customers can go online anywhere and order products off the website. The IT department has to check the website everyday to see which orders have been made so that they can ship out the products to the customers. The customers can also track the orders made online by using a code to see where about the ordered merchandise is. The IT had to make the site and maintain it so that the customers are kept happy by not having to leave the house to buy the merchandise they want. This is good customer service.
- Not only do Coca Cola Enterprises have an internet site but they have a mailing list. This is a list of email addresses that they have within the business that they send mail shots on the products that are sold at Coca Cola Enterprises. All customers have to do is go onto the internet website and sign up. Also on the website they offer insurance quotes on goods sold at Coca Cola Enterprises. They also give advice on buying products online. The website also has a feature that highlights products that you may want to show you family and friends (if there is a wedding or a birthday and you want to buy a present off the website). They call it a ‘wish list’. The wish list also informs you when a product is in stock if the product was out of stock when you checked it last time. An email will be sent to you to let you know that they have it in stock.
- Customers can keep in contact with Coca Cola Enterprises by email. If a customer is confused about something or has any sort of query then they can simply email Coca Cola Enterprises and they will email you back as soon as they can answering you question. If you have a query about a product you have ordered then you can put in your receipt number, this will make it easier for Coca Cola Enterprises to know what you are on about if the query is about the product.
- All the letters that have to be sent out to the customers are prepared on the computer to give a professional look; if it was hand written then customers would think that the company is not that big as they cannot afford to buy a computer to make the documents that need to be sent. Also the letters that need to be sent around internally of Coca Cola Enterprises that are related to customer service are done on the computers.
- Have ‘real time’ comprehensive sales information; this is available to any of the trained staff at the touch of a key.
- Track any repairs that Coca Cola Enterprises have done on the computers. This is a useful customer service as customers would want to know when they have handed in their goods to be repaired and what date it was repaired by.
This supports Coca Cola Enterprises’ business activity by providing excellent service to the customers so that the customers will come back again to buy more products. One of Coca Cola Enterprises’ activities is to: ‘sell excellent value hi-fi and related equipment to their customers, coupled with superb service’. This supports it by using IT to help provide the “superb service”.
IT and Marketing
Marketing use IT to develop leaflets, stickers and posters to advertise the business. They:
- Set up a document for instant ticketing so that whenever the store needs tickets they can go and open the document and print out POS materials without wasting time.
- Post marketing leaflets on the internal intranet so that if another branch of Coca Cola Enterprises wants to print out the leaflet, they can use the intranet to get it. this is needed in all of the stores so whenever it is designed it is put up on the intranet site so all stores can access them and print them off.
- Can analyze customer data that is stored on the computers by using spreadsheets. This is so that the business knows about the customer so if they can offer something to the customer to attract them to buy even more products then they can by sending those emails or text messages.
- Design all of the in-store newsletters and the advertisements up in the stores. They use software such as Quark Xpress, Adobe In design, Photoshop and Illustrator. The IT department spends a lot of time designing the in-store newsletters and advertisements as they have to be eye-catching. If they are not well designed then it might not show the desired information resulting in a loss of potential customers.
- Produce a wide range of documents that are marketing related. They use word processing software for this like Microsoft Word).
- Contact colleagues quickly by using email.
- Send text messages and text messages with image attachments internally within the business to other colleagues or externally to people outside of the business. They may have to show other colleagues pictures of products when maybe they are not working.
IT and Marketing work together as the business activities of Coca Cola Enterprises are to advertise the business in the best way possible and with the help of IT trying to market the stores they can do this by using the most up to date technology to get some of the best looking advertises and in-store newsletters.
IT and Finance
Finance needs to have IT working along with them as most of the financial documents are kept on computers. The IT functional area:
- Records all of the financial transactions taken place in the business, this is important that it is done as if there are some incorrect calculations done they can always check it on the computer as all of the transactions are typed up on the computer.
- Pay the suppliers by EDI or electronically, this is done on the computer because it is a lot less hassle than going to where the suppliers are and handing them the money by hand. Also it is safer to do it electronically. If it was delivered by hand then there is a chance that someone will try and attack them.
- Produce all of the financial documents including, invoices, credit notes and statements. This is also done on the computer as it saves time writing it all up and also saves space at the Coca Cola Enterprises stores as they won’t have stacks of financial documents.
- Check that all of the new stock has come in (deliveries) and are logged into the stock system before the payment to the suppliers has been made. The payment is done after so that Coca Cola Enterprises can check that everything is there and is in good condition and if it isn’t they can do something about it.
- Record and check supplier terms for payments and discounts on the supplier database.
- Check the sales made in the stores. This is done with the computers because the tills are connected to the computers and all of the goods sold are recorded on the computer. All cash sales are recorded using the EPOS system.
- Produce the financial reports on the computers and also the accounts. A special program is used write the reports and many financial reports are made on spreadsheets like the cash flow. Also using a different program on the computers they budgets is prepared.
- The IT department also pays the colleagues by bank transfers over the internet. The money is sent monthly. Firstly the payroll is prepared and then this is then sent over to the banks to be processed.
- The financial department communicates with other people internally using the computers. The financial department uses emails to send out financial information and also for other things that the financial department may need.
One of Coca Cola Enterprises ’ main activities is to provide great value for money and with the help of the IT department and the Finance department working together they can bring the price of the goods down to the lowest price possible and not lose out on any profit.
Colleague Support and IT
Colleague support needs to work alongside with the IT department to write the letters to communicate with the colleagues. The IT department helps colleague support by:
- Writing the letters to contact prospective colleagues and existing colleagues. They use a word processing program called Microsoft Word to write the letters.
- Preparing the welcome pack or amend the welcome pack materials. The amendments are sending to the London design team to make the welcome packs look enhanced on their Apple iMacs so that the new colleagues will think that the business is modern and will recommend to other people. This will make other people outside of the business want to come and check the stores out.
- Sending the emails to the colleagues within the business. They use the computers rather than writing out letters by hand as it saves time and effort.
- Preparing the contracts of employment. The contracts of employment are prepared using Microsoft Word.
- Extracting information from the spreadsheets for the seasonal reports. The spreadsheets are made on Microsoft Excel.
Colleague support and IT work together so that Coca Cola Enterprises can provide excellent service to the colleagues as the colleagues are just as important as the customers because the staff are the people who run the business. With the help of IT they can keep the employees informed and up to date with the latest information.
Colleague support and Customer Service
Colleague support and customer service have to work together in the recruitment, retention and training issues as colleague support is in charge of making sure that all of the staff are correctly trained and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability. The correct level of training should be given to all of the colleagues as the customers expect to be dealt with properly when in the shop. If the customers are not satisfied with the quality of service given to them it means that there is a fault in the training programmes and this will then relate back to the customer service department as they deal with the complaints that the customers give. When a complaint comes in about the service given by the staff they have to work along with the colleague support department to sort out the problem so that they do not receive any more complaints.
IT and Stores operations
The store operations only need to use IT for the tills as the tills are linked with the computers to record all of the actions that the till makes e.g. the cash coming in, the time people buy goods etc.
In the stores they have the EPOS tills which are linked up to the main computer system – this record the time and the date of every time the till is used. Not only do the computer record what cash comes in but also it automatically updates the stock in the store. This is also linked with the customer services because they need to know what stock is available for when customers ask about what products are in stock. The records always show accurate information.
Also the tills keep record of the customer details, this is useful for when there is a return to be made. If a customer buys a product from one store and wants to return it to another store but doesn’t have a receipt Coca Cola Enterprises can check on their database to see when and where the item was bought. With this information the customer will be able to make a return or an exchange as long as he has the original boxing and everything is packed to how it came. The computer can track any customer details even from a different branch of Coca Cola Enterprises; this means that you do the same things as your local store with the other branches. E.g. if you want to buy a computer but they didn’t have it at your local branch you could buy it at your local branch and pick it up from another Coca Cola Enterprises store as it will have the customers details on the computers.
Like all of the different functional areas the store operations department uses the computers to send emails to the other departments internally.
Colleagues work together need to ensure that they have a good relation between them; there cannot be success unless the workers get on well between them in the first place. It is definite that conflicts will occur between staff however there needs to be a constructive way to resolve any conflicts, workers need to talk between them if there are conflicts rather than shout at each other and not understand where each other are coming from. If workers do not think talking to each other is effective than they can consult a supervisor or a team leader to sort out the issues. This way there is minimum disruption and the business does not incur a huge loss. If workers are always arguing between them then there will be less work done and consequently the business will incur a massive loss.
Workers and teams need to discuss all the targets they have been set and only if they work together they will be able to successfully complete the tasks that they have been set. A target for the sales department may be to ensure that no customer is waiting in a queue for more than 3 minutes, if they have a target like this then there is nothing that the shelf filler can do this is a job only for the checkout assistant. They need to discuss between them who is suitable to do the job that has been set.
In a interview when recruiting new members of staff management need to ensure that they carry out the interview correctly to ensure that they recruit the correct person who has all the skills and abilities that Coca Cola Enterprises are looking for in a worker. There are many constructive ways of doing an interview to reveal the true colours in a person; they could make an exam that may be simple to answer however provide a lot of information for employers. There could also be a set list of questions that the interview could ask; the interviewer may be looking for clear questions in the potential employee. Taking an interview correctly is extremely vital for managers as they want to and need to employ the correct people so that they can get maximum possible revenue from their business.
So that management can improve their skills in taking interviews for both recruitment and appraisal purposes they may need some training in interviews. They can improve their skills by doing play role activities and just receiving proper training every now and again. They also need persuasion skills so that when they do interviews for appraisals it can be done more effectively.
Communication
Oral
Face to face – face-to-face is used more often than any other oral types of communication. Face to face is a live one on one conversation between two people, Coca Cola Enterprises use oral in meetings to discuss matters and also when serving people at the desk when a customer comes in. For example, if a customer come in and wants to discuss what a product does they would go up to a member of staff and talk face to face orally. The advantages of using face-to-face communication are that you can express yourself fully, the point gets across easily and you will get a quick response. The disadvantages of using face-to-face communication are that you may forget what has been said in the conversation. You may need to know what had been said for future reference.
This could be an effective way of communicating depending on how much talking is done and if whatever is being said needs to be remembered. If there was a lot of talking being done and it’s something that needs to be remembered then face to face communication would not be very affective, however it is a simple task that needs to be done then this is the most affect way of communicating with one another as it is quick and straight to the point. It’s most effective way of communicating within the functional areas compared to between the functional areas and outside of the business with other organizations.
Voicemail/ Recorded Message – Voicemail is the type of communication that is used when the person you need to talk to is unavailable. It’s a message that has been recorded on to tape for the other person to listen to when they are available. For example, is the colleague wants to tell the manager about a problem in the staff toilets and the manager is in a meeting he would record a message and give it to the manager to listen to later. The advantages of using voicemail are that you can listen to it over and over again so you can remember what it is about. The disadvantage of using voicemail is that the receiver may not receive it and listen to it quickly because a message might be recorded for someone to clean the toilets before the health inspector comes and checks it and the cleaner will not receive it in time or listen to it in time.
This is an effective way of communicating as long as the person you want to listen to it gets it on time, as the only major downside to this is the time it takes for the person to listen to it. The most affective place to have recorded messages is between the functional areas. It wouldn’t be affective if you used it outside of the business when communicating with other organisations.
Telephone – Telephones are used on a more daily basis, people use phones more than any other way of communicating apart from face to face. Coca Cola Enterprises use telephones to communicate each other to talk about problems or any other news as it is easy to work and it’s just the same as face to face apart from you cannot see each other. The advantages of using a telephone is that it is very easy to use a phone and that matters can be discussed easily and quickly. The disadvantage of using a telephone is that the other person might not be there so they won’t pick the phone up in that case they would have to leave a voicemail, if it was important, for the other person and they would have to ring them back.
Telephone is one of the most common way of communicating and the most effective way when communicating with other organisations and businesses. However sometimes it is used within Coca Cola Enterprises and can be affective when trying to contact someone in different functional areas. At Coca Cola Enterprises, they use the telephone to talk about financial aspects of the business and any other problems between the store manager and the senior director. This is not an effective way of doing it, if they were to have the most effective way of communicating and discussing the situation is to use face to face. This is because sometimes the telephones are not reliable as someone could be listening to the conversation. Also if you communicate face to face then you get a feeling and you know what you talk about is confidential and no one is listening.
Suggestion Scheme – A suggestion scheme is a scheme that you have in the form of meetings. During that meeting they discuss matters within the business. Everyone in the business gets a say in what they want. Coca Cola Enterprises use the suggestion scheme to find out how to make Coca Cola Enterprises better. The disadvantages are that because there are so many people suggesting they may end up fighting over something and cause disturbance in the business.
Suggestion schemes are only effective within the business, not when communicating with other businesses. They are affective in meetings only, this is outside of a functional area, and therefore it is a way of communicating between the functional areas. Coca Cola Enterprises are making the best use of this way of communicating as they also use the suggestion scheme in meetings.
Training Seminar – Training seminar is a type of communication that involves the colleagues and the manager or the managing director. Training seminar is where a group of colleagues go up to the director or managing director and ask any questions that the colleagues may be concerned about. Once the colleagues have decided they would nominate one person to go and ask the managing director. Training seminars are not widely used by other businesses but Coca Cola Enterprises use it to try and improve their business. Coca Cola Enterprises use training seminars two times a year. When the colleagues get nominated they have to go up to the managing director but the person that gets nominated is left anonymous. The advantage of using training seminars is that everyone that works for Coca Cola Enterprises can express themselves without being scared about the consequences. The disadvantage of using a training seminar is that it the colleagues can find it very boring.
Training seminars are only affective inside a functional area, the human resources functional area. This is the only place it is affective as you will not need to use it anywhere else outside of the business. It may be used between the functional areas as they could be people from different functional areas from within the business to go and ask questions that they may be concerned about.
Store Visits – This type of communication could also be underwritten as a letter can be sent back to the company to tell them what they liked and disliked about the stores in the company. The manager from Coca Cola Enterprises goes around to all of the Coca Cola Enterprises Factories for half a day before Christmas and talks to every single colleague for 10 -15 minutes. Once the manager has seen all of the Factories and all of the colleagues he sends a personal letter to any store that he likes and compliments them. Not only goes to all of the stores but Deputy FSD’s also has a look at designated warehouses once a month just to make sure everything is going well, he talks to all the colleagues in the factories and listens to all the problems or any queries they have. The advantage of store visits is that it makes sure that all of the other stores are running as well as each other. This could also be bad as the colleagues may be behaving the way they do because they know that they are being inspected and any other times they would behave in any way they want.
Written
Document – A document can be a handwritten profit statement and budgets, it can be “confidential”. It shows information about how much profit is made and how much has been spent on some items and the budgets of items that are going to be sold at the shop. For example a colleague may write on a piece of paper how much Coca Cola Enterprises has spent on new computers and how much profit can be made from selling the new computers for the manager to see how his business is going. Every week Coca Cola Enterprises receive feedback on the week before. The advantages of using a document is that it’s a hard copy, it can be easily kept and everyone can see it whenever they want and is easily made copies. The disadvantages of a document are that it can also be lost and if no copies of the document are made then they have a problem.
Documents are effective in all areas; they are effective outside of the business when communicating with other organisations as they could be documents to say that the delivery was made or when dealing with the bank, documents will be involved. Also inside the functional areas, there will be times where another functional area will need to know, for example, the income or the budget spent on good. Also the manager will want to have a look at all of the financial details; this means that the finance functional area and the managing department will be communicating using documents.
Report – a report is a piece paper that tells us information about all of the stores or any other news. It can also be posted up onto a website, on the intranet. Coca Cola Enterprises posts up information about all of the Coca Cola Enterprises stores and other news that the colleagues need to know about. For example if the Coca Cola Enterprises wants to have some new news that needs to be said to the colleagues they will have to post a report up on the intranet site. The advantages of having a report on an intranet site are that it is easy for the person that wants to tell everyone about the news. It is also an advantage because it’s in the same place every time and the same information is given to every person. The disadvantages of having a report is that the site might get hacked into and things may be changed, also people may get fed up of pop ups and not go on the site.
Magazine – a magazine is a type of communication that involves the public. It’s a magazine that shows information about how the business is running and articles that some people are concerned about. Coca Cola Enterprises have their own magazine called “The Right Way”. The magazine is a magazine that is produced every three months by their colleagues. Right Ways is a magazine that tells the public a variety of information e.g. about how the business is running, the concerns that the writer has and any other news that Coca Cola Enterprises colleagues have to tell. The advantages of having a magazine is that the public can see any inside news on the business but information that’s not too personal, this allows the public to think that the company isn’t a dodgy company and cares about the customers otherwise Coca Cola Enterprises would not have a magazine. The magazine gives trust to the public. The disadvantages of having a magazine is that if too many people show how their feeling in the magazine and give suggestions then there may be people from different branches of Coca Cola Enterprises fighting and get out of hand.
Survey – A survey is a type of communication that comes under written because it is usually a bunch of questions asked by one person and is answered by another and the answer/result is recorded onto a piece of paper. Coca Cola Enterprises do a “Colleague Attitude” survey; this is issued once a year. Colleagues are given questions on the attitudes of the colleagues towards Coca Cola Enterprises. The colleagues would say the truth as the results from the survey gets sent to one person to have a look at and summarise the results. The survey gets ripped up so no individual person can be identified. This encourages the colleagues to give truthful and accurate feedback from the survey. The advantages of doing a survey is that then if there’s a problem that the colleagues are concerned about they can express themselves and tell Coca Cola Enterprises and then something can be done about it. The disadvantage of using a survey is that it can be very boring for the colleagues to fill the survey out. Also if for some reason the surveys are not torn up and were shown to the public this will cause political rivalry within the organisations.
ICT
Fax - A fax is virtual information, it’s a message which is sent through the telephone wire but is also connected to a computer. A message can will be sent and printed out of the other fax machine. Coca Cola Enterprises use fax to communicate from manager to colleague. For example, a manager wants to send the colleague instructions and also wants to alert him about any other additional information that he has missed out. The advantages for using a fax machine is that it’s a hard copy, you can take it anywhere you want and it is proof if anything happens. The disadvantages of using fax is that you cannot express yourself fully and it’s a hard copy, a hard copy is also a disadvantage because you may lose the piece of paper which has the information on it.
A fax machine is most affective when it comes to communicating with other businesses; however Coca Cola Enterprises use it to communicate with other functional areas within the business. This is not as effective as it could be. It would be more effective if they used fax as a way of communicating with other businesses when it comes to ordering goods. Coca Cola Enterprises should communicate with each other between functional areas by either face to face or by sending email as using a fax is not as effective as emails and face to face.
Email - an email is virtual information, it can show a variety of information on what you have been sent. The internet can be accessed by a computer which is connected to a telephone wire, you have to use the internet to check your email but sometimes there are facilities which can let you view you email and only your email, not anything else on the internet. An email is like a fax as it can show messages to the person that you sent it to; the only difference is that it does not get printed out when you receive the email. For example, the manager of Coca Cola Enterprises emails his colleagues to inform them about the new rules that they have at Coca Cola Enterprises and the colleague may email them back if they have a query. The advantages of using an email are that you can remember what had been said, you have a copy to refer to, unless you delete it. The disadvantages of using an email is that you cannot fully express yourself and if you want a quick reply or if the sender wants the person that he/she sends to clean the toilets for example the receiver may not read it in time to clean the toilets for when the senders tells him/her to. Also there is a risk of getting a virus or Trojan in the email.
Financial Documents – Financial documents is information the computer which tells you information about how well the business is doing and what their budget is. It tells you all about what’s happening with the money that the business has. For example if the manager of Coca Cola Enterprises wants to see the financial documents for Coca Cola Enterprises then he would ask his accountant that handles all of the financial documents and can see what is happening with Coca Cola Enterprises’ money. It is an advantage because it shows how the company is doing and it’s all proof for if any money goes missing. The disadvantage of having financial documents is that it may be hard for the people to understand with all of the unnecessary statistics.
Intranet – An intranet is a source of communication that is accessed by a computer. It can only be accessed by the colleagues of the business as it is a network of computers. Its function is to tell the colleagues about how the business is running and how well are the colleagues working, it can also tell you other information such as: the weekly report – this includes internal news and it tells us information about other stores it can also tell us information about any rewards that have been handed out. Coca Cola Enterprises use the intranet to post the weekly report which tells us information about other stores and any other internal news. The advantages of using the intranet is that anyone working for Coca Cola Enterprises has easy access to it and it can be accessed whenever you need it. Because all of the information is stored on the computer it is hard to lose it.
Website – A website is a page or multiple pages that are linked together that can be viewed via internet using a computer, this is why it comes under ICT. It’s like an intranet website but the difference is that everyone in the whole world can access the internet site. A web page can show a variety of information; it can show pictures, video clips or just writing. Things can also be bought from a website through credit card details. Coca Cola Enterprises has a website that you can view information about where the stores are for the people who prefer to buy from the shops and not off the internet. It also supports people online. People who do buy off the website can track where their product that they have bought off the website is. The advantages is of using the website is that anyone can see the website as long as you have the internet as it’s not an intranet site. You can shop in the comfort in your own home and it is easily accessed. The disadvantages of having a website is that sometimes people cannot access the website as it may be down at times. The website might not be updated and customers may buy out of date offers so they will be losing out. People also may get fed up of the pop-ups if they have any; there is a high risk that there can be pop-ups.
Coca Cola Enterprises use mostly the best forms of communications within the business, when communicating within each of the functional areas. They only use face to face communication, which is the most effective way of communicating with one another. I think it’s the most effective way as the functional area most probably aren’t that big so you could just easily go and talk to them and if you have forgotten something that was said you can without difficulty go and ask them again as it wouldn’t be far at all.
When it comes to communicating between the functional areas they could use other forms of communications to make communicating most effective. E.g. the directors and the senior managers communicate with each other to discuss the financial documents by using the telephone. This is not a very effective way of communicating as it could prove to be costly yearly. A better way of discussing the financial documents is by posting notes on the intranet within the business, this way anyone within the business can see and it would be cheaper to have. They could also have recorded messages to give to one another as there is no rush for the financial documents to be heard.
The manager leaves recorded messages to say congratulations to the colleagues for doing so well each Sunday; this is not a very effective way of communicating with the colleagues as it would be hard for all of the colleagues to listen to it at the same time. If the manager was to post notes on the intranet, it would make sense as it saves time and most people look on the intranet for news.
The weekly report is posted on the intranet within the business; this is an effective way of showing how the business is running to the colleagues however there is another way. It is not necessarily the best way to communicate with the colleagues but you could produce newsletters to give out at the end of the month or at the end of a period of time in which is lets the colleagues know what has been going on within the period of time, it could also include other things inside it, like The manager himself could write his congratulations in the newsletter. Having a newsletter at the end of every three or four months could be a good way of communicating with the employees as it could hold a lot of information and it could cut down on other ways of communicating with the employees as you could put some other important things in. Also along with the weekly report you could have a small section in which the colleagues could write anything they want this could be birthdays, anniversaries or anything else they would like.
The advantages of having it are,
- you could cut down the amount of other things to say and put all you need to in the newsletter
- employers and employees can write anything personal they want inside e.g. birthdays e.g.
The disadvantages of having it are,
- it could cost a lot to print out the newsletters
- Coca Cola Enterprises may need to hire someone to design and write up the newsletters, which could cost Coca Cola Enterprises money
Coca Cola Enterprises could have walkie talkie to communicate within the business, this could be within each of the functional area or between the functional areas. This would be a better way of communicating that using recorded messages or emails or memos as it has the same advantages as talking face to face apart from you cannot use facial expressions. Using walkie talkies you would receive the messages straight away and also it is the easiest way of communicating in terms of effort. If you was to email someone a message then it would take more time and effort to log in and open internet and type the message and send it rather than pressing a button and talking which would let the person on the other end of the walkie talkie receive the message straight away.
The advantages of having walkie-talkies are,
- Easy to use
- Quick and effortless
- Doesn’t have a long term cost, you just have to pay for it and that’s all you have to pay for
- Saves time
The disadvantages of having walkie talkies within the business is,
- colleagues could get carried away and start messing about with them
- there are costs involved in maintaining and purchasing
Task related skills
The soft drinks industry is very demanding hence they require a good quick service to provide every single customer with a fantastic service. Coca Cola Enterprises need to ensure that they meet targets and standards. The most important aspect of good customer service is a high standard of products, and to deliver the products on time and at the right place. They need to ensure that production and delivery service remains good and ensures that the name of coca cola enterprises remains at its current peak.