Corporate Strategy For Kingfisher Plc

Corporate Strategy For Kingfisher Plc This paper shall discuss about the financial management of Kingfisher Plc. This report shall include the background information of the organization which will tackle the brief history of the organizations formation and development, its mission statement, and its organizational values. The major stakeholders shall also be examined and their powers and function shall be evaluated as well. An environmental analysis of the organization shall also be conducted. The company shall also be appraised by means of a SWOT analysis. Finally, the organizations strategy shall be identified and evaluated. History of Kingfisher Plc The origins of the company can be traced back in the year 1982 when FW Woolworth was acquired by Paternoster. This deal came with a small chain of home improvement stores. This was the start of the creation of Europes biggest retail company. In 1984, the company bought the chains of Cornet electrical and the health and beauty stores of Superdrug in 1987. During the 1990s, the companys BQ continued its expansion when it opened its Warehouse style stores in the year 1994. On the year 1998, BQ merged with Frances leading home improvement retail store, Castorama. The following year, BQ opened its first store in China. The decade also marked other acquisitions such as Screwfix. The year 2000, the organization has decided on focusing its expansion on its home improvement stores. Woolsworth was demerged and Superdrug was sold towards the end of the year. On the year 2002, the remaining stakes at Castorama was acquired in order to continuously develop the home improvement chains in Europe. The organization has focused in expanding internationally such as creating new businesses in Turkey, Spain and Russia. Core businesses were also developed in the United Kingdom, France and Poland. Towards the end of the decade, the organization has a total of 830 stores and eight markets across Europe and Asia. The organizations mission statement is delivering more value for the shareholders of Kingfisher by focusing on three key priorities namely: management; capital and returns. SCC is geared towards providing an environment that encourages and gives merit to team efforts. They are committed in having consultative and participative management instead of directive management. They also encourage appropriate authority delegation and decision making on the lowest possible member of the organization. Collective effort and teamwork is being insisted. It is Kingfishers belief that a rich network of communication which is informal and open can lead into greater trust, learning and innovation. Kingfisher supports the concept of attractive compensation to a great performance. Kingfisher cultivates a set of beliefs that are shared within the organization wherein all policies and actions are based. It is believed that success is the goal for each effort and that determination in improving and innovating are constant challenges and stimuli. It is also believed that integrity, objectivity and fair play in business as well as in relationships with staff are very important. Mutual trust and respect are also very vital culture being practiced. Work in the company is perceived as enjoyable. Finally, Kingfisher believes with the perpetuity of its organization. Organizational Values The organization aims in achieving sufficient profit so that it can provide very attractive returns to is shareholders as well as financing the companys growth. For the company, profit is the organizations reward for their effort in offering the consumers the right kinds of products and services. For the long term, profit is the one absolute measure of their corporate performance. It is the organizations belief that in continually meeting their profit objective, other corporate objectives shall follow as well. Kingfisher believes that as a company is their duty in providing clients with quality products and services. The organization values that customers shall always come first. The customers interest should be the companys interest as well, and this should provide them with a long-term partnership with one another. The organization is committed in earning a preferred position with each of their clients by offering a consistently highest quality and reliability of service. Kingfisher ensures that they products always represent the best value for money. It is Kingfisher strategy in exerting its efforts only to those markets, industries and products wherein the organization can excel. Kingfisher believes in providing its people an environment wherein they can excel, develop and have growth in the company. Kingfisher considers its human resources as its most important asset. It aims in attracting people, developing them and retaining those with the highest foundations of character and competence. It does its best in providing training and opportunity to the people for development in improving themselves so that they could expand in their career opportunities. It is expected that their manpower will be full of initiative and drive and is eager in staying and growing with Kingfisher. It ensures that the people of Kingfisher get the recognition they deserve and that the people should be grateful with their accomplishments and that the company has its best choice with them. Examination of Major Stakeholders Stockholders elect the members of the board and they represent the stockholders interests in the company. Board members are at the apex of the decision making body of Kingfisher. They ensure that corporate strategies are met and are all in the interest of the stockholders. They can also do sanctions such as voting against nominees for the board of directors. Further, the board of directors has the authority in hiring, firing and compensating corporate employees. Authorities are centralized at Kingfisher. The managers in the organizations upper levels have retained the authority in making decisions. Decision making that is centralized is easier to coordinate with regards to organizational activities in order to carry out the strategy of the company. This also means that the organizations decisions are fit with the organizations objectives. In times of crisis, this decision making gives strong leadership that is focusing with one person or group. It allows a faster decision making process and a concerted response throughout the organization. Kingfisher clusters its people through groups of common expertise and experiences. This is called Functional Structure which has several advantages. First, the employees perform together and from this they can learn from each other. Employees become more productive on something that they do. Second, employees can monitor on their tasks and make sure that they are giving their best and do not let their responsibilities shrink. The result of this is that the work process becomes more effective. Most of all, the Functional Structure gives the manager a greater control of the activities within the organization. Environmental Analysis Five Forces Model and PESTLE Analysis According to Michael Porter (2009), there are five competitive forces that shape strategy. These are the established rivals; supplier power; customer power; new entrants; and the substitutes. According to Porter, customers dictate to lower the prices by playing the organization and its rival against one another. Suppliers on the other hand can hinder an organizations profit if they charge higher prices. The aspiring new entrants are armed with much newer capacities and are hungry for a share in the market can ratchet your investment in keeping Kingfisher in the market. The offered substitutes can just drive customers away. Porter has suggested tactics designed in reshaping these forces for your organizations favor. In neutralizing the power of the supplier, specifications of your organizations should be standardized so that shifting to other vendors can be easy. Customer power can be countered by expanding the organizations services so that it will be hard for the customers to leave. In tempering wars established by rivals, organizations should invest heavily with products that are different with that of the rivals. New entrants can be scared away by elevating your organizations fixed costs like increasing your organizations research and development. Threats brought about by the substitutes can be limited by offering products with greater value. Figure 1 is the PESTEL analysis for the organization of Kingfisher. Political factors such as regulations and politicians often affect an organizations strategy. This is the same as the legislative factors which includes legislation from the European Union and directives from the United Kingdom. Fortunately over almost twenty years in the business Kingfisher is able to adapt through these changes in policy. Economic trends which include world trends as well as that of the United Kingdom and homebuilding industry also affected the strategies of Kingfisher. But through the means of effective planning and execution of strategies, it was able to address the ever changing trends of these factors. Technology has always been a factor in advancements. Kingfisher was able to meet the demands of this fast paced factor. It was able to deliver a more effective service and product to its consumers. Social factors that is very important. Based on the strategies of the company their relationships w ith its stakeholders are of utmost importance. Activities in promoting and practicing corporate social responsibility were ensured to be given top priority. Finally, the environmental factors such as public opinion, cost implications and sites and locations were ensured that adherence to guidelines were followed. SWOT Analysis Kingfishers greatest advantage is its very adept experience in its line of business. Through extensive research and continuous development, it is able to produce top of the line products. With an over 100 operations all over the globe, it has a great marketing advantage over its competitors. Its greatest advantage is its workforce. Kingfisher ensures that the manpower it appoints has the advantage in handling its operations both culturally and technically. Kingfishers most valuable capability is its ability to produce great products and its marketing expertise all over the world. It is best that they would continue to do research for the continual improvement of its products towards customer satisfaction worldwide. Threats to the organizations operations are small homebuilding businesses especially in the local scenarios. These businesses would often offer cheaper prices and its managements are often run by locals that are undeniably more knowledgeable of the local market. Since the firms strength is its efficient product and very capable marketing ability, it is better to continue developing its products to address the ever changing needs of homebuilding industry. The only weakness that can be derived on this case study, based on the facts given, is its inability to train people for future succession plans. The threats are the local competitors in China which in all factors, know the Chinese market very well than anyone. It is with this given threat, that opportunities such as training more competent employees that are culturally and technologically adept should be considered. Evaluation of Organizations Strategy The article of Sveiby focuses on the very little development of strategy in firms that are not in the manufacturing industry. It also emphasised on the notion that strategies were juts formed and developed for the manufacturing industry. It was imposed on this article regarding knowledge intensive companies those in the service industry. This sector is a phenomenon of all types of companies that range from organizations that took the effort in refining and packaging their outputs. Knowledge industries are the ones in the service sector. Heavy investment in knowledge and highly innovative. An ongoing process of solving the problems of the customers by the producers is the emergence of service. Roos, G. R. (1997) came to the conclusion that standardized service or package was only appropriate on a short term base. The provider of the service is an expert while the customers want their problems to be solved by the expertise of the provider. It is therefore fitting that the knowledge in dustries know how to treat their clients as individuals. According to Morton (2010), when strategy and strategic planning is defined, it should always include as taking all the proactive approaches in evaluating all activities basing it in how well the activity moves towards the core goal of the business. More specifically, strategies are the plans for reaching a business objectives and goals. The concept of shaping strategies was discussed by John Hagel in his article Shaping Strategies. According to Hagel (2008), shaping strategies are strategies that use positive incentives in mobilizing and focusing thousand of participants to shape a specific desired industry or market. The elements that come together in this strategy are the compelling shaping view in providing focus for the participants of investments, a very power platform that will shape the economic leverage of the participants, and the shapers sets of acts and assets in communicating conviction and capabilities to potential participants. Hagel (2010) believes that shaping strate gies hold a great promise in the business world as business executives hold a greater freedom in shaping their target markets and industries during these times of high uncertainty and rapid change. For the case of the Kingfishers organization, its strategy is on focus strategy. Over the years it has developed new products engaged in businesses, merged with other companies and many other business ventures. All of these decisions are focused on what they do best to provide the consuming public with the best home improvement products and services that they can give.

Philosiohy Comparison Essay

Continental philosophy, Pragmatic philosophy, and Analytic philosophy are all three forms of philosophies that are in response to Hegel. The differences began within English speaking countries and European speaking countries, which off-set into two separate traditions. Continental philosophy is the most different in its response to Hegelian idealism in Europe in the 19th and 20th century. The main schools of philosophical thought are existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, deconstruction, and critical theory, being that existentialism and phenomenology are the two prominent schools. Some of the themes of existentialism include â€Å"Philosophy must focus on the individual in her or his confrontation with the world,† and â€Å"Senselessness, emptiness, triviality, separation, and inability to communicate pervade human existence, giving birth to anxiety, dread, self-doubt, and despair,† (Moore, B. N., & Bruder, K. , 2011, p. 154). Continental philosophers do not agree that science is the best way to describe the ways of life and emphasize on metaphilosophy. To me, Continental Philosophy is difficult to describe because it seems critical instead of expressive. Next, Pragmatic philosophy is the main tradition of philosophy in the United States. Overall, Pragmatic philosophy speaks of the lack of an absolute truth. The truth can change accordingly to any situation depending on the time and place. The three best known pragmatists are C.S Peirce, William James, and John Davey. Instrumentalism, which is Dewey’s product of pragmatism, says that human activity and human thoughts are instruments used by humans to solve practical problems. They believed that truth varied from person to person depending on where he/she wanted to progress in life. Lastly, Analytic philosophy is the main tradition of philosophy in England and later in the United States. Of course the main purpose of Analytic philosophy is analysis, which expresses complex concepts into more simple concepts. A philosopher, Bertrand Russell whose emphasis was mainly in mathematics, related to logicism. Logicism says that mathematical truths can be proved from principles of logic. Russell along with G.E Moore and Gottlob Frege disagreed with Absolute Idealism, but also traditional philosophy all together. Continental philosophy, Pragmatic philosophy, and Analytic philosophy all have quite different concepts but have been conceptualized around the same roots. References Moore, B. N., & Bruder, K. (2011) Philosophy: The Power Of Ideas. (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Homework Essay

Chapter 5 1. Describe how we measure the clinical performance of an HCO as a whole? For example, can you aggregate good performance in cardiology and poor performance in obstetrics, and say â€Å"overall, performance is average†? It depends on how measurement is being done. If a scorecard is used, yes the performance could be aggregated. However, the book mentions moving the departments off the scorecard that do not need improvements and focusing on the departments that aren’t doing well or need improvement in certain areas. Scorecards are beneficial in showing overall performance but can also be evaluated to see which departments are not meeting or exceeding the benchmark. If measurement was on a department basis and one was not doing well, that department would need to focus on the developmental areas in order to say that performance is good. â€Å"Overall† means an average or an overview. It’s not specific to one department but an average of all. One could fail a nd others exceed in which â€Å"overall performance† would be â€Å"average.† Chapter 6 1. Describe how an institution can ensure that its medical staff plan is realistic? List the specific steps you think would be important, and which would make a reassuring checklist when presented to physicians and to the governing board. An institution needs to measure input and output to effectively staff the facility. Input can be measured by patient arrivals and appointment requests (request for care). Output can be measured by patients treated, cost per case, quality and access. The physician organization also assists in providing excellent care by recruiting and retaining physicians necessary to provide this care. Physician supply should remain open to leave and come as the community demand raises and lowers. However, it is more effective to be strategic in planning the staffing needs. Too big leaves physicians underworked. Too small leaves physicians ­Ã‚ ­ overworked. A medical staff plan should be implemented to protect physicians  against new competitors. 2. Medical staff leadership: Why should medical staff leadership be appointed by and accountable to the governing board, as opposed to being selected entirely by the medical staff or by the executive? To avoid tax situations, the board must remain nonphysicians (pg 205). Also the board must vote for what is in the best interest of the community. If there were several physicians on the board or the medical staff or executive appointed this, it would be considered a conflict of interest because it’d be harder for the medical staff to do what’s in the best interest of the community rather than what’s in the best interest of the physicians. 3. What is the goal of communication with physicians? How is that goal attained in large organizations? The intent of the communication network is to identify potential conflicts in advance, analyze and understand them (pg 205). PITs, surveys and organizational guidelines and processes are implemented to help resolve these issues. Bylaws are also set and used to describe rights and obligations of each party. They are also used to encourage negotiations and conflict resolution (pg 206).

Analysis Of Merchant Of Venice And Frankenstein

Preconceptions In both Merchant of Venice, by Shakespeare, and Frankenstein, by Mary Shelly, identities, prejudices, and judgements are constantly put to the test. Shylock and Portia, who originally identify strongly with their Jewish ancestry are subject to prejudice and judgement, ultimately causing them to change their concepts of identity to conform to society. Similarly, the Creature is judged for his physical appearance, causing him to grow angry when he is exiled by society. Both novels seem to suggest that bias plays a role in determining the relationship between people, even when they have never met before. These characters are judged, eventually shaping the way they will identify by the end of the novel, and largely forcing them to change the very way they act and appear. For this reason, in both Merchant of Venice and Frankenstein, prejudice is used as a tool to stereotype and label people, eventually causing them to conform and mold themselves to the norms set out for them by society. M any people are often judged because they are different from the norms society has set for them, causing them to often be stereotyped into categories. This is especially true in the context of both novels. Shylock experiences prejudice because he identifies as Jewish, and is often discriminated against, explaining how someone spat on him, saying, â€Å"You call me misbeliever, cutthroat dog, And spat upon my Jewish gabardine, And all for use of that which is mine own† (1.3). He