Analysis of the External Environment
In the current business state of affairs, issues and challenges in the human resources are the key barriers being faced by the contemporary business organizations. Thus, it is important to have effective policy and process of human resource management to overcome the emerged barriers and to gain competitive advantages in the market (Beardwell & Thompson, 2014).
MAXIM company is a Maxim catering limited (refer to “MAXIM” for the following paragraphs) is a largest food and beverage group in worldwide gourmet cuisine, coffee, festival food and snacks in Hong Kong. MAXIM was found in 1956 by Wu’s brothers, currently the Milk International Co. Ltd holds MAXIM’s 50%stake, but the final management decision-making is still owned by the Wu’s family (Maxim’s, 2017). MAXIM group also got the international brand’s right to operate in the mainland and Hong Kong including Starbucks, Genki Sushi, IPPUDO, The Cheesecake Factory. MAXIM’s core products include a wide range of festival food? mainly for the New Year cake, Rice dumpling, Cantonese Curing meat and moon cakes, which has become a priority selection choice for festival gifts by public in Hong Kong. MAXIM moon cakes quality has been recognized by international HACCP “Food Safety Control” certificate, and for 14 consecutive years to become a sales champion in Hong Kong.
MAXIM’s mission is to be “Three Win-Win” company? which refer to the benefits to employees, customers and shareholder MAXIM’s management team emphasized the importance of shaping an organization culture that focuses on quality, innovation, entrepreneurship? and sustainability.
This report will analyze the internal and external environment of Maxim with the help of various tools. This will be done in order to identify the internal effectiveness as well as the shortcomings of the organizations in the market. Moreover, the competitive business strategy of the organization will also be discussed in the similar context. Accordingly, a certain human resource management approach will be identified and discussed in order to overcome the identified challenges. Practical examples and implementation process will also be used for the implementation of the chosen approach.
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Political |
Maxim is operating in various countries such as China, Vietnam and Cambodia. Thus, they face diversified political scenario in different countries. This is due to the reason that, China is having different political structure and government regulations compared to the countries (Gilpin 2016). Thus, it is a challenge to adhere with different regulations in different countries. |
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Economical |
The economical environment of Maxim is favorable due to the positive trend of the economy of their targeted countries. However, the economy in different countries is different and it is a challenge to adhere to the different economical perspective. This is due to the reason that, each country is having different economical standard and accordingly Maxim has to offer their products and service (Hoskisson et al., 2013). Moreover, rate of employees is also depends on the economy of the countries. |
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Social |
The social environment for Maxim is also favorable due to the reason that they offer Chinese and Vietnamese cuisines among others. Thus, offering domestic cuisines will help them to attract more customers. Moreover, the product portfolio of Maxim is diversified and it can able to meet the diversified requirements of the customers (Smith, Gonin & Besharov, 2013). However, due to the reason that they operates in different countries, the social perception of the employees will be different. Thus, it will be a challenge for the organization to manage all the employees from different social scenario. |
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Technological |
Technology is one of the key areas, which is witnessing a rapid growth in the last few years in the food and beverage sectors. In this case, maxim is having various involvements of technologies. According to their official website, they are having bakery and take away outlets apart from the restaurants (Hujits, Molin & Steg, 2012). They have involved updated technologies in minimizing the waiting time of the customers. In addition, customer feedback mechanism is being initiated by them in order to gain feedback and opinion from the customers. Thus, involvement of the updated technologies will help them to gather the information of the customers effectively. On the other hand, in their internal management, they have also involved updated technologies to gather the feedback and opinions of the employees. This is due to the reason that, employees from the different countries are having different issues and perception, which is important to determine. Therefore, use of up gradation of the technologies will help them to effectively manage the employees across all the facilities around the world. |
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Legal |
The legal framework in different countries is different and it is important for Maxim to adhere to all the legal regulations in order to operate in these countries. For instance, there are some specific rules and regulations for the business organizations to operate in China (Weiss, 2014). Accordingly, other countries are also having different regulations. One of the key regulations to be followed by the business organizations is the employee management. This is due to the reason that, legal policies regarding the management of the employees in the workplace are different and it is important for Maxim to have effective policy of human resource management. |
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Environmental |
This factor is having the least impact on the business operation of Maxim. This is due to the reason that, food and beverage sector is having negligible impact on the environment. However, maxim being a food sector organization can have environment friendly service such as reducing the carbon footprint and using of eco-friendly and recycled products (Guang Shi et al., 2012). Moreover, it is important for the business organization to motivate and train their employees in order to aware them regarding the green policies. |
Apart from analyzing the external environment of Maxim, various issues and areas of improvement are being identified. However, the internal environment of Maxim should also be determined due to identify their effectiveness and capability along with their issues.
Figure: 1
- The key objective of Maxim can be divided in four key aspects including financial, internal business process, customer and learning and growth. The first aspect is the financial (Hoque, 2014). According to this aspect, the key motive of Maxim is to maximization of their sales and revenue. According to them, external stakeholders should be effectively catered by offering them products and services according to their taste and preferences.
- The next aspect is internal business process, which refers to the initiatives to enhance the satisfaction level of the customers. In doing so, Maxim is having effective decision making process to determine the unit cost of their products according to the trend of their target market (Amado, Santos & Marques, 2012). Moreover, the less waiting time for the customers also helps them to enhance the value of the shareholder. Along with these, Maxim introduces new products frequently in order to cater to the change in the taste and preference pattern of the customers. Thus, it will also enhance the value of the customers.
- As discussed earlier, Maxim involves frequent up gradation of their product portfolio in order to effectively cater to the change in the need of the customers. The next aspect of balanced scorecard is learning and growth (Kaplan, 2012). This element refers to the concentration of the organization towards their innovation to introduce new products in the market. Maxim continuously introduce new product in the market according to the market trend and life cycle of their existing products.
- The last element is the customer. For the food and beverage organization such as Maxim, determination of the customers is important in order to identify their feedback and requirement (Norreklit et al.,2012). Maxim maintains effective data base management system in order to store and analyze the customer trend towards their new and existing products. Moreover, customer loyalty programs are being initiated by them in order to enhance the retention ratio of the customers.
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Strengths |
· One of the key strengths identified for Maxim is the diverse product and service portfolio (Kang & Montoya, 2014). · Frequent up gradation of the products. · Coverage of customers across various income groups. · Local sourcing of raw materials helps in reducing the price. |
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Weaknesses |
· Not having specific target market strategy (Kim & Mauborgne, 2014). · Presence in limited market. · Have to adhere to diversified environment in different countries. |
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Opportunities |
· Entering in more countries will enhance their market share and presence (Raff, Ryan & Stahler, 2012). · Entering in related business line will help them to enhance their market opportunities such as fast food sector. · Having goodwill and reputation in the existing market. |
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Threats |
· Issues among the employees from the host and home countries (Shields et al., 2015). · Rapid change in the taste and preference pattern of the customers. · Threat of new entrants in the market. |
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Impact |
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Urgency |
High |
Medium |
Low |
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High |
2 |
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Medium |
3 |
1 |
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Low |
4 |
5 |
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1 |
Limited market coverage |
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2 |
Different operating environment |
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3 |
Employee issues |
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4 |
Threats of new entrant |
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5 |
Rapid change in taste and preference pattern of the customers. |
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Prospector |
Maxim involves the prospector strategy by introducing new products in the market (Bentley, Omer & Sharp, 2013). This concept refers to the initiation of innovation in developing new products and markets. However maxim is only concentrated on developing new products rather than new market. |
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Defender |
Defender strategy is also being initiated by Maxim by enhancing the satisfaction level of their existing customer. They initiate various customer loyalty programs in order to retain their existing customers. |
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Analyzer |
Currently, Maxim is not following the analyzer strategy. This is due to the reason that, Maxim is concentrating on their existing market and developing the existing market rather than penetrating in the new market. |
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Reactor |
They involve reactor strategy to have flexible organizational structure in order to cater to the change in the business and market scenario. Thus, they involve no clear strategy and design their strategy according to the current market situation. |
Thus, from the above analysis of the organization, various issues have been identified. One of the key issues being identified is the cultural differences between the employees in the home and host country. This is due to the reason that, maxim is having their operational facilities in various countries. Thus, the organizational culture will be different in different locations. Therefore, it is important for the human resource managers to manage all the employees effectively. Moreover, Mile and Snow analysis helped to determine that they are not opting for new market development, which is important for the future potential. Threat of new entrants is another challenge for them. Thus, it is also important for Maxim to initiate effective internal strategies in order to overcome these challenges.
- Maxim should initiate the strategy of analyzer in order to overcome the issue of having limited market share (McGrath, 2013). This is due to the reason that, with the initiation of this strategy, they will be able to determine the new market opportunities along with retaining the existing market.
- Another competitive strategy will be the focus strategy. This is due to the reason that, with the help of the focus strategy, Maxim can target their segmented market more effectively. Accordingly various initiatives should be considered by them to attract their target customers. This will enhance the loyalty and satisfaction level of the customers.
Analysis of the Internal Environment
Chosen human resource strategy
In view of the above identified issues, an effective human resource strategy should be initiated in order to overcome. This is due to the fact that, if the internal stakeholders including the employees can be managed effectively, then the organization will have the opportunities to overcome the challenges. Accordingly, the chosen human resource strategy will be the providence training of the employees (Dhar, 2015). This strategy will be critical in overcoming the identified issues due to the fact that, training for the employees will help to equip them in overcoming the organizational challenges and to effectively adapt to the changes in the market and business scenario.
For instance, one of the contemporary business organizations that are known for the effective providence of training to the employees is Subway. Though Subway is a fast food chain, which is different from Maxim but they are in the same business sector of food and beverage sector. Subway is having their stores in all the major cities around the world and constitute of diversified employees in their workforce. However, they overcome the challenge of cultural differences among the employees with the help of the training. They maintain a three ways approach in initiating their training purpose. One of the elements of their training program is being targeted for the newly appointed employees, one is for the existing employees and the last one is for the upper and middle level managers. These approaches help them to have holistic impact on the effectiveness of the employees around their all stores across the world.
Training program for the newly appointed employees is being implemented by them to make them aware about the existing organizational culture of the organization. This helps the new employees to have the idea about the existing culture. Thus, the issue of differences among the older and newer employees will get reduced. On the other hand, training program for the existing employees is helping Subway to create mutual understanding between the existing and the new employees. Moreover, the existing employees are being given training regarding the change in the business scenario. Accordingly they will be equipped to deal with the change in the scenario.
Training program for the managers helps to equip and train them about the change in the business scenario and how to manage the changing scenario in the organization. Moreover, Subway is having huge and continuous inflow of employees from different cultures. Thus the training program for the managers helps to equip them in managing the diverse workforce. On the other hand training for the internal stakeholders will also help Maxim to develop new market due to the fact the employees will be equipped to generate business from the new market and to deal with the new customers.
Two factor theory stated by Herzberg will be applicable for Maxim due to the reason that it will help them to identify and classify the factors, which will generate satisfaction and dissatisfaction of the employees in the workplace (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl & Maude, 2017). According to this theory, motivator refers to the factors, which motivates the employees. This includes recognition, job satisfaction and benefits for the employees. Thus, the training program for the managers will help to provide them motivator factors for the employees. Thus, the issue with the employees in the workplace can be reduced and mitigated.
Balanced Scorecard
Figure: 2
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion and analysis, it can be concluded that, Maxim is having the issue related to their issues with their employees. Various tools are being used in order to identify the issues and challenges of Maxim. Accordingly, various recommendations are being provided in this report. This report concludes that, initiation of the training program will help Maxim to enhance the effectiveness of the employees, which will in turn help to create mutual understanding and cooperation among the employees.
References
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