Name of the companies
Discuss About The Management Of Business Telecommunications.
The following study has been prepared to compare and contrast two different types of company structures and their ways of communication and also their other policies that include the likes of the international expansion and other such similar features. The report has included two companies in a very classy manner as one of them is a global conglomerate while the other is a small organization with operations in selected countries. The paper has provided the details regarding the use of network and has also provided the risk and the ways by which the management of the companies manages risks by their own different ways. The study has provided a detailed analysis of the difference in the business approach of a smll with that of a large firm.
As mentioned earlier the following report has taken the example of two different organizations. Dansko Footwear is an American based company that has relatively small employee strength and a small global presence while the other company of the report which is Unilever Limited is one of the most globally recognized companies that have a presence in almost every country. The choice of the companies has been determined according to their employee strength and their global presence. The striking difference both the organizations on different factors like networking, risk management and others has been useful for the successful completion of the following report.
In this following part of the study the overview of both the companies have been provided to determine their structure, type of work, manufactured products, scope of operations and many more as such.
Dansko is a comfort footwear company that is headquartered in West Grove area of the district of Pennsylvania in the United States of America with employee strength of just over 180. The following company was founded in the year 1990 by young couple and began its operations with the productions of casual shoes, boots and sandals. Apart from the manufacture of such items the company also manufactures clogs that are needed for a number of different reasons (dansko.com 2018). The company has a small yet healthy global presence as it has operations in North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The company was listed among the 500 fastest growing private organizations in the year 1999-2000. The management of the following company has outsourced the manufacturing department of the company in different Asian and European countries to limit their operational cost and increase the margin of their profits. More than 80% of the shoes manufactured by the company are made in China and the rest of the items of the remaining 20% are manufactured in Italy. In the early years of the establishment of the following organization the management of the company operated the manufacturing facilities in Poland and Netherland as well. However one of the main uniqueness of the company that separates it from the other companies of the specification is its new facility in China which is fully mechanized and manufacturing is done with the help of 46 Kiva Robots that has sped up the process of manufacturing and have helped the company to manufacture more products at a much shorter time.
Overview of the companies
Unilever Corporation is a British-Dutch Multinational consumer goods manufacturing company with headquarters both in London as well as Rotterdam (unilever.com 2018). The products of the company along with the areas where it operated are large and wide in numbers. The company has a large-scale global presence and its products range from food, beverages, cleansing products, soaps, shampoo, deodorants and many more as such. Some of the common brand names of the products of the company include the likes of the Lipton, Lux, Rexona, Dove, OMO and Sunsilk among the large number of different products. The products of the company are available in almost 200 countries of the globe. The company has annual revenue of more than pound 53 billion. The total assets of the company range to around pound 60 billion. Around 170,000 employees are employed in the following company.
The mission of the following organization is to enhance customer service by means of process redesigning. The company innovates the ways it manufactures the shoes every now and then which helps the organization to satisfy the demands of the customers and provide them with the ultimate comfort while using their manufactured products.
The company has aims to create the most widely accepted range of comfortable footwear and change the future of the shoe industry. The following vision statement also aims to make the company one of the most desirable shoe companies across the globe.
The management of the company has set out a corporate mission statement which helps to address the different issues in the market and also ensures the healthy growth of the organization. The mission statement of Unilever is “to add vitality to life”. The company promises to meet the needs and expectations of nutrition, hygiene and personal care brands of each and every person and it will help people look, feel and stay good.
The corporate vision of the company is “to make sustainable living commonplace”. The management of the company believes that the following policy is one of the best ways by which they can help their business grow in the long term. The following vision statement puts sustainability and helps the cause of the consumers.
Dansko came into being inspired by a small European clog store. It started with just $7500 investment and now the annual turnover of the company is well around $150 million. The company offers tremendous value to both the customers as well as the employees of the organization. The management instead of selling the company to some other large players of the same category in the market implemented a training program in the organization and sold the shares of the company to all the employees. This helped them to both gather the trade tricks as well as ensure their future sustainability in the market (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke 2015). The plan of the management is not to make away with wealth rather the plan is to change the total system design that helps only the rich persons to get more richer and vice versa. The policy followed by the company allows the employees to be more confident as well as financially independent. This helps the employees of Dansko to have a private stake in the economic system of the society as well as ensure their proper rights and responsibilities. The tremendous value that the company provides is well reflected by its selection and recognition as one of the fastest growing companies of the globe (Burns 2016).
Mission and Vision statement of the companies
According to, Dornelas Esteves and Carneiro (2016) the corporate purpose of the company clearly sets out the best and the highest standards of corporate behavior towards the consumers as well as the employees. It also aims to reach out the best values of their behavior towards the environment and the communities with which they are involved directly or indirectly. The management of the company always trains the employees to work with the highest form of integrity as because integrity determines the actual identity of the company and their actual task. The company also recognizes the highest standards of the corporate governance which helps it to formulate and implement the highest set of standard policies and regulations for the proper working of the organization. The management of the company has also ensured the maintenance of a proper relationship with all the concerned parties with whom the organization has a proper contact. This includes the likes of the agents, distributors, other business partners, suppliers and many more as such. The responsible sourcing policies and responsible business partner policy seeks to uphold the twelve fundamental principles that covers business integrity including different responsibilities that relates to the employees, their consumers and the environment. Thus the presence of such a high value has ensured the success of the organization globally.
The mentioned footwear company has currently retailers spread all over the United States and Canada. The production is sourced totally in Europe and Asia. The main factors that contribute to the selection of their production facilities are the availability of the raw materials and access to the raw materials. As mentioned earlier all the production is done in China and Italy. The proximity of both the following factors helps the organization to reduce their operational cost and increase their production which in turn ensures their profitability. Such an innovative strategy of outsourcing the production units outside USA has helped the company to gradually expand its base across new markets of Australia and New Zealand (Haug 2016). The expansion of the company has been possible because of the superior quality of products that are manufactured by the organization which can be deduced by the highest standards of comfort, support, durability strength and performance of the products of the organization. The company manufactures and innovates new shoes for the consumers and launches them each season. This helps the organization to stay updated in the market and attract interest from a large range of customers. However the most striking feature of the company is its strikingly low absence in its mother state USA. The company has thus decided to concentrate more on its development in USA and has adopted a dynamic growth strategy for both selling and setting up new clog manufacturing plant in USA.
Values of the organizations
Unilever Corporation has been in the forefront of the personal care products in the global market for quite a long time since now. The company has a direct or indirect existence in close to 200 countries of the globe. It has gifted the world a number of different successful brands that has the aim of thinking and acting globally (Bell et al. 2016). The products are designed in such a way that meets the necessary specifications of the countries where they are introduced. The management of the company always believes in a globalized strategy that is much more preferable and effective than that of the localized strategies. The company has been engaged in the constant process of developing the markets of the places where it has its operations. It also aims to focus and establish a good brand image for itself which will be helpful for the organization to easily popularize the brand of products under its belt. The company has also established the acquisition and merger formula to gain more success in the business as it helps the organization to erase different competitors from the market and establish a monopoly with their vast range of products. The more the mergers and acquisitions in the market the more is the increase in the profit levels of the company (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke 2015).
Risk is an integral and an unavoidable component for the business organizations. Risk cannot be avoided and kept apart by the management of the organization in any way. It must be given its due importance and strategies must be set accordingly to manage, control or tackle any form of risk. However risk can be;
- Transferred to another party
- Reduced by controlling it
- Avoided by not entering a risky business
- Shared among a number of parties
As mentioned earlier risk must be duly given its importance and it cannot be avoided. The following company manufactures high quality comfortable shoes and clogs. The company has set up a number of production plants in USA, Europe and Asia. The proper working of all these plants includes;
- Engineering, procurement
- Manufacturing
- EVA Footwear
- PU Sole Footwear
- Adhesives
- Leather
The strategic risks of the organization includes different threats like budgeting, theft, Dishonest dealings, Public reputation, exploitation of workers, environmental mismanagement, occupational threats, threats from foreign policies, legal threats, failure to address different economic factors, political factors, mismanaged IT department and many more as such. The company has thus a dedicated management team which analyzes the condition of the market and recommends the actions that need to be taken for the organization to avoid any kind of risk that may occur out of professional commitments.
The business model of Unilever has helped it to become the largest supplier of consumer related products in the world. The business model of the organization is mapped according to the choice and likes of all the related parties that are involved in the business. This includes the suppliers. Consumers, distributors, retailers, research and development wing, production wing and many more such similar parties (Bell et al. 2016). Risks are exposed at every level for Unilever as market uncertainties can totally lead to the fall of the company. The modern marketing is highly uncertain as because the rise and down of the global as well as the local economy is one of the major concerns for the organization. The fall in the purchasing power of the people will lead to a loss for the company (Haimes 2015). The company is also exposed to extreme financial uncertainty as because being a MNC with operations in more than 190 countries the company may suffer from fear of currency fluctuation which can throw their plans out of gear. The management of the company also has some other stresses in the form of serious environmental damage caused by the large number of factories located in different areas around the globe (Spigel 2017). Thus this following risk surely makes the organization problematic for survival in the long run.
Business Networking is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with the other people involved in the business, the employees of the business, clients of the business, agents and suppliers of the business and many other similar people directly or indirectly related to the business. Business Networking has a number of different benefits. This includes;
- New contacts
- Proper visibility
- Staying updated
- Solving problem
- Sharing the proper knowledge and experience
The management of Dansko footwear has formulated and implemented a limited but compact networking system within the business that has helped it to control their business in a proper way. The company has adapted itself to the latest technological changes that include the implementation of the modern apps and internet usage to carry on communication (Agati 2017). The establishment of the dedicated IT department of the industry has helped to ease the pressure of the company as it has helped the managers and supervisors to concentrate more on production and management of the company. The IT team of the company has created a number of different software for the ease of communication among the local and international employees. The software is designed in such a way that it manages all the different financial and other aspects of the company. The communication is thus done in the best possible way to facilitate smooth operations (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The management has also recently introduced an online platform for the sale of their products. The IT team has formulated a new site where the customers can buy the products of the company easily without the need for visiting the stores of the organization.
Strong competition in the market, improved research and development practices by the management of the organization was the main cause behind the evolution of new strategic policies for the organization. At Unilever the main focus is on knowledge and innovations. This is because knowledge management has been present in the country since a long span of 10 years. Such a presence has ensured the achievement of a number of measureable results. The company appointed Accenture as its IT expert to set up a proper networking channel across the length and breadth of its operations (Wang et al. 2014). The company built up and implemented a new age digital social platform for Unilever within just 3 months from the commencement of the work. The networking infrastructure is built over the sales force platform and charges certain leverage. The following chatter is like a social networking site for the different business enterprises and it helps the management to share knowledge and also share the best practices with the branches of the organization and other companies. The new age networking system enables the company to;
- Provide a platform to support the collaboration between the central and local teams of Unilever market and the agencies of their market.
- Help to enable each of the different local Unilever teams to create and organize a centralized hub to showcase the brand of the organization.
Conclusion
The following report is brief but compact information regarding the comparing and contrasting features of a small and a large organization. There is a striking difference in almost every single feature of both the organizations which have been discussed in this following report. The difference in the sheer size of the two organizations minimizes the capability of Dansko to make large headways into the international market or innovate new forms of networking solutions. For example the management of Dansko will depend more on local companies to get a proper networking system in place and will never ever think of a heavy investment in networking like that of Unilever. There is also a striking difference in the mission and vision of the organization. The footwear company is dedicate to produce shoes with quality while Unilever has its focus fixed on quantity as it has aims to maximize the productions to retain its top spot in the market for consumer related products. A thorough analysis of the following study will thus help the readers to familiarize them with the different types of strategies, policies and communication procedures of two different companies both in structure and in the types of products they produce.
References
“Dansko Web Site.” Dansko Footwear. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Apr. 2018.
“Unilever Global Company Website | Unilever Global.” Unilever global company website. N.p., 2018. Web. 14 Apr. 2018.
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