AQA BUSS 4 - Corporate Culture Discussion

Any examples for retrenchment? Other than Tesco (Fresh&Easy in US)

THANKS

How does Zappos and Ikea actually have a comparative advantage in terms of culture. I know Zappos has 10 core values ect how does it actually create a comparative advantage

From what I can see, the businesses you've got are fine for section A, it's obviously just how you apply the cultural aspects of these businesses and the effect that has for section A. Apple for example, have incorporated a design culture throughout the company all because of Steve Jobs. This CEO believed that design is absolutely everything and this is heavily reflected from his involvement with the designing of the products apple produced. The design team is small and very secretive - not even the designers know about the final product and therefore every employee is allocated to a specific role in the company and they do their part and nothing else.

That's just a brief example of Apple and you could then bring an argument in about another business operating in a completely different fashion to them. You could talk about Barclay's for example and their previous culture of focusing on short-term profits and not focusing on customers - (Apple do heavily focus on their customers and strive to deliver 100% perfection with the products and service they provide within the company.

Just a couple of paragraphs comparing the core values and practises of the two businesses. Hope that helps

Apple - innovative culture and culture of secrecy
Barclays - Short termist culture and bonus culture
Google - person culture
John Lewis - Family culture, culture of 'togetherness' that comes with the partnership scheme
Haven't done the other ones, I plan to this evening though.

Its competitive advantage is the fact that it has such good customer service, for example the help line is completely free and employees are encouraged to stay on the phone for as long as it takes for the customer to be satisfied. Also, Zappos originally worked with another business that would deliver the shoes to the customers, however due to reports of late/wrong deliveries, Tony Hsieh (the leader) decided that they themselves would deliver the shoes to prevent issues. All of this lead to the business achieving their objectives of being on the Forbes list of best companies to work for and also in 2008 hit its goal of $1 billion in gross sales. Hope this helps!

How does Zappos and Ikea actually have a comparative advantage in terms of culture. I know Zappos has 10 core values ect how does it actually create a comparative advantage

Maybe you'd look at other sources of competitive advantage. e.g. Selling products/services with a USP.

why are royal mail changing their orgnaisational culture?

Zappos comparative advantage lies in its competitive advantage of its culture. their core values are sharedby all employees in the business, and this allows them to be efficent because they're all working with the same core values and goals in mind, which in turn allows them to be more productive and also makes teamwork easier. With Tony Hsieh, he siad that once you have the culture right, everything will fall into place, so great customer service etc will happen naturally - and this is exactly the case in Zappos. By having a culture where eveyones valued and trusted, this is then reflected onto its customer service, they value their customers and as a result the customers are loyal so its increased profits and happy days for zappos.

with ikea, their comparative advantage also lies in their competitive advantage of their culture, whereby again all employees are valued, and this makes them want to be efficent and do well, so they create good products, which are often quite innovative, which attracts customers continually so again, higher profits, happy shareholders. sorry i dont really know that much about ikea so.

basically, a strong positive culture is always a competivie advantage because its intangible. although tangible things, like machines can be a competitive advantage, these can be bought by competitors, undermining the previous businesses competitive advantage. culture takes ages to create and therefore it can't be copied by its competitors easily, which is great for companies with a strong culture and that often leads them to do better than many of their competitors.

why are royal mail changing their orgnaisational culture?

Any notes on Amazon people?