AQA BUSS 4 - Corporate Culture Discussion

Would you say that Tesco has a strong or weak culture? How would you describe their culture and why.

1. EVERY COMPANY YOU CAN THINK OF
2. M&S, Primark (do some)
3. Tesco (Fresh&Easy), Nokia (Symbian)
4. Amazon/Zappos, Nokia/Microsoft
5. Ikea, Primark
6. :confused:

For a bad example of contingency planning there's the bp oil spill and the opening of terminal 5

Reply 782

Hunty27

1

Original post by amieeallen

How is ikea achieving globalisation?

expanding in emerging markets such as India

Reply 783

Proflash

9

can someone tell me if im going in the right direction with this question

Is the organisational culture the most important cause of business failure?

For why it is:

Ignorance:

ect Nokia -

Toxic culture:

RBS - engaging in reckless takeovers
Barclays - PPI/tax avoidance/

Why is isnt:

External factors:

Laws/Political - There was a 45% tariff set on steel industry in 2002 which caused more than 30 steel makers to file bankruptcy

New leadership: Lehman brothers were a success (good history) until Richard Flud CEO was employed

Reply 784

Bodna95

Do the business examples have to be well known ones or can they be small local businesses that you may know of?

Reply 785

andyjack94

Original post by Proflash

can someone tell me if im going in the right direction with this question

Is the organisational culture the most important cause of business failure?

For why it is:

Ignorance:

ect Nokia -

Toxic culture:

RBS - engaging in reckless takeovers
Barclays - PPI/tax avoidance/

Why is isnt:

External factors:

Laws/Political - There was a 45% tariff set on steel industry in 2002 which caused more than 30 steel makers to file bankruptcy

New leadership: Lehman brothers were a success (good history) until Richard Flud CEO was employed

that sounds really good! One point instead of 'ignorance' i would use complacency

Reply 786

rubix1

1

I dont seem to get enough time in this exam :/ Im going for one point for and one point against, and for whichever point im more comfortable with maybe use 2 companies in that argument. I did that for practice essays and got 30+/40

Anyone thinking the same as me?

Reply 787

rubix1

1

Original post by sofiax0

i havent read this but this failed http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/daimlerbenz-chrysler-merger.html

also sony and ericsson merger failed - their phones werent innovative enough and couldnt compete with apple and samsung. this is because they spent too long discussing to make sure that the products met both values and intentions of the companies, and not enough time getting the product out there. so here their democratic culture failed them, it allowed competitors to get ahead. ultimately, the risk was meeting both values of the company as a result of the merger. consquently, sony's now just doing phones by itself such as the new xperia Z, to help re-establish its place in the market :smile:

What would be your chain of arguments for this then?
Also, what were their differing interests?

Reply 788

Proflash

9

Original post by Bodna95

Do the business examples have to be well known ones or can they be small local businesses that you may know of?

same here

A point of "link exchange" i think they are small but they had a strong culture during the start up they had 10 employees and all of them regularly stayed up all night working and some of them slept under desks.

It seems like a good business to contrast with larger ones (NHS) who lose their sense of culture due to the high level of staff (over 1 million)

I have a worry the examiner would think that im lying :/

Reply 789

Bodna95

I am aiming to get C or B overall. Currently I'm on 216ums so I need 24 ums marks for a C and 64 ums for a B. So am I right in thinking I need to get a E to get C overall and a C to get B overall?

Reply 790

air6199

1

can someone write a plan for how you would answer either of these questions please:

1. With reference to your own research and the item above, to what extent do you think that a strong organisational culture is the most important factor in developing a successful business strategy? (40 marks)

2. With reference to your own research and the item above, to what extent do you think that cultural differences within an organisation necessitate a change of organisational culture?
(40 marks)

Reply 791

Infamous12

1

Do Tesco have a cost-saving culture in terms of achieving cost leadership in the market? If i was to use handys culture guide, they are more of a role culture, right?

Reply 792

rubix1

1

Original post by air6199

can someone write a plan for how you would answer either of these questions please:

1. With reference to your own research and the item above, to what extent do you think that a strong organisational culture is the most important factor in developing a successful business strategy? (40 marks)

2. With reference to your own research and the item above, to what extent do you think that cultural differences within an organisation necessitate a change of organisational culture?
(40 marks)

1. + Apple innovative culture
- Primark. Poor culture, still do well.

2. HATE THIS QUESTION

Reply 793

Hunty27

1

Original post by Proflash

same here

A point of "link exchange" i think they are small but they had a strong culture during the start up they had 10 employees and all of them regularly stayed up all night working and some of them slept under desks.

It seems like a good business to contrast with larger ones (NHS) who lose their sense of culture due to the high level of staff (over 1 million)

I have a worry the examiner would think that im lying :/

Hey, link exchange is a great example to use, the founder was Zappos's CEO Tony Hsieh, the reason why he sold link exchage to microsoft was because the culture was becoming weak due to expansion. That is why in Zappos culture is one of his main priorities. Its ironic, you can use link exchange to link an exchange with zappos haha! :smile:

Reply 794

l1nz1smith

Hi everyone i'm trying to work out what kind of culture HP has i'm sure it will be here somewhere but 40 pages is a lot to go through with not a lot of time!!! HP have branded their culture as 'The HP way' they have 7 objectives on their website of what they are working towards. Customer service, profits, market leadership, growth, employee commitment, leadership and global citizenship. They have been voted most ethical company two years in a row and won most respected company in china 9 times so it seems they have achieved their global citizenship objective for CSR. But Hp has been critised for it's change in leadership and with this has created a dysfunctional culture and its customer centric culture has been lost due to this. It has also been reported that its acquisitions have caused culture clashes like the acquisition of Automony who originally accepted the merger because the two companies shared the same beliefs but now Hp have had to write off 8.8 billion in the over value of Automony and since have found fraud in their financial documents. They were also late to join the smart phone market and again acquired companies to penetrate the market but in 2011 it announced its strategic exit from this market to focus on system software. By 2012 they had posted a 31% profit decline due to the growing popularity of smart phones.

Reply 795

rubix1

1

Yo. Hows everyone revising for this last minute?

Reply 796

_hj

Original post by rubix1

Yo. Hows everyone revising for this last minute?

I'm just trying to focus on going over my research examples, and to be honest do a bit more because my business revision has definitely been neglected because I focused on other subjects - which I'm regretting now!

Probably will go on the tutor2u website and do some practice essays as well.
If you don't already then its worth following Jim Riley Tutor2u on twitter, he's posting some helpful stuff and if you ask him questions he tends to answer :smile:

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