QUESTION

 

 

 

ANSWER

 

GBD BUSINESS CONFERENCE REFLECTIVE ASSIGNMENT

Executive summary

This report reflects on the overall understanding of the conference. As a keynote speaker Mr. Andrew Stephenson, head of HR department at Lucas Company has highlighted the advantage of systematic coordination among the different areas of management and their methods. He also mentioned the ways to integrate digital disruption in the system to focus on the customer service. He is the group people director at Lookers PLC and responsible for maintaining HR and IT department of the organisation. Along with Andrew there were other speakers such as Salman Hamid from GMP Drivecare and Tony Evans from SAP UKI who spoke about effect digital transformation on the business. I have acknowledged that I can excel in my career by applying theories such as marketing mix, Adam’s equity theory, and arbitrage theory in the organisation. I have also included my understanding of different methods by linking with the speaker’s opinion in my report.

Introduction

In the annual global business directions conference, the main focus of discussion was on effect of digital transformation on the business. The topic also shades light on the influence of methods on various areas of management function such as operations management, Marketing and strategy, Supply chain management, Recruitment and HRM. The keynote speaker of the evening was Andrew Stephenson who is the group people director at Lucas PLC. He spoke about focusing on customer centric. Salman Hamid’s topic of discussion was technological aspects of today’s business. From the conference what I have understood that all the speakers have used some methods and theories to sustain in the market with the digital change. In this assignment I am going to reflect on what I have learnt from the conference which is adapting new methods and techniques to cope up with the digital technology.

Finding and Analysis

Evaluating approaches to business development

The retail industry is providing better customer experience by integrating new technology in the system (Oinas, 2017, p.12). The speaker has given an example of Amazon Go where digital technology has changed the shopping experience of the customer completely by not involving any employees in the store. However, he believes that integrating human touch in the stores is also much needed to connect with the customers. The speaker Salman Hamid has given example of how digital marketing has helped his organisation to grow.

One important lesson that I have learnt from the speech is that a company can increase its profitability if the people working there are rightly motivated. He mentioned working in a store of Dixon where employees were not given any purpose due to which it was running in loss. As a store manager his first priority was to educate the employees about the mission and vision of the company and to identify the motivating factors of the people so that he can drive them to work.

Application of theories to different business scenarios

Marketing department

The role of marketing department of any company is to put the right product in the right place. My understanding from the speech regarding marketing department is that the strategies should always focus on the providing better customer service. The marketing strategy of much business has changed because of digital transformation. The use of 4 Ps of marketing mix in the organisation will help the organisation to become more customers centric in today’s dynamic business. This model is used by Lookers (Stephenson 2019) to know about the right product for the customer. Moreover Hamid (2019) stated that digital marketing as a tool for promotion has helped him to success in many projects

Product

All products go through a product life cycle process in order to provide an overall understanding to the marketer to tackle the challenges relating to the product. This product should possess all the unique features that the company wants to offer so that buyers get attracted.

Price

Price is the value that the customers will pay in exchange of the goods. Price of the product should match the perceived value of the customers otherwise it will not sell (Wu, 2018, p.80). Pricing of the product should be in such a way that it does not oversell or undersell.

Place

Place denotes the placement of the product in the market. The strategy behind placement of the product is directly linked with the distribution channel. Place will decide where the product will be available for the customer.

Promotion

After placing the product in the market the last step required to complete the marketing mix is promoting the product or service. Promotions of the product include advertising, sales, word of mouth publicity, personal selling and many more. In today’s business social media has become one of the key platform for promoting the products or services (Evans 2019).

Strategy

BCG Matrix

I have acknowledged that BCG matrix can be used as a strategy to evaluate the performance of the product or service of the company. In this theory, there are two dimensions used to assess the product or service. The first dimension shows the product’s growth within its market and the second dimension shows its market share compared to other competitors in the industry. There are four distinct groups made for the product which are stars, problem child, cash cow, and dog. Hamilton (2018, p.42) mentioned that all of these factors contribute in making the business more profitable and also makes the company to focus on the customers need and preferences.

Human Resource department

Human resource management is typically described as the management and development of human resource of the company. In the conference Andrew Stephenson described that for any organization’s growth the employees plays an important part. They are the one who works rigorously to attain the objective of the business. I have also got an understanding that by continuously motivating employees will enhance the growth of the business. One of the theories that I believe can help me motivating my people is Adam’s Equity Theory.

Adam’s Equity Theory

This theory is established on the context that employees become de-motivated toward their job and employer if they start to feel the inputs given by them are greater than the outputs. As per the opinion of Collings et al. (2018, p.215) this theory can be applied by considering the inputs given and outputs expected through employees. The input factors include effort, loyalty, hard work, commitment, determination, skill personal sacrifice and many more. The outputs expected includes financial rewards such as salary, benefits, perks and non financial rewards such as recognition, sense of achievement, job security, stimulus, and sense of growth. From this theory my learning outcome is that assessing employee’s perception toward the work and employer can improve the employee’s performance. In the future I can implement this theory in the organisation to motivate the employees for achieving the organisational goals. (Refer to appendix)

Finance department

The concept of financial management involves the study of assets, managing and controlling cost, and efficient way of managing the cash flow of the company. The speaker (Evans 2019) of the conference has highlighted the importance of integrating theories of financial management in the organisation. From the speakers point of view I have acknowledged that asset pricing can determine the proper pricing of the shares. The theory related to asset pricing is Arbitrage Price theory which is being discussed briefly in the following

Arbitrage Price theory

The APT model states that various factors like market indices and macroeconomic factor can determine the expected return from financial assets. It is being assumed that these factors are exposed to sensitive changes (Burzoni et al. 2016, p.35). This theory will help me to identify arbitrage opportunity in order to determine the price of shares for my organisation.

Synthesis of concepts to direct and communicate in business

STP (Segmentation, targeting and positioning)

STP is one of the familiar strategies used by the organisation in modern marketing. Lynn (2011, p.42) stated that it enables the marketers to understand the market segmentation, target customer, and positioning of the product or service. This conference has provided me with detail insights of this strategy.

Segmentation

Market segmentation helps the company to divide the customers into some groups of people who has common needs and characteristics. According to Parsons (2017, p.43) it allows approaching the customer differently which can be cost effective. The speaker has given the example of how DFS furniture has segmented their market by differentiating customer needs to penetrate their product into the target market which has given me insights on market strategy.

Targeting

According to the market segmentation the company should analyse the potential of each segment and act upon it. It can be done by understanding the each group’s need and desire. The company can prioritize the segments on the basis of profit maximization.

Positioning

The last step of this process involves positioning the product to target customer. The motive of this step should be to offer something better than the competitors.

Recommendation

By attending the conference I have acknowledged that each fields of management has a direct impact on the business environment. The people working in different areas of management such as marketing department, strategy, finance and human resource management works cohesively to meet up with the organization’s objective. As per my opinion it can be recommended that organisation should adapt new methods and theories to get along with digital disruption. Every employees, be it in low level management or mid level management, must have clear purpose of their individual work. It can be done by communicating mission, strategy, and vision of the company. The work culture should include two way communications for the betterment of the employees. This can be done by collecting data from the employees. These entire necessary steps can help the company to have customer centric approach in order to possess excellence in the market.

Conclusion

The speakers of this conference have given me lot of insights on the internal and external factors of the business. The profitability of the business depends on the systematic coordination among the different fields of management. Integrating new digital techniques such as digital marketing, enterprise resource planning can help the organisation to cope up with the digital disruption. Evans spoke about digital transformation in the car rental facility by giving the example of Uber. The methods used by each different such as 4 Ps of marketing, market segmentation, BCG Matrix, Adam’s equity theory enhances the efficiency of the organisation as a whole. Hence it can be concluded that in the future by implementing such kind of methods and strategies in my organisation will help to excel in my career.

REFFERENCE

Burzoni, M., Frittelli, M., Hou, Z., Maggis, M. and Obłój, J., (2016). Pointwise arbitrage pricing theory in discrete time. arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.07618.

Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., (2018). Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.

Hamilton, L. and Webster, P., (2018). The international business environment. London: Oxford University Press.

Lynn, M., (2011). Segmenting and targeting your market: Strategies and limitations.

Oinas, P., (2017). Proximity, external relations, and local economic development. In Proximity, Distance and Diversity(pp. 11-30). Routledge.

Parsons, E., Maclaran, P. and Chatzidakis, A., (2017). Contemporary issues in marketing and consumer behaviour. Abindgon: Routledge.

Sulaiman, J. and Syahrivar, J., (2018). The Influence of Marketing Mix 4A and Ethical Consciousness Towards Ethical Consumption.

Wu, Y.L. and Li, E.Y., (2018). Marketing mix, customer value, and customer loyalty in social commerce: A stimulus-organism-response perspective. Internet Research, 28(1), pp.74-104.

Appendix

Adam’s equity theory

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