The Collins Foods Group' s Main Business - Case Study Example

Unit: Semester: Collins Food Group Pty Limited Company analysis and evaluation is the process that is normally undertaken to check the current position of the company as an effort to measure whether it is achieving its set goals and whether it is working towards the achievement of its vision. This process helps in coming up with appropriate recommendations that will move the company to the right direction. A company lays down various strategies. The elements imperative for a strategy to be successful are referred to as critical success factors (CSFs). The measures that quantify goals and facilitate strategic performance measurement are referred to as Key performance indicators (KPI's). The Collins Foods Group is a private company based in Australia with a joint ownership by private investors and management together with employees forming 52% and 48% of ownership respectively. The company's main business includes retail outlets for food service i.e. KFC in Queensland and sizzler in Australia. Collins Food group in Queensland operates from Brisbane where it operates one hundred and fourteen retail outlets and twenty six Sizzler restaurants in within Australia. The earliest KFC restaurant in Australia was established in 1968 and opened in 1969, while the earliest Sizzler was established in 1984 and opened in 1985. KFC has been growing since its establishment and this can be seen in terms of the increased number of retail outlets, more employee, increased profits etc. The company seeks to attain a continuous development in each and every area of its operation as its mission statement describes it "Establish Collins Foods Group as leading restaurant holding company, which operates premier brands where people love to eat and are proud to work." KFC also seeks to better the community in which it operates through its commitment to participate in activities that enhance the community. KFC has a principle that "if you take care of your people they will take care of your customers. If you take care of your customers they will take care of your business" Figure 1: Collins Food Group Pty Limited SWOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Strong capital base Internal controls for some of our outlets are wanting The state is focusing on subsidizing hotel industry to boost tourism The world economic crisis that has catalyzed inflation and have seen financial industries raised lending rates Strong brand The company is understaffed Internet marketing will help us to reach out the whole global market and hence expanded market Technological advancement may introduce new challenges that may affect the normal business processes. Competent top management and subordinate personnel The regular personnel review might not be very reliable There are many upcoming training and management consultant firms from which the company can outsource this services Big competitors may shift focus and wipe out part of our market position Wide distribution channels A significant percentage of employee turnover Hotel industry expanding providing opportunities to penetrate new markets The upcoming retail food service providers are poaching experienced employees from our company Efficient quality control procedures In case the financial crisis continues to bite people will continue to cut down on their spending habits Efficient staff appraisal system Track record in excellent customer care devoid of top management approval Competitors in the industry might be reluctant to implement new technology Figure 2: Balanced scorecard: Critical Success Factors (CSFs) Analysis Critical success Factor Categories Critical success factors (CSTs) Measurement of the CSFs Understanding of market Sensitivity to volatile market needs Number of active customers Understanding our competitors and their decision making Attainment of a competitive edge above our competitors Innovative response to the needs of the customers Number of new customers Consumer loyalty Total revenues Product-line coverage Total revenue Strong awareness and brand image Customer churn Marketing variables Prominence, delivery speed and wide distribution coverage Market growth Customer service plus feedback Number of active customers Superb product quality Customer churn Promotion scale and impact Number of new customers and increase in revenue Decision making Quality of marketing research Success of new strategies to in new markets Human resource development Review carried out on employees should be 45% Managerial experience and ability Revenue totals Training and education Orientation of newly recruited staff members The rate of accepting job offers Refresher courses for all staff members Review of employees rate Employees appraisal Review of employees rate The Critical Success Factors Employees are the most important assets in any business setting or organization. To ensure that a business is kept pushing forward, performing regular evaluations on its greatest assets i.e. its employees is imperative. This is arguably more important when the business organization has quite a big number of employees say more than ten, a number which a supervisor/manager cannot supervise simultaneously and therefore, he/she might never be fully aware of the tasks which they are undertaking (Johnson & Michael, 1995. In such circumstances, though quite a big number of employers dislike the time and work involved, an appropriate appraisal system needs to be introduced so as to determine the value and performance of all employees in the business organization (Johnson & Michael, 1995). By doing proper employee appraisal, the benefits will trickle down in two way i.e. to the business and to the employees themselves. In the analysis below, we seek to evaluate the suitability, reliability, efficiency of the employee performance appraisal method applied by KFC in its business setting, and also to give recommendations on how this system can be made better. The fundamental objective of quality control is to see to it that processes, services and products which are being provided do meet particular requirements, are fiscally sound, and are satisfactory and dependable. Quality control entails examining a process, process or a product for specific minimum quality levels and it aims at identifying services or products which fall short of the companies set standards of quality. Once a problem is identified, appropriate causes of action are initiated to correct it. In the analysis below, we are going to evaluate the quality control procedures that Collins food company have put in place, their reliability, applicability, suitability and efficiency, and eventually raise recommendations on the identified points of weaknesses in the quality control program. Innovative response to the needs of the customers, Sensitivity to volatile market needs and offering a wide range of products helps the business to maintain relevance and ensure continued profitability. Failure to focus on these factors will see the business undergo a slow death. Skilled employees add value in business and offer excellent customer service, the much needed flexibility in business and prompt action that saves business from imminent losses. Proper understanding of market variables helps the business to adopt new strategies which ensures continued business growth and profitability. An Evaluation of the KFC's Critical Success Factors For this organization the performance in terms of number of customers retained, the organization has taken an initiative of understanding the market. For this the organization has set a research department to study the market needs, thus the firm is aware of the needs of their customers and the new needs emerging due to the change in technology, environment and culture. Therefore, the firm top management has planned and come up with new products lines to meet all needs in order to retain and get new customers (A.S. Wilson, Personal Communication, July 18, 2009) Thus at the end the farm measures on its understanding of its market has been achieved since there are new customers and managed to retain the existing customers (Parmenter, 2007). The organization has planned its resources in way that service delivery is efficient and it's able to cover all their customers. For this case KFC Limited has organized its staff in that there is segregation of duties to reduce conflicts in place of work and to ensure competence and saving of time in service delivery helping to cover wide distribution coverage. Therefore, service delivery is prompt to ensure quality customer care service, thus there is good feedback from customers. The firm KFC has invested some enough resources in promoting its products to create awareness to new customer, undecided customers to persuade them and existing customers on other new brands (I.A. Duncan, Personal Communication, July 18, 2009). This factors put together cannot be complete unless product quality is improved, the company has improved on the quality of food made in the restaurant by improving the taste, quantity,cleanliness,customercare and delivery service of food to companies which has contracted KFC Limited. Investing in all this the company has attracted new customers, retained the existing, shifting customers decide to be served by us and finally increases in revenue sales (Parmenter, 2007). The firm has gone ahead to make a decision to invest in employees' development by introducing in job training, leave studies and holding conferences to equip them with knowledge and skills. This has changed the company reputation, performance and it has gained competitive advantage over our competitors. The staff is competent and the managerial level we opted to higher experienced managers rather than training them. This has boosted our sales due to good management and quality decisions made by top management. Therefore in every 6 months employees are evaluated to check their performance to see that they adhere to what they learn in job training. 45% of the employees have achieved their good levels of performance. All this has increased our sales revenue and many customers have continued to flow to our business (A.H. Williamson, Personal Communication, July 18, 2009). The human resources department has been reorganized in way that recruitment process is strict and some rules and procedures must be followed. This ensures that only competent employees are taken to raise the standard of services given and reduce time wasting in training them during orientation period. The job offered is easily accepted by many shows the reputation of the company has improved. Refresher courses are carried out after every one year to take care of the old and new employees to ensure the firms' performance is maintained or improved. This follows their performance appraisal after every 6 months and they are rewarded. By this rewards it helps reduce employee's turnover and cost of employee's development. By reducing these costs the company revenue increases and competent services offered to our customers thus expanding our customer coverage. References Armstrong, J. S. (1982). The Value of Formal Planning for Strategic Decisions. Strategic Management Journal Vol. 3: 197-211 Collins Food Group Pty Limited Website From http://www.collinsfg.com.au/ Hill, T. & R. Westbrook (1997). SWOT Analysis: It's Time for a Product Recall: Long Range Planning 30 (1): 46-52. Johnson, J. A. & Michael F. (1995). The Success Paradigm: Creating Organizational Effectiveness through Quality and Strategy New York: Quorum Books Parmenter, D. (2007). Key Performance Indicators. New York: John Wiley & Sons Parmenter, D. (2007). Performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs. New York: John Wiley & Sons RAPIDBI. (2009, May) Key Performance indicators KPI's. Retrieved May 12, 2009 From http://rapidbi.com/created/KeyPerformanceIndicatorsKPIs.html Read More