An Analysis of Culture of Cadbury Company - Essay Example

1.0: Culture of Cadbury From the case study it is clear that the culture of the company under scrutiny, Cadbury is predominantly traditional in nature with the insistence upon the adherence to the established methods to increase profits. This is evident from the arguments against the Engineering direct Chris English from the manufacturing, marketing and strategic angles. Analysing the case study in the light of the three layers of the organizational culture as proposed by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes (2003)i, we infer the following for Cadbury - the company under consideration. Values: The values of the organization being the central element of the core strategy of an organization makes it clear that the company should embrace its strategic measures around its core values. In case of organizations with traditional culture valuing the existing process of production and business to increase their profits, the core values of the organization do not change or deviate greatly as argued by Richard Lynch (2003)ii. Form the case study it is clear that the most of the directors of Cadbury are insisting upon the existing production methodology to increase revenue rather than investing upon the new technology conching proposed by Chris English. This also makes it clear that the traditional stance of the organization values is not only due to the fact that the company has the richness of the family business but also because of the fact that the organization is not used to big changes in the then business period when the competition was intensifying with the company as the market leader. Alongside, the case study also reveals the traditional nature of the organization's culture in the arguments of the marketing director who argues that the company's Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) flavour is the critical element for the effectiveness in the business. As the new conch machine did not improve the CDM taste with a drastic difference and the fact that the CDM is the major marketing brand for the organization makes it clear that the innovative measure proposed by the engineering director was disapproved under traditional grounds. Beliefs: Beliefs as argued by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes 92003) is the major element that drives the organization in the competitive environment of the business. In case of the traditional organizational culture the aforementioned beliefs are focused upon preserving the existing technology and nurture it to gain market share rather than revolutionising the process. From the case study on Cadbury the resistance of the organization to deploy the innovative conching machine to increase productivity through sacrificing time and investment makes it clear that the organizational culture of the company is traditional in nature. The effectiveness of the company in the market with the traditional organizational culture is mainly through the ability of the organization to retain its core business process with time and its ability to use the same technology to address the growing competition in the market. This is evident in the case of Cadbury justifying that the culture of the organization is traditional in nature. Taken For Granted Assumptions: This is argued by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes (2003) as the core of an organization's culture. The lesser an organization demonstrates this in its core strategy, the more traditional it is in nature as a traditional organization culture refrains from taking things for granted. This is evident from the case stud on Cadbury where the organization is not indulgent in deciding upon the vote for the investment on the new machinery wither the new technology or otherwise. From the aforementioned it is clear that the culture of the company is traditional in nature with emphasis on the company values and core principles of the organization. From the innovation perspective, the organization's core culture on retaining its values and principles as opposed to voting for innovative method of production, which has many advantages, justifies the aforementioned statement. In terms of analysing the organizational culture as a model, the organizational culture model followed by the company can be compared to that of Denison Organizational culture model by Carl F. Fey and Daniel R. Denison (2000)iii. The model incorporates the core strategic values of the organization along with the incorporation of the technology and methods to increase its productivity. The schematic representation of the Denison Model for organizational culture is presented below in fig1. Fig 1: Denison Organizational Culture Model. Since the company's chairman did not actually dismiss the proposal of the engineering director for the innovative method of conching machine whilst the detailed arguments on the use of the existing technology was also considered, it is clear that the organization is actually clear in understanding where its existing position is in the market and its forecast to the future which are evident from the details presented in the case study. In the light of the aforementioned arguments, the cultural issues within the organization for implementing the change on the innovative technology of conching in the company is mainly the ritualistic nature of the business process as evident from the pictorial representation and arguments from the manufacturing director David Mannuel. Although there is no lack in the mutual respect extended by the employees in the organization, the fact that majority of the top level management is stringent upon the development justifies the categorisation of the issues under this category. The irrational vs. the rational approach in the business process, which is extensively debated as part of the organizational culture justifies the aforementioned argument. 2.0: Architectural Innovation The term architectural innovation pertains to the strategic developments in the use of core technologies in an organization's production process to increase its productivity in the markets. In the light of the aforementioned an insight into the Cadbury case reveals that the company was at the verge of deciding upon the architectural innovation during the 1990s, which marked the developments in the organization and its current position in the confectionery market. Architectural innovation therefore presents established organizations with subtle challenges that may have significant competitive implications as argued by Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark (1990)iv. Analysing the Cadbury case in the light of the aforementioned arguments it is clear that the architectural innovation in the organization pertains to the proposal of Chris English in implementing the new technology in conching of the chocolates, which forms part of the secondary production process in the chocolate factory. Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark (1990) further argue that the architectural innovation can destroy the usefulness of the architectural knowledge of the organization (i.e.) the knowledge possessed by the organization in the actual production process involved behind the technology which is detrimental to the core strategy of the organization itself. Alongside, it is also interesting to note that the efficiency of the organization in the production is the ability of the organization to effectively manage the changes in the production process without changing the product composition itself. The architectural innovation which actually strives to change the architecture behind the production process without altering the composition of the end-product in a production environment, although seemingly does the aforementioned, actually alters the state of the production system in the organization as argued by Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark (1990). This makes it clear that the architectural innovation in the organization is one of the greatest dangers faced by the organization although the authors Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark (1990) speak for the strategy in cases where the production process re-engineering will lead to drastic changes in the business process itself. The architectural innovation can be addressed with two different perspectives as follows The first scenario is where the innovation marks the beginning of the new era in the production process. This is the case where the change implemented not only proves good for the production process through reducing costs and increasing the return on investment but also helps the organization to achieve its goals. This category of architectural innovation although preferred as the ideal method by many organizations is not always the case as the architectural innovation by definition itself does not change the end product but only changes the method of production. This makes it clear that the innovation in the method of production can leverage competitive advantage to the organization only in cases where the innovation is a giant leap from the use of a rather archaic production system in the organization. The second and the most common scenario is where the architectural innovation is mainly an upgrade the existing technology being deployed by the organization as part of an expansion or development plans by the organization. This is the case where the new technology for conching in the Cadbury case study fall under which makes it clear that the architectural innovation in this case need not necessarily give the desired changes. The arguments of Rebecca M. Henderson and Kim B. Clark (1990) in the aforementioned that the architectural innovation in organizations that are deploying high level of technology will face the danger of loosing its architectural knowledge making it clear that the architectural innovation is not a viable option for the company under scrutiny. 3.0: Platform Launch The analysis of the new technology in the conching in the Cadbury case study is presented below. The 'platform launch' strategy is predominantly implied to those specific organizational changes that actually mark the strategic change both structural and process based as argued by Gerry Johnson and Kevan Scholes (2003). This term is used in cases where an organization strives to achieve operational excellence through innovation not only internally but also in delivering efficiency externally. This makes it clear that the platform launch in an organization will not only mark the commencement of a new production method but also the changes in the entire production process itself. In the light of the aforementioned argument, an insight into the production set up of the organization under debate reveals that the company is more inclined towards the deployment of the new technology or the architectural innovation to increase the efficiency in the production of the same product (i.e.) the CDM. This makes it clear that the innovation is predominantly the architectural change in the production process and not an innovation in the end product itself. This makes it clear that the architectural change in the organization need not necessarily implement the platform launch in the organization or the business sector for that matter of debate. From the aforementioned it is also clear that the platform launch strategy is also a direct implication to the market itself where the launch of such a product will not only increase the profits for the organization but also increase the market share held by the organization significantly through setting a trend or a brand identity in the target market. This makes it clear that the launch of CDM in the early years of the organization is a platform launch for the confectionery industry whilst the introduction of innovation in the production process is not attributable for the same. In the light of the strategic grid analysis on the placing the technological innovation proposed by Cadbury in the case study we see that the innovation is predominantly focused upon the business process re-engineering strategy of the strategic grid. This makes it clear that the organization can gain competitive advantage only through embracing the organizational culture with the strategic change proposed in order to effectively implement the changes. Alongside it is also evident that the process of business process re-engineering although the unavoidable challenge as argued by Lance D. Revenaugh (1994)v. This makes it clear that an organization can effectively implement the re-engineering strategy through the efficient use of technology to increase productivity in the organization. From the overview of the case study it is clear that the strategic implementation of the technological innovation is not viable as it is clear that the innovation in the production method accompanies huge costs in terms of money and time apart form the training and maintenance costs making it an overhead for the organization in the short term to address the demand in the market. The increasing competition in the markets as well as the need for efficient means of production without compromising the quality and service levels makes it clear that the investment on an additional old-fashioned machine for conching will increase the productivity of the organization in line with the competition. Alongside, it is also evident that the innovative technological advancement proposed in the case study is not the marketing of a platform launch itself thus making it clear that it cannot be placed in the strategic grid of platform launch. An insight into the innovative technology proposed in the case study of the company reveals that the company is striving to increase its revenue through increasing the production of the confectioneries and maintaining its brand identity of the CDM thus making it clear that the effectiveness of the organization in the market is not through innovation in the production but efficiency in meeting the demand in the target market for the given market conditions in the 1990s. Thus to conclude this section it is clear that the innovation and organizational culture should be treated simultaneously in order to effectively set a standard in the innovation to increase the productivity. This makes it clear that the efficiency of an organization in the target market is predominantly through the effectiveness in using its resources to meet the demand and generate revenue apart form the strive to implement innovation in the target market. Read More