Select an organisation in the U.K. and critically assess the Essay

Select an organisation in the U.K. and critically assess the operational methods and strategies adopted to provide satisfactory products (or services) to custom - Essay Example The Department which I was involved in was the procurement department. The Purpose of this department was to ensure that there were adequate products in the store to fulfil customer requirements at that time. The role of the procurement section was to act as an intermediary between the process of selling and suppliers who dealt with the store. This department has to ascertain that there was back up stock in case there were any eventualities that occurred in the supply chain. Besides this, it also has to guard against overstocking. This is because of the fact that too much of a certain item could cause losses to the organisation. Their function contributes to customer satisfaction because the department ensures that customers get what they want whenever they want. (Tesco, 2007) The organisation has two categories of customers' i.e. external customers and internal customers. Slack et al (2007) describes internal customers as those who are found within the organisation. These are the various sections in the organisation that deal with the department under consideration. This comes from the concept of treating other parts of the organisation as separate entities or organisations. This means that the organisation ought to communicate effectively with its internal customers to maximise productivity. Some of the internal customers which the procurement section of Tesco has to deal include; accounting department, supplying department, personnel department, financial department. These internal customers will be examined in detail below; Marketing as an internal customer is one of the most crucial departments in Tesco. Their main objective is to promote and increase sales for Tesco. Basically, they are supposed to attract customers and come up with strategies that will keep them coming back. The marketing section expected four things from output in the organisation The numbers of products or services present are sufficient to satisfy consumer's demands i.e. should not be below optimum That products are available on time and customers do not have to wait for long periods of time before they can access them The type of products displayed is of reasonable quality i.e. they are in good condition The way products are displayed is attractive for consumers If the operation section of Tesco can fulfil all the above requirements, then marketers can coordinate between promotions and service delivery. (Ruffian et al 2000) It is quite essential for marketers to advertise only hat the Company can deliver otherwise their tasks will be rendered ineffective. The next internal customer with reference to output is the personnel section. This department deals with the coordination of human resource with the main aim of ensuring that all people in the organisation perform to their maximum level. This will therefore lead to achievement of the organisation's goals and objectives. The personnel section expects that output is sufficient in terms of quality and quantity. Their function is to ensure that everyone is performing and this also applies to the output section. (Tesco, 2007) The financial department or accounting section is another area that depends on the output sectio

Business Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business - Case Study Example Owing to this reputation, Toyota has been able to enjoy several benefits including financial strength, customer loyalty and market share. According to research scholars Steinmetz (2010) and Quelch, Knoop and Johnson (2010), the rapid growth of Toyota had created stress on the manufacturing, engineering and design which may lead to the consecutive occurrences of quality issues. This had in turn demanded the company to recall the vehicles at the beginning of 2003. However, the quality related problem of Toyota gained national attention in September 2009, after the public release of a recorded complaint which was associated with a certain incident. There had been a recorded call to 911 regarding a car crash which was being driven by an off-duty California highway patrol officer. The crash had resulted in the death of the officer along with his family members. This accident was caused by uncontrolled acceleration due to the floor mat problem which sticks to the accelerator pedals. Owing to this incident, the company recalled 3.9 million vehicles in US on September 29, 2009. The matter gained attention in January and early February of 2010, when 2.3 million vehicles had to be taken off the roads due to the sticking pedals (Fan, Geddes and Flory 2011). Toyota stopped selling eight of their models in North America, had shut down their production plant and increased their intensity of recalls in China and Europe. The CEO and the president of the company had apologised for the recalls. Another recall associated with Prius Hybrid, one of their best selling vehicles, was initiated due to some banking problems. After this third recall, the total amount of recall between 2009 and 2010 totalled to eight million that included six million in US itself (Madslien 2012; BBC News 2012; Couts 2011; Mackenzie and Evans 2010). Critical evaluation of the business response using evaluation criteria Reputation: Owing to the crisis related to the uncontrolled acceleration, the responses by the business of Toyota had aroused concerns regarding the reputation of the organization. The car accident had affected the reputation of the organization to a lesser extent than the damages done by the disclosure and communications, recalls and apologies previously. The confidence of the customers was seen to exhibit a sudden fall. The customer reports survey showed that the pre-eminent reputation of the organization plunged from 30 percent to 19 percent (Dietz and Gillespie 2011). In case of Toyota, the recalls were done in the years 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2009-10 due to different problems related to brakes, engines and accelerators, which had totalled to over 8.5 million vehicles (Dietz and Gillespie 2011). This staggeringly high number was considered to be sufficient to damage the trustworthiness of the organization. A positive reputation can be said to be as good as the effort that is taken to create and sustain it. The excellence in reputation fails if immediate action for tr ust building contradicts this reputation. In this case,