Discussion Board Assignment 2-1 -Mention at least two specific points from the a
ID: 366536 • Letter: D
Question
Discussion Board Assignment 2-1
-Mention at least two specific points from the article. The specific information should be presented in quotation marks and underlined. (1 point)
-Relation of information in the article to specific courses that you have taken in the School of Business. (1 point)
-Discussion of all parts of the question at a critical level, not just recitation of facts from the article (3 points) Discussion at a critical level includes evaluating the information presented in terms of consistency/inconsistency with what you have learned or experienced and implications for the future.
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1. Do you think that Whole Foods investigation by regulators for overcharging customers over the past years contributed to their sale to Amazon? How much damage do you believe the investigation in New York City caused?
Whole Foods Market Inc. lost its edge, and now it is losing its independence With a sale to Amazon.com Inc. announced Friday, Whole Foods is entering a new frontier, joining the mass retailers from which it has long striven to differentiate itself For decades, the natural and organic food retailer grew faster than the rest of the grocery industry by tapping into an emerging population of affluent urbanites interested in a new way of eating and grocery shopping. It had a certain cachet, with a distinct offering of organic foods and specially trained salespeople promoting an experience for which customers were willing to pay more. But in recent years, as mainstream grocers from Kroger Co. to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. began stocking more natural and organic food at cheaper prices, Whole Foods began to lose its advantage They didn't do enough to continue to command the higher prices," said Gaurav Gupta, a corporate-strategy consultant at Kotter International. "Their competitive advantage has eroded sloly over the last five years.' For nearly two years, Whole Foods, which has about 460 stores, has faced its longest stretch of quarterly same- store sales declines since it began trading on the stock market in 1992. Its share price had been cut in half leading up to Friday's announcement. Amazon said it has agreed to acquire Whole Foods for $42 a share in a deal valued at $13.7 billion, including debt. Pressure on Whole Foods, and its co-founder and Chief Executive John Mackey, mounted this year, when activist investor Jana Partners, with several allies, unveiled a stake in Whole Foods and publicly pushed the company to explore a sale. The new dynamic added to shareholder tension that had been more quietly bubbling, turning attention to the sliding results after years of being a highflying stock. Since it opened its first store in 1980, Whole Foods has prided itself on its independence. Mr. Mackey, a strict vegan, aimed to bring organic and natural food to the world. During the 1990s and 2000s, Whole Foods expanded rapidly, buying 11 regional health-food chains and opening more stores. As recently as last year, he spoke of xpanding the chain to 1,200 stores in the U.SExplanation / Answer
Whole food market is one of the America's biggest organic and natural food retailers, world food market was not only America but the world's biggest organic and natural food retailer. World food market is basically an employee oriented organisation which focuses on growth of their employees that reflects in their working platform as well as the system. Organisation culture of the plant is very strong and contributes to the brand strength.
Whole Foods Market’s organisational culture is considered as one of the best work culture for an organisation and is a fine example of an employee oriented workplace and culture in an organisation. This specific organisational culture attract the customer to their products and their store which results in increased profits and sales.
Basic features of whole foods market's organisational cultures are as follows
· Team focus
Whole Foods Market’s basic strategy includes focusing on the teams. Most of the task of the company are designed to be done by 18 which improve their overall efficiency as well as the productivity of the human resource. By optimising the employee morale and reducing the turnover company has successfully implemented the team system into its and work structure. The core value of Whole Foods Market is “Supporting team member happiness and excellence.” when the culture of the organisation contribution we human resource management.
· Active participation
Company also introduced the active participation system into its organisation and supports the extensive employee participation in each and every job provided inside the company. For example employees select the team members according to their choices and mutual understanding for a better and productive work environment.
· Interactions out of work environment
Whole foods market also very well known for interactions other than formal inside it stores. Employees are in touch with each other and always keep discussing about random things inside the plane as well as discussing things with the customers as well. The specific practice reduces the gap between the customer and the employees which is directly related to the growth of the business. Whole foods market also focuses on creating social relationships within the Company organisation and culturally support the workers as well as the customers.
· Trasparency in workplace
Wholw food market is one of the most transparent work environment available in the USA. By creating transparent report which has to inform the stakeholders is a key thing of transparency within the organisation. Not only the stakeholders but whole foods market also provide this financial report to their employees. Financial report provision to the Employees make them understand the form situation in a better manner. By introducing transparency in the workplace company also helps in the human resource management which is done in resilience.
Whole foods market culture is one of the best culture in the business. This specific culture is based on high ethics and morals of employees as well as the working environment. Using their work culture as a tool company uses this specific culture to improve their Human Resource Management hence organisational culture of whole foods market is one of the strongest points of its key success
According to VRIO framework whole food market can be divided into following categories.
Value
Whole food markets have successfully compete with its competitor and created its own brand value by imposing their cultural activities as well as ethical working environment. Whole food market 2nd standard by maintaining ethical environment of their work places as well as the organisational system.
Rarity
Whole food market has imposed a totally new idea to the market by implementing the green strategies towards the work so far system.
In terms of priority whole food market is not there resourced but their organisational culture in the rear and it is very hard to find a standard of this level in any organisation culture other than whole food market.
Imitability
Ability of whole food markets is not that hard but imitation of their organisational culture is again very tough as they have done it so deeply that from the very beginning company has always work as a green and ethical company. By providing ethical advantages to its customers and implementing the system into the core strategies of the organisation they made it very hard to Limited.
Organisation
Whole foods has organised to create the ethical values .Rather than focusing on profits, company always focuses on the employee employer relationship and the customer employee relationship which makes it one of the best working environment for an employee. Add a base of organisation whole food markets has successfully integrated all of its path into one place by creating a more and legal environment for business.
Whole food market has always been a Pioneer in the industry in maintaining the relationship between the employees as well as in its organisation.
Whole food market has always done its business with a clear vision towards a society. They have always maintain a balance between the cultural as well as social stand of the company. By providing one of the best working environment in the United States of America food market has become an icon of ethical business. Correct decisions and ethical thinking leadership made its working structure, the structure of employee.
Employees are motivated to work towards achieving their goal while being article. Whole food market fracture reducing peoples over all images by sharing most of the part on their original culture. inter employee relationship is always motivated.
Company has always shown a correct leadership for example in 2007
company's CEO Mackey announce that you will take only $1 as his salary and also reduced his manager salary by 19 times. This specific incident shows the market values of the whole food markets towards its employees. Company in successfully competing against the external equity and also excelling in the internal equity as well.
Mackey's leadership style can be described as "a conscious leader". He always offered consciousness towards his employees and provides transformation of personal growth enabling environment and trusting the relationships. By creating commitment towards the community he always nurtured the spirit.
He always focused on personal growth of the employees to develop their leadership. He provided in specific environment for the employees of the whole food markets to develop their own personal identity in the organisation. Teams are readily curated and the results are always appreciated. Building a community inside an organisation which can interact among each other and share their crops as well as solutions is one of the main focus of the leadership strategy.
All in all John mackey has successfully created a huge business maintaining cultural as well as social diversity in his firm. While maintaining the social diversity he always acted as in the conscious leader and lead his company towards the desired. Father described as a bridge between the philanthropist in the capitalist.
Is investigation has directly decrease the overall sales of whole foods market in New York city. Investigation directly decreased the overall image of whole foods market into the society and reduce the level of compatibility towards the market. Amazon and different other companies take benefit of this is specific term and increase their sales by providing advertisement against whole food market and using this investigation as a tool to create miss believe against whole foods market.
Whole foods investigation by regulator for overcharging the customers have decreased their image in the market and customers literally moved to Amazon and other substitute which directly decrease the overall sales of whole food market and share price of the whole food market was also decrease. In the New York city most of the customers were very curious and aware of such issues so they kept whole food Markets and went to the substitute like Amazon and walmart. Other Supermarket stores have successfully gain more on the market capture as the investigation goes through the whole foods market for the long time. Specific investigation does not only have a diverse effect of increasing sales in New York but across the United States of America. Whole food market faced a great loss by the investigation done by the regulator for overcharging customers.