Unit 4 AOS 1 BM

Question 1

What is effectiveness, efficiency and KPI’s

Answer 1

Effectiveness- The degree to which a business had achieved its stated objectives
Efficiency- How well a business uses resources to achieve objective
KPI- Specific criteria used to measure the efficiency and/ot effectiveness of a business performance performance

Question 2

What are the KPI’s

Answer 2

1. Percentage of market share
2. Net profit figure
3. Rate of productivity growth
4. Number of sales
5. Rate of staff absenteeism
6. Level of staff turnover
7. Level of wastage
8. Number of customer complaints
9. Number of websites hits
10. Number of workplace accident

Question 3

What is the force field analysis as well as driving and restraining forces

Answer 3

Force field analysis- Outlines the process if determining which forces drive and which resist a proposed change

Driving force- Forces that support change

Restraining force- Forces working against change

Question 4

Notes on Lewin force field analysis

Answer 4

Made the model to understand the factors/ forces that will influence a situation, the FFA determines which forces will drive and resist proposed change

Driving factors are what make change happens/ will enforce change will restraining forces are forces which work against any change/ want everything to stay the same

Question 4

list of driving forces

Answer 4

1. Owners and managers
2. Employees
3. Competitors
4. Legislation
5. Pursuit of profit
6. Reduction of costs
7. Globalization
8. Tech
   9.Innovation
9. Societal attitudes

Question 5

list of restraining forces

Answer 5

1. Managers
2. Employees
3. Time
   4.Organisational inertia
4. Legislation
5. Financial consideration

Question 6

Key principles of a force field analysis

Answer 6

If a business wants to implement change they must

1st Give weighting to current driving and restraining forces
2nd Rank the top restraining and driving forces to eliminate or strengthen them
3. List actions required and implement a response
4. Evaluate

Question 7

Strengths and weaknesses of a force field analysis

Answer 7

Benefits
- It allows the business to identify those people within the business who are supportive of the change and those restraining the change

• FFA allows stakeholders to identify the change as a positive or negative change from their perspective
• Businesses are able to weigh up the factors ‘for and against’ and whether the change is worth undertaking

Weaknesses
- The weighing of the forces are subjective, biases can emerge when determining the importance of a particular force

• The identification of driving and restraining forces may omit some forces, they may not be clearly identifiable at the and may emerge during the change or the person completing the analysis may not have identified the source

Question 8

What is the driving force of owners and managers

Answer 8

The role of a owner or manager makes them a driving force because the business is the owners livelihood and therefore changes may be needed to ensure that the business runs to its best ability, change must also happen to make sure stakeholders are happy

Question 9

How are employees a driving force

Answer 9

Employees working in an innovative environment where ideas are shared and acted on, employees will also want changes in pay and working conditions

Question 10

How are competitors driving forces

Answer 10

Competitors can drive businesses to make such changes as
- opening of a new business that will compete with an existing business may cause the existing business to undergo change stay current and relatable to customers

• Advertising campaign online presence can lead to change
• the adoption of new tech

Question 11

How is legislation a driving force

Answer 11

Laws can be passed tat can lead to a business needing to make a change in its operations, such as the ban of single use plastic bags

Question 12

How is pursuit of profit and reduction of costs

Answer 12

Pursuit of profit
- Profit is essential and the business may change itself to ensure that profit will stay high the business may need to make changes to ensure that oit does happen

REDUCTION OF COSTS
A business will naturally have costs that occur when it is running and change may have to occur within the business to make sure these changes can be kept as low as possible this can happen through
- Source Materiels and suppliers from cheaper suppliers
source some local suppliers to avoid import costs
- reduce wages

Question 13

Innovation and societal attitudes and driving forces

Answer 13

Innovation (A process that occurs when something already established is improved upon) Innovation can be driven by tech advancement and globalization and it can be done through technological developments or through individual identifiable areas for improvement, it can also result from the identification of a niche market leading to change

Societal attitudes
Business are constantly confronted by how society changes and how society may change will determine how the business will change

Question 14

What is the restraining force of managers

Answer 14

Managers can restrain or stop change from occurring a manager could make hasty decisions that are poorly timed and unclear also if thye ack capacity to deal with change or lack the experience and skill to oversee a transformation pr may not be able to deal with resistance from stakeholders

Question 15

Employees as restraining forces

Answer 15

Any type of change will effect employees and this can lead to employees being restraining because employees may lose there job or job security or they may not like new procedures that are in the business

Question 16

What is time as a restraining force

Answer 16

some pressures for change occur quickly and so the business do not have the time to plan the change as efficiently and effectively as they would like, in some cases there is not enough time to think and implement change

Question 17

What is the restraining force of organizational inertia

Answer 17

(A unenthusiastic response from a business to a proposed change, inability to make internal change) This can happen because of how successful a business is because they do not want to change was has worked in the past

Question 18

What is legislation as a restraining force

Answer 18

Legislation can be a restraining force because it must be comlied with this happens when legislation places restriction in certain operation process

Question 19

What is fiancial considerations as a restraining force

Answer 19

Financial consideration could be a restraining force because changes may not be able to happen because of the costs associated with making a change such as

1. Purchasing new equipment
2. Retraining the workforce
3. Reorganizing plant layout
4. Redundancy payment

Question 20

What are the 2 main parts of porters generic strategy

Answer 20

1. Cost advantage (A competitive advantage is gained through reducing the costs of the business, allowing it to operate with larger profit margins compared to market rivals
2. Differentiation- Business gain a competitive advantage through differentiating their good or service from others in the market

Question 21

What is porters lower cost strategy

Answer 21

Cosr leadership involves a business seeking to become the business with the lowest cost in the industry, both the production and the cost of the product should be as low as possible

Reducing the direct and indirect cost- By reducing wages reducing cost of interest or reducing cost of supply’s/stock the company can cut down its costs

Improving efficiency- By minimizing idle stock on shelves using assists more efficiently or by operating at economics of sales

Controlling areas of management responsibility - A business might check and review areas if the business such as fiancé operations HR sales marketing and info tech.

Question 22

Strengths and weaknesses of low cost

Answer 22

Strengths
- Businesses may become more profitable as profit per unit can increase

-A business may be able to prevent competitors from increasing market share if they ant match cost or price

-

Question 23

What is porters differentiation strategy

Answer 23

The use of factors such as brand names, delivery methods and advertising to establish difference between sustainable products

A business will ensure that there product is different and unique to gain a competitive edge and therefore they can charge a higher cost.

Some strategy’s to differentiate a product

High quality products- By ensuring that quality is better than others such as being more reliable, more durable, extended warranties better support for customers

Multiple branding- By providing different brands or more brands in the same market this would involve providing similar products with a very subtle difference that would appeal to different customers

Innovation/research and development- Developing a product that is different that no other businesses have helped differentiate a product, this involves identifying a market that is not yet filled and provide a product to the market that no competitor does

Question 24

Advantages and disadvantages of differentiation strategy

Answer 24

Advantages
- Differentiations is a way to improve the way a business connects with customers and can develop customer loyalty

• If able to charge premium price business will make revenue gain
• By developing customer loyalty marker share can be increased

Disadvantages
- Rival businesses can copy the differentiation approach, negating any gain

• Differentiation has an initial cost that must not outweigh the benefits
• Differentiation can be time consuming process and during that time consumers taste or preference may change