Managing And Leading Strategic Change In Food And Beverage Industry Essay.

1. Critically analyse and evaluate the nature of the relationships between an organisations’ environment and forces for change.
2. Critically evaluate key issues arising from the management and leadership of change.
3. Critically appraise management and leadership responses in relation to change forces, and emerging organisational dynamics.
4. Structure and communicate ideas and arguments effectively in writing, and reference source materials consistently and accurately using the Harvardreferencing system.

1. Evidence of research to identify significant trends influencing the forces and nature of organisation change
2. Evidence of research to identify, access and reference appropriate academic literature
3. Ability to apply theoretical perspectives to evaluate management, leadership and organisational responses to change forces and emerging organisational dynamics.
4. Clarity of communication, use of structure and overall presentation.

• Evidence of research to identify relevant trends influencing the nature of change in relation to a chosen focus
• Evidence of research to identify, access and reference appropriate academic literature
• Some use of academic sources and theory to discuss and evaluate potential management, leadership and organisational responses to change forces
• Clear communication to enable understanding of the ideas presented and discussed

Subject

This briefing document is basically focuses on the managing and leading strategic change within an organization. This document addressees the challenges of a change within an organization and provides required solutions to deal with those challenges for the successful change management. There are many organizations implement strategic change and start with new policies and processes in this manner. Some of the changes are done in terms of various management practices such as culture change, empowerment, many business processes and quality (Murray & Millett, 2011). On the other factors of strategic change, initiatives are taken by the organization to make the business sustainable in the strong competitive environment. Along with this, strategic change in an organization involves structure, strategy, processes, framework and organizational culture. Further, the difficult part of the strategic change is to implement the change in the behavior of the individual within an organization. For the discussion, food and beverage industry has selected as the company has done many strategic changes in its business model and stakeholders’ involvement in the development of change plan.

Food and beverage industry is the famous sector in all over the world. This sector is able to attract a good number of customers in the various parts of world. Food and beverage industry has drawn a positive impact among the investors as investing in the sector is profitable for them. For the growth in the positive manner, this sector has strategy of proper planning, systematic understanding of the behavior and needs of the customers, their value taste and their preferences. This industry had implemented some strategic changes as it had to face some problems in business due to some factors. The initial problem with the Food and beverage industry was that it was growing too fast in the market but the profitability of the sector was down, income was low and costs were distended so company had to adopt cost-cutting strategy. The result was that customers had to think twice before entering in the restaurants. Along with this, there was strong competition in the market from rivals who were focused on the business expansion. In this manner, there were some strategies adapted to implement the change in its business model.

In case of strategic change in the organization, there are some factors that indicate the need for change. In case of Food and beverage industry, the need for strategic change in the sector was to improve the customers’ experience. The sector decided to make some strategic changes in terms of renewing the focus on the customers’ experience. Along with this, another reason for the strategic change was to enhance the position and improve the market shares in the operating market. For this manner, this sector made some job cuts and reshuffled some jobs. Various companies decided to win the trust of the customers by providing them energy drinks to make entry in the health business (Pofi, 2002).

Background: Industry information

There are various factors that drive for the change within an organization. These factors affect the change management process within the organization. Most importantly, economic downturn is one of them. In case of Food and beverage industry, the companies have faced major challenges in the market in terms of economic downturn and they lost their position in the market. So, due to the situation and condition of recession, companies made the changes in the strategies and processes of the business. The condition of recession made a strong impact on the business of the company along with its increasing cost of operations and lesser profit margins. Apart from this, the level of unemployment was also a significant factor that affected the business of food and beverage and derived the need for change in hiring, retaining and training and development policies in the companies. Further, some environmental factors i.e. political and legal factors also put pressure on the companies and drive the need for change. The legal and political factors include rules and regulations related to food handling, labor laws and various restrictions in the business operations in terms advertising and marketing of the products (Fleming & Senior, 2006).

Technology innovation and digital media are also the factors that insist the company to implement the change for providing better services to the customers. By offering high energy drinks and healthy products to the customers, Food and beverage industry can improve its brand image among the customers. Along with this, facility of Wi-Fi and internet can be provided by the company to seek the attention of the customers so that they can utilize those technological factors for their professional and personal use. Food and beverage industry can take it as the opportunity while operating at the global level and improve its market share and size in each operating market (Saphiro, 2010). There are some significant trends and drivers fir change that impact on the business operations of the food and beverage sectors. Some of those drivers are described below:

Political and regulatory development-

There are many countries that are moved towards the regulations of price and production of the food products in the market. Now, the rules and policies are connected to the presentation of the farms with respect to the environmental standards, animal, plant health and food safety, animal welfare standards along with the important requirements in the good agricultural and environmental conditions. Further, food safety is also the top issue in most of the European countries. Due to the food safety issues, the threats of human health, and health risk of the consumers are continuously increasing. So, many countries are taking various initiatives over the food safety to enhance the confidence of the customers on the food products. Along with this, food industry is the subject to more regulations in some fields such as environmental regulations such removal of devastate and animal by-products, pollution and animal welfare regulations (Brown, 2006).

Factors driving for change

Technological change-

New technologies and automation of plants are increasing the way of manufacture and growth of new products. Some of the main equipments include information and communication technology (ICT), biotechnology, robotics, sensor technologies and radio frequency identification (RFID) etc. Use of information and communication technology in the food and beverage industry is helpful in promoting and supporting to exchange of the information between the various parts of the supply chain. This is also helpful in reducing the administrative workloads. This technology is also important for the food safety and increment of the demand of the food products. ICT is also crucial to observing the production and development process, improving the quality management and ensuring the environmental principles. Further, companies have to implement the change according to the e-business as the customers are shopping more online and the food industry has opportunity to sell directly to the customers e-commerce is the important tool for the food industry to collect the information regarding the consumer trends and market development (Nomsa, 2015).

Globalization-

This is the big issue for the food and beverage sector. Many trade barriers are creating strong competition for the organizations in the food industry. There is the strong competition from low-wage countries, access of cheap primary products, and some food regulations which are increasing the pressure on the food and beverage sector to implement new strategies to reduce the production cost of companies. There can be some strategies such as merger, and relocation of the production etc. There are some developments that affecting other food sub-sectors. For instance, it is estimated that in 2020, Russia will be the largest food sector and groceries market. This put strong pressure on the food suppliers of other countries to develop or acquire production and logistics capabilities in the operating market (Reiss, 2012).

Social changes-

Customers are primary driving force in the current global food market. Change in the lifestyle, family structure and income growth of the customers and continuously changing the demands of the customers for the food products in the market. There are some issues that affect the food sector such as food safety, ecology, nutrition, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability that impact the demand of the food products. Along with this, customers are now focused on the healthy living. This responsiveness impact on the market of food products and increases the growth potential for the functional and organic food. These expectations are the challenges for food industry as the food industry risk are being liable (Vakola, 2013).

Political and regulatory development

Based on the above discussed driven changes, there is the need to implement the changes in some areas. For improving the customers’ expedience and their confidence on the food products, it is important to implement some strategic changes in the industry. The areas those need for change are follows:

Technological change-

To enhance the customer experience, there is the need of change in terms if technology used. For this manner, there is the need to enhance the knowledge of the employees about the new technologies within the organization. By implementing new technology in the business, food sector will be able to improve the sales of the food products and improve the confidence of the customers for the food products (Vaughn, 2012).

Health and hygiene-

Customers are now concerned for the healthy lifestyle and for this manner, they are seeking for the hygiene products. For this manner, knowledge must be improved among the employees by food sector in the production department. Along with this, the change should be implemented in terms of producing new, eco-friendly and innovative products.

Employee development-

For the change of development process of employees, there must be training and development sessions for the workers and employees. It is observed that employees are not so much aware about the new technologies and they are leaving job because of the lack of proper information. Training should be given on the regular basis to deliver better services and products to the customers (Murray, Syed, & Roberts, 2009).

Before implementing a successful change in any sector or industry, it is important to analyze some factors such as effective process, proper resources, and behavior etc. For the effective change in an industry, there are some theories and ideas given by many researchers. Some of the change management theories are described below which would be helpful for the managers and leaders to deal with the change process within the industry (Kaplan & Norton, 2006).

One of the famous theories of change is Kotter’s Integrative theory. There are basically eight elements in this theory. Based on this model, eight steps of change process are identified. The identified eight steps are as follows:

• Analyzing the reason of transform or set up the importance of change by focusing on the deep cause that why the change is desirable
• Establish the control to direct and execute the change process,
• Develop and implement innovative visions and strategies for the change,
• Encourage people to participate in the new vision by removing the obstacles and issues and motivate them to create problem solving skills,
• Talk with the employees to attain the new purposes and objectives,
• Provide a guiding way and techniques to help people to know how to achieve the new goals and objectives, and
• Develop the connection among the new actions, attitude and organizational achievements (Root, 2016).

Figure 1: Kotter's Model

(Source: Burnes, 2000)

In the figure, the Kotter’s organizational theory and model is depicted. In terms of food and beverage sector, there is the need of effective change to keep the customers connected with the food products. There is the issue of technology change, changes in the eating habits of the customers towards the healthy food, entry of new technologies in the production and supply department, lack of training among the staff embers of various food companies about the use of new technologies etc. To address these issues, managers and leaders need to create new ways and strategies to sustain the business. Managers should develop new visions that how the employees will be able to cooperate with the organizational change. Along with this, managers or leaders should conduct training sessions so that employees would be able to adapt the change and learn about new technologies to achieve the new goals (Weiner, 2009).

Technological change

To implement the successful change in the sector, managers require talking with the associates with appropriate communication plan. Communication with the senior management would be cooperative for the employees in getting the opportunity to express their opinions and ideas related to the change procedures. Based on the Kotters’ model, managers in the food and beverage sector should build up an apparent idea for the new goals. By giving proper guidance of equipments to the employees, employees would be capable to use the technologies in offering the food products to the customers. This theory provides an effective framework to identify the structure of the food and beverage industry. It includes some factors of the industry for the study i.e. new goals, new strategies, idea and aims which are to be accomplished. After implementation the changes, industry must analyze and observe the outcome of the change process (Stoltzfus, Stohl, Seibold, 2011).

An industry or sector is a productive system. It includes various factors that affect the business operations of various organizations. It also deals with various environmental factors in the market. Industry provides contribution to the surroundings and obtains significant result from the environment. The success of the industry is based on the efficient production process. For the effective change, it is crucial to establish strong relationship between the system of industry and the operating environment. In this manner, there are basically two processes which are necessary i.e.

• Establishing the connection between the industry and the outer surroundings, and
• Establishing the effective association between various organizations and its working atmosphere to analyze the key factors of the organization (Gill, 2012).

Figure 2: Open system diagram

(Source: Coghlan & Coughlan, 2004)

By the described figure, various environmental factors are observed i.e. environment inputs and outputs which are responsible for the industrial transformation. In case of food and beverage industry, the crucial factors can be analyzed by the open system diagram. There are basically three factors i.e. environment inputs, transformation and environment outputs. Managers should focus on the input in the business that directs to the business revolution. It would give successful results in the food industry such as high-quality production of the products and excellent revenue. Appropriate input would provide contentment to the investors, managers as well as customers. In the food and beverage industry, employees have the lack of proper information about new technologies and new food safety rules and they are not ready to adapt the change. So, managers or leaders should exercise suitable training and development procedure to apply the significant change (Waddell, D., Cummings & Worley, 2011).

There are some strategies while implementing the change in the food and beverage industry. So, it will also need of some precautions while implementing the change in food and beverage sector.

• Employees always have a fear related to the change and they do not want to change their daily routines and job roles. So, proper communication system and plan should be implemented for the employees.
• Lack of proper knowledge about new technologies among the workers and employees is the main barrier. So, there should be continuous session for the employees to learn new techniques (Ardichvili, 2012).
• For improving the employees’ satisfaction, managers should communicate with employees in the efficient manner in the organizations in food sector.
• Further, shortage of the managers within the organizations can be the critical issue. Sometimes, there is no proper staff to provide the training to the workers. So, industry should focus on hiring the trainers for conducting the training session. It would require time and money (Kossek, 2007).
• There is the strategy for the production companies in the food sector that the new technologies and new raw material should be provided to the production team so that they can produce healthy food products for the health conscious customers (Frost. 2016).

Globalization

Conclusion 

This briefing document is basically discussed about the change process and the concept of managing change within the food and beverage industry. From the above discussion, it is observed that implementing change within an overall industry can be very challenging task for the managers if the implemented change will not be succeed. From the above discussion, it is clear that there are various drivers and trends of change in the industry. Change management is the process to minimize the resistance to change within the organization. There are various factors that affect the change management process within the organization. There are Political and regulatory factors, technological factors, globalization and social factors which are key challenge for the food and beverage sector.

Further, some key areas are identified which are needed to be changed in the food and beverage industry i.e. technology, production in food and employee development. From the discussion, it is analyzed that there are various models and theories given by various researchers which are helpful for the leaders and managers in the organizations to deal with the change process. According to the Kotter’s theory, to address issues, managers and leaders need to create new ways and strategies to sustain the business. Based on the Kotters’ model, managers in the food and beverage sector should develop a clear vision for the new goals. Further, this theory includes some features of the industry for the analysis i.e. new goals, new strategies, vision and objectives which are to be achieved. There is one more theory i.e. open model theory of change. According to this theory, Managers should focus on the input in the business that leads to the organizational transformation. This theory deals with various environmental factors in the market. To sum up, strategic change in an organization involves structure, strategy, processes, framework and organizational culture. Based on the above discussion of theories and models of change, industry should implement strategic change and start with new policies and processes in this manner.

References 

Ardichvili, A., (2012), Knowledge Management, Human Resource Development, and Internet Technology: Advances in Developing Human Resources, 4(4), pp.451-463

Brown, A., (2006), Quality Management: Issues for Human Resource Management: Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 33(3), pp.117-129

Fleming, J. & Senior, B., (2006), Organizational Change, (3^rd), UK: Prentice Hall.

Frost. S., (2016), Barriers & Challenges to Change Implementation, accessed on 9^th September 2017 from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/barriers-challenges-change-implementation-30842.html

Gill, R., (2012), Change management or change leadership: Journal of Change Management, 3(4), pp.307-318.

Kaplan, R.W., & Norton, D.P., (2006), How to implement a new strategy without disrupting your organization: Harvard Business Review, 100-9

Kossek, E., (2007), Human Resources Management Innovation: Human Resource Management, 26(1), pp.71-92

Murray, P., & Millett, B., (2011), The influence of learning behaviour on team adaptability, International Journal of Learning and Change, 5(3/4)

Murray, P., Syed, J. & Roberts, Z., (2009), ‘Structures of learning for dynamic markets’, Management Decision, 47 (2), pp. 271–288

Nomsa, M., (2015), The relationship between e-commerce adoption and competition in Hotel industry: International Journal of information and education technology, 6(5), pp. 394-397

Pofi, D., (2002), Organizational diagnostics: integrating qualitative and quantitative methodology: Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(2), pp. 273–91

Reiss, M., (2012), Change Management (1^st edition), Norderstedt: GmbIT

Root, (2016), Techniques for Implementing Change in an Organization, accessed on 9th September 2017from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/techniques-implementing-change-organization-10032.html