Practise Edexcel Business questions on recruitment, training, motivation and leadership, applying people-management choices to a firm’s objectives and context.
Extract A
The History of Nando's
Nando's is a fast-food restaurant chain started by Fernando Duarte and Robert Brozin in South Africa. It sells a range of spicy chicken and vegetarian dishes. Entrepreneurs Fernando and Robert took a risk and opened the first Nando's restaurant in 1987 after enjoying spicy chicken in a Portuguese restaurant. By the end of 1989 they had opened three more restaurants. Today, there are Nando's restaurants in most major cities around the world. All its restaurants have a trendy, fun and unique design by local designers and artists.
Extract B
Nando's Indian menu (selected items)
Extract C
Employees at Nando's
Employees who work at Nando's are called Nandocas. Nando's employees are seen as family members and it aims to treat them as an asset to the business. It states, 'Nando's is not just about the chicken, it's about the people that make the chicken.' In 2022 Nando's was named as one of the UK's best large companies to work for. In South Africa, Nando's has a programme called Harambee that recruits young unemployed people and gives them skills to prepare them for the workplace. Nando's uses a training programme called Buddy. A buddy is an employee who has completed all job roles in the business. Buddies supervise new employees to pass on their knowledge and skills.
Extract D
Market research at Nando's
Before opening stores in China, Nando's conducted primary market research to understand Chinese food preferences and dining habits. Two hundred surveys were carried out with Chinese chefs, restaurant owners and managers. A random sampling survey method was used to conduct the primary market research.
Analyse two advantages to Nando's of treating its employees as an asset rather than a cost.
Sources for use with Extract D In congested Istanbul, companies get goods to you fast There has been a rapid growth in the demand for shopping services in Istanbul, Turkey. These on-demand services are expanding because transportation can be slow. Businesses are making use of new technology, wages are rising and more people have access to smartphones. Shopping services such as Kapgel and Getir offer innovative delivery solutions to meet the needs of their customers. Both firms have different approaches, but aim to meet people’s immediate needs and develop customer loyalty by using technology to develop apps and deliver goods as quickly as possible. Kapgel has designed an app to allow customers to shop from a wide number of stores and supermarkets. The customer creates a basket of goods on the app and a delivery person shops for these items and delivers directly to the customer. Deliveries are made within one hour for a delivery fee of 5 Turkish Lira (US $0.85). Kapgel does not keep any stock and uses part-time and temporary delivery people, rather than employing workers on a permanent and full-time basis. Getir owns many warehouses around Istanbul to stock over 1,000 different products, including food items and small electrical goods. Customers select from the 1,000 items using an app on their smartphone. Getir employs over 350 people for this delivery business and have an average delivery time of 9 minutes and 6 seconds. Unlike Kapgel’s delivery fee, Getir adds a cost to each product. It has a minimum shopping total of 15 Turkish Lira (US $2.55) before it will deliver an order.
Extract E BiSU Water Delivery In Turkey, most tap water is not drinkable. Delivery services in the past were slow and not well organised. On-demand delivery services such as BiSU have changed the water delivery market in Turkey. Customers can now order water using an app on their smartphone. They can have it delivered quickly and at a time to suit them. BiSU has a large team of delivery drivers. The business was launched in 2015 and has expanded to many cities in Turkey, receiving over 100,000 orders a month from 38,000 users. Water prices depend on the brand requested and the region the water is delivered to.
Discuss the benefits, for a business such as Kapgel, of using part-time and
temporary employees.
Extract C
Redundancies and organisational changes at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank was founded 150 years ago in Germany. Today it is a leading global bank. In 2019, 18,000 Deutsche Bank employees, working in Hong Kong, New York and London, were made redundant as part of a restructuring plan. This plan included drastically reducing its investment banking division and removing layers of management to make a flatter organisational structure. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson said: "We have decided to focus our resources on areas of the business where customers need us most." The bank used collective bargaining to agree redundancy payments for employees who lost their jobs. These agreements were put in place to protect its reputation and limit the number of unfair dismissal cases.
Extract D
Global market share by \% revenue of the 10 leading investment banks in 2019
Extract E
Positive Impact marketing campaign at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank plans to launch a global advertisement campaign, named Positive Impact. It uses customer stories to show the benefits of using the bank. These stories are told through short films featuring customers and bankers, showing how they support customers to achieve their plans and ambitions. Deutsche Bank will also use social media to engage with its employees and customers. In addition a television advertisement will be used to show the partnership between Laura Dekker, the youngest person to sail solo around the world, and her father, who helped plan her epic voyage and whose encouragement from the shore helped her to succeed. The advertisement uses the relationship between Laura and her father as an inspiring example of positive impact, which represents the bank's role in enabling the ambitions and dreams of its clients to be met.
Analyse two possible benefits for Deutsche Bank of using collective bargaining to negotiate redundancy payments with its employees.
Assess the impact on Deutsche Bank of the changes made to its
organisational structure.
Extract C
Redundancies and organisational changes at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank was founded 150 years ago in Germany. Today it is a leading global bank. In 2019, 18,000 Deutsche Bank employees, working in Hong Kong, New York and London, were made redundant as part of a restructuring plan. This plan included drastically reducing its investment banking division and removing layers of management to make a flatter organisational structure. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson said: "We have decided to focus our resources on areas of the business where customers need us most." The bank used collective bargaining to agree redundancy payments for employees who lost their jobs. These agreements were put in place to protect its reputation and limit the number of unfair dismissal cases.
Extract D
Global market share by \% revenue of the 10 leading investment banks in 2019
Extract E
Positive Impact marketing campaign at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank plans to launch a global advertisement campaign, named Positive Impact. It uses customer stories to show the benefits of using the bank. These stories are told through short films featuring customers and bankers, showing how they support customers to achieve their plans and ambitions. Deutsche Bank will also use social media to engage with its employees and customers. In addition a television advertisement will be used to show the partnership between Laura Dekker, the youngest person to sail solo around the world, and her father, who helped plan her epic voyage and whose encouragement from the shore helped her to succeed. The advertisement uses the relationship between Laura and her father as an inspiring example of positive impact, which represents the bank's role in enabling the ambitions and dreams of its clients to be met.
Analyse two possible benefits for Deutsche Bank of using collective bargaining to negotiate redundancy payments with its employees.
IKEA uses internal and external methods of recruitment to select a wide range of employees from managers to shop assistants.
Evaluate which of these recruitment methods is likely to be the most effective for IKEA.
Extract G
About Walt Disney
Walt Disney is a successful global family entertainment business. Its portfolio includes Disney theme parks, hotels, cruise ships, products and leisure entertainment. The locations of its theme parks include Florida, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Paris.
Employees at Walt Disney work in a wide range of roles and departments. The departments include:
- Food and beverage
- Hotel and housekeeping
- Marketing and social media
- Customer service
- Leisure and entertainment
- Finance and banking
- Engineering and construction.
Walt Disney provides a variety of training for its employees including:
- Training courses and demonstrations given by its executives and senior managers
- Access to training courses at specialised centres for skilled job roles
- Provision of online learning courses
- Access to study university degree qualifications on a part-time basis for some employees
- Supervised coaching and support in its hotels, restaurants and theme parks
- The provision of study books and training materials, free of charge
- One-to-one personalised coaching support for employees in the Walt Disney offices.
Extracts A, B and C adapted from: https://www.nandos.com/
Extract D adapted from: https://thenandosstrategy.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/market-research/
Extract E adapted from: https://www.marketingweek.com/niche-lifestyle-brands-increasing-mass-market-appeal/
Extract F adapted from: https://www.pukkaherbs.com/uk/en/impact-and-sustainability
Extract G adapted from: https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about/\#our-businesses
Evaluate whether on-the-job training is likely to be the most effective type of training used by Walt Disney.
Source for use with Section B
Extract C
About Skechers
Skechers is a global footwear company that designs and develops shoes for men, women and children. It sells its products online and in more than 2,700 shops in 170 countries through its established distribution channels. The annual sales revenue of the business increased from $3.52bn in 2016 to $4.16bn in 2017.
Skechers' marketing department uses both primary and secondary market research. Focus groups and interviews are used during the design stage to collect opinions on new shoes before they are launched onto the market. Focus groups are also used to gain feedback on the performance and comfort of existing styles of shoes. Since 1992 when it launched its first shoe, the company has diversified into several new lines, targeting different market segments and different activities.
The range is updated regularly and includes shoes for walking, work and casual wear. The portfolio includes 3,000 different styles of footwear for all ages that offer quality and comfort. Its best-selling shoe is the Go-Walk brand, sold globally. More recently the company has designed and sold shoes for athletes and is now competing with companies such as Nike and Adidas.
Organisation of Skechers
Although Skechers has offices and shops globally it has maintained a centralised organisational structure. At the corporate headquarters in California, USA, Skechers research, design, and develop the shoes as well as controlling global marketing campaigns and operations. Offices based in South America, Europe and Asia oversee the regional operations.
David Weinberg is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) based in the USA head office. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations. These include planning Skechers policies and objectives and developing financial and distribution strategies to expand the business.
Assess the extent to which a centralised organisational structure may benefit Skechers.
Sources for use with Section B
Extract C
Competition in the Entertainment Industry
The games console market is dominated by three businesses; Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. For many years Sony’s PlayStation console dominated the market. However, Nintendo regained its leadership position for the first time since 2009 with the sales of its new game console, the Switch.
In 2019, Nintendo sold 17.3 million Switch consoles, Sony sold 17.1 million PlayStation consoles, and Microsoft remained in third place, selling 10 million Xbox consoles.
Extract D
Nintendo’s Goal: Bringing Smiles to People’s Faces
Nintendo was founded in 1899 in Japan. It produced traditional Japanese playing cards. In 1970, Nintendo started the development of games consoles and video games. The entertainment market is dynamic, and Nintendo’s goal is to create fun experiences through product innovation.
Nintendo has sold more than 4.7 billion video games and more than 750 million game console units. This is because of the iconic characters it has created, including Super Mario, Donkey Kong, and Pokémon. Its most successful games consoles included Game Boy and the Wii. The Game Boy became the first handheld console to sell in large numbers but is no longer manufactured and the Wii has declining sales. In 2018, the Nintendo Switch was launched, which allows users to enjoy games anytime, anywhere, with anyone.
Extract E
Organisational changes at Nintendo
Nintendo recently made changes to its organisation that positively impacted on the business. Nintendo merged its two game development divisions, which were previously separate. One division had focused on consoles used in the home like the Wii while the other created games for handheld devices like the 3DS. Combining the two divisions aimed to speed up the development of products and allow Nintendo’s creative teams to share ideas and technology.
The use of a matrix organisation has proved to be a good move given the nature of the Switch, which is both a handheld device and a home console. This differentiates it from other games consoles in the market. The main benefit of the reorganisation is that it allows Nintendo to be more flexible with how it uses its game developers and other employees.
Assess the benefits of a matrix organisational structure for a business such as Nintendo.
Extract C
Redundancies and organisational changes at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank was founded 150 years ago in Germany. Today it is a leading global bank. In 2019, 18,000 Deutsche Bank employees, working in Hong Kong, New York and London, were made redundant as part of a restructuring plan. This plan included drastically reducing its investment banking division and removing layers of management to make a flatter organisational structure. A Deutsche Bank spokesperson said: "We have decided to focus our resources on areas of the business where customers need us most." The bank used collective bargaining to agree redundancy payments for employees who lost their jobs. These agreements were put in place to protect its reputation and limit the number of unfair dismissal cases.
Extract D
Global market share by \% revenue of the 10 leading investment banks in 2019
Extract E
Positive Impact marketing campaign at Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank plans to launch a global advertisement campaign, named Positive Impact. It uses customer stories to show the benefits of using the bank. These stories are told through short films featuring customers and bankers, showing how they support customers to achieve their plans and ambitions. Deutsche Bank will also use social media to engage with its employees and customers. In addition a television advertisement will be used to show the partnership between Laura Dekker, the youngest person to sail solo around the world, and her father, who helped plan her epic voyage and whose encouragement from the shore helped her to succeed. The advertisement uses the relationship between Laura and her father as an inspiring example of positive impact, which represents the bank's role in enabling the ambitions and dreams of its clients to be met.
Assess the impact on Deutsche Bank of the changes made to its
organisational structure.
Sources for use with Extract A The global chocolate market Chocolate is a multi-billion-dollar market and is expected to reach high levels of growth within the next few years. Rising incomes in many countries and the widespread availability of chocolate are leading to increased demand. However, uncertainty in the supply of cocoa, which is the main ingredient in chocolate, is likely to raise the cost of producing chocolate. This may be a major challenge for chocolate retailers. There are suggestions in the media that there are health benefits from consuming chocolate, particularly dark chocolate that contains a larger proportion of cocoa. Analysts believe that as well as increased demand for dark chocolate, other areas of growth will be:
· festive chocolate
· seasonal chocolate
· organic chocolate
· fair-trade chocolate
The global chocolate market is segmented by type and sale frequency. Based on chocolate type, the market is classified as milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. The milk chocolate segment remains the largest selling chocolate. Based on sale frequency, the market is categorised as daily chocolate, premium chocolate and seasonal chocolate.
Extract B The top five global chocolate manufacturers (2018)
| Company | Revenue 2018 ($USbn) |
|---|---|
| Mars Wrigley Confectionery (USA) | 18.00 |
| Ferrero Group (Italy) | 12.40 |
| Mondelēz International (USA) | 11.80 |
| Meiji Co Ltd (Japan) | 9.70 |
| Hershey Co (USA) | 7.80 |
Extract C Working at Ferrero The Ferrero Group, a family run business, started in 1946 and today is one of the largest chocolate companies in the world. Employees are referred to as ‘family’ . All employees, from the day they start, are expected to involve themselves in all aspects of the business. Employees receive a competitive wage. Ferrero provides employees with extensive training programmes including on-the-job training and management support. Ferrero shows its employees respect, helps them grow in their careers, asks them for suggestions and welcomes their feedback.
Discuss the benefits to a business such as Ferrero of motivating its employees.
Sources for use with Section A
Extract A
The soft drink industry is dominated by Coca-Cola and PepsiCo
Two brands of soft drinks, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, have dominated the non-alcoholic drinks market for many years. The brands are well known and recognised around the world. Coca-Cola is the larger of the two companies with more than 500 brands. The companies do not have major threats from competition because they both have high levels of brand loyalty, extensive distribution networks and huge economies of scale. They spend enormous amounts of money on innovation, advertising, marketing, and strengthening their distribution channels.
Extract B
Coca-Cola: Who we are
We are the world’s largest soft drinks company. Our brands include Diet Coke, Coca-Cola Zero, Fanta, Sprite, Dasani, Powerade, Minute Maid and Gold Peak. Over 1.9 billion of our drinks are enjoyed by consumers in more than 200 countries each day.
Our market research on Diet Coke
We focus on the needs of our consumers by going into the market to listen to their views and collect feedback on new drinks. One of our recent research projects focused on Diet Coke, known as Coca-Cola light in most international markets. The drink is sold in more than 110 countries. Our aim is to offer new flavours and a modern look to the product to attract new consumers as well as maintaining the brand loyalty of our current fans. As part of the research, we used face-to-face surveys to gather data from more than 10,000 people. We wanted their ideas and views on new packaging and new flavours, including Ginger Lime and Twisted Mango. These new products will be available in 2019.
Our rewarding work environment: benefits and rewards
We value our workers and understand working is not just about pay and benefits. We provide a positive working environment to enable staff to build a career and also maintain a good work-life balance. We regularly assess our benefits programs to ensure employees receive the benefits they value. The financial benefits include competitive pay, annual bonuses and performance-related pay.
Discuss the benefits for Coca-Cola of providing its workers with financial incentives.
Extract A About The Coffee House The Coffee House is a chain of coffee shops in Vietnam. The Coffee House opened its first shop in 2014 and within four years it had 100 shops across the country. Its shops are located on busy high streets in Vietnam's large cities. Coffee shops have grown in popularity in Vietnam and have attracted successful international businesses such as Starbucks. The Coffee House is an innovative brand that has been built by offering an attractive space, excellent customer service and product quality at affordable prices. The mission of the business is to 'deliver happiness'. It aims to provide excellent customer satisfaction as well as providing the employees with an enjoyable place to work. The Coffee House is recognised for its innovation by:
- creating a unique design for each shop to provide a welcoming atmosphere that feels like home
- regularly updating menus to adapt to changing tastes and trends
- providing dedicated and comfortable spaces where people can work
- being one of the first businesses in Vietnam to launch a mobile app to allow customers to order their drinks online
- investing in its own farm in Vietnam to provide coffee beans for its shops.
Extract B Leading coffee shop brands in Vietnam in 2022 (by number of shops)
Extract B Leading coffee shop brands in Vietnam in 2022 (by number of shops)
Discuss how using job rotation might help The Coffee House to achieve this aim.
Sources for use with Section A
Extract A
Alibaba Group
The Alibaba Group was established in 1999. The business was inspired and led by entrepreneur Jack Ma, a former English teacher from China. Jack Ma and 17 other people invested in the business. From the beginning, the business focused on using technology to enable small businesses to grow and compete more effectively in the global economy. Its mission is ‘to make it easy to do business anywhere’. Jack Ma is now a billionaire.
The Alibaba Group’s first website allowed small Chinese exporters and entrepreneurs to sell internationally. The Alibaba Group has grown into a global leader in online and mobile commerce. It is a world recognised brand and the fastest growing e-commerce business, employing thousands of people. The Alibaba Group has expanded and now has many websites. Its three main websites are Alibaba, Taobao and Tmall. Alibaba is for business-to-business sales (B2B). Taobao is consumer-to-consumer sales (C2C), similar to eBay, though it does not charge a selling fee like competitors such as eBay. Tmall is for business-to-consumer sales (B2C), similar to Amazon. Transactions on its websites totalled $248 bn in 2018, which was more than eBay and Amazon combined.
The Alibaba Group has a programme called the ‘Tech For Change Initiative’ that aims to support female education through free online training and free access to computing resources. It aims to help one million women become computer developers by 2030. The Alibaba Group donates funding for healthcare for the underprivileged and for wildlife protection.
Extract B
Leadership of Jack Ma
Jack Ma, a Chinese entrepreneur and founder of the Alibaba Group, built a large team around him that trust his decision making. He is known for his paternalistic style of leadership. He believes in taking responsibility for the actions of the group.
In an interview, Jack Ma mentioned how his paternalistic leadership helped him to succeed. He said he gave his team the confidence to follow his commands as he took the responsibility for anything that went wrong. He also said that his job is to make sure his team is happy, because when the team is happy, they can make customers happy.
Assess the advantages of a paternalistic style of leadership for a business such as the Alibaba Group.
Source for use with Extract A About Li-Ning Li-Ning is a Chinese sportswear and sports equipment business. It was started by entrepreneur Li Ning, who was a successful Chinese gymnast. He won 106 gold medals in his long gymnastic career. He lit the Olympic torch at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Li started his business to provide Chinese athletes with sportswear for the Olympic games. The business developed to provide luxury sportswear to exclusive Chinese retailers. Under the leadership of Li, the business has grown rapidly and has begun to take market share in China from leading sportswear businesses such as Adidas and Nike. It advertises globally and sponsors several athletes and teams worldwide. Whilst the sportswear designs of Li-Ning aim to attract international customers, the business still focuses on retaining Chinese culture, heritage and traditions in its designs and marketing. It uses social media to gather feedback on its products. Product differentiation is key to the success of the business. Li-Ning employs a large team to develop new sports products using the latest technology. Through research and development, the business offers innovative and high-performance sports shoes, clothing and sports-equipment. Li-Ning designs and manufactures high quality, premium priced products for a range of sports, including:
• Basketball
• Badminton
• Table tennis
• Gymnastics
• Running
• Cycling
• Pickleball
As the business grew, Li had to move from being an entrepreneur to become the
leader of Li-Ning.
Discuss the possible difficulties Li may have met as a result of this move.