Moss Bros

Moss Bros Overview of organisation. â€Å"Moss Bros has been synonymous with quality and value in fine clothing for men for well over a century. The Groups unparalleled reputation in formal menswear and unrivalled commitment to customer service sets it apart in a world that demands only the best. A distinguished heritage is the cornerstone of Moss Bros, a dynamic and forward-looking organisation which spans such internationally renowned names as Canali, Beale Inman and Hugo Boss. In the UK, generations of style-conscious customers will know and trust the brands Moss Bros, Moss and Moss Bros Hire, Savoy Taylors Guild and Cecil Gee.† Taken from http://www.mossbros.co.uk/aboutUs/aboutUs.htm As shown above in this paragraph the five main aims are: * Quality * Value * Fine clothing * Reputation * Customer service The entire above are interlinked with each other as they all touch, for example quality is linked with fine clothing and it is important within a store dealing with clothes, if the customer isnt happy with this item due to â€Å"shoddy† materials then this customer might possibly not return to the store. This also links in with customer services because the situation should be dealt with in a professional manner to upkeep the professional appearance and reputation of the company itself. The company has many branches nationwide as well as around the globe it sells many fine clothing such as Hugo Boss, Versace, DG and more. Question 1 Research gathered will help perform a PESTLE analysis on a Moss Bros PLC. PESTLE analysis is a tool that helps organisations making strategies by helping them understand the external environment both in the present and the future. It uses simple methodology but the weakness of a PESTLE analysis is that it doesnt look at the organisations internal environment, its strengths or its weaknesses, but there are other theories for identifying these such as SWOT analysis. Looking at all the different factors that will affect Moss Bros, I will be using an analysis technique called PESTLE this stands for: * Political – (global, national, regional, local and community trends) * Economic – (world, national and local trends, changes) * Social – (culture, behaviour) * Technological – (computer aids) * Legal – (world, EU or national legislation changes) * Environmental – (global, EU, national, local issues or movements) Below is a diagram of the external environment/factors and in the centre of it all Moss Bros: As the diagram above shows how all the factors link into my business and affect it. Political – political and legal factors are closely link within Moss Bros and are both very similar. From a business perspective political impact can have an effect on costs, competitiveness, profitability, organisation behaviour, decision making, innovation, new product development. Also covered in political are; All the above show how complex the environment is and how many restraints and impacts HR have within Moss Bros. * Economic The economic impact of war and current terrorism may impact Moss Bros in the long term. Countries emerging from war normally suffer economic recessions because of the cost of war. If the war in Iraq is lengthy, then customer spending on items is likely to be cut as a measure of the uncertainty. The pressure to cut costs, given by companies further down the supply chain, may also have an impact, particularly on small- and medium- sized businesses. Other implications from the economic side of PESTLE could be the current world recession, lavish spending is at an all time low as people are watching what they spend and just as an organisation would look at saving money by cutting back so do people. The first thing that gets looked in most budgets is leisurely spending and spending money on the essentials such as food, water or bills not designer labels. HR resolutions could be cost cutting and stream lining to help reduce over heads and reduce the final product price meaning t he customer will get the same for less deeming it a better buy. * Social – People are becoming more body conscious in a sense vain; with this people are becoming more metro-sexual and more open to fashions and different styles. More people are turning to bigger names such as Hugo Boss, Versace or Gucci. This will improve sales and profitability for Moss Bros as a result but cheaper versions from other stores such as Topman or Primark take a massive chunk of the primary target market. But with this Moss should be aiming for a smaller higher paid market in order that the brands they sell are seen as classy and desirable. This in turn will bring some of the lower spending market to them as instead of spending  £100 and 2 or 3 things from Primark they may save up and buy only one thing from the store. * Technological – As time goes on efficiently is becoming a key factor in production, technology helps to cut down on wages and time consumption of the making up of the product, making it cheaper to make and keeping the prices the same, this making the customers satisfaction high and the company itself going and making more money with bigger profit margins, as improvement of technology means reduction on workers which in turn from an HR perspective means voluntary or force redundancies will be imposed. * Legal – Opening of a new store or maintaining it has many laws, rules and regulations, a few of them are Sale of Goods Act 1979 which states that â€Å"The Sale of Goods Act is the main piece of law helping buyers to obtain redress when their purchases go wrong.† Department of Trade and Industry [online] Business Guidance leaflet (www.businesslink.gov.uk) accessed on 18/12/09. The other laws such as Trade Descriptions Act 1968 or Sunday Trading Act 1994 these all are factors that Moss Bros have to take into consideration. Employment legislation links in with my organisation as the employment legalisation acts and policies dictates on what a business can and cant pay it staff (minimum wage) as well as what statutory rights they have or what holidays they are entitled to, this all has a knock on affect as these factors will cut into profit margins and budget of the organisation. Other impacts and legislations HR has to take into consideration are; * Environmental/ecological Globalisation is widening the marketplace so that competition not only comes from companies down the road but also on the other side of the world due to the invention of the internet. In order to compete in the market the company has to be the best at what it does, Moss Bros has to stand head over the rest to get noticed and to create the best customer loyalty from local, national and international customers based either in the stores or over the web. This factor interlinks in with all of the PESTLE factors as the market is growing so is the need for new staff, from an HR perspective this means recruitment and selection processes will need to be looked at in order to ensure that the best possible candidates are being chosen. Also this will have an impact on the national unemployment rate as it will help reduce it in the long term providing economic upturn also as less unemployment means more people are in jobs thus creating more money to spend on luxury it ems which Moss Bros provide. Other environmental factors that would directly have an impact on the organisation and HR would be carbon footprint and the companys efforts to join the rest of the world in reducing their own carbon footprint. This in itself would create more work for HR would boost company PR image. With Moss Bros having stores both nationally and internationally they have a lot of factors to take into consideration, three main factors that would affect Moss Bros directly are: * Recession in world markets – this would bring profits, productivity and sales down, as unemployment would be high and sales would be low this would be bad news for the company and its contractors/ sub contractors. * Increase in oil prices – if this were to happen again then eventually it would cut into the companys profit as more money would be spent on the production of the garments and items then there would be less profit. * Changes in consumer spending – if the public decided that they had better things to spend their money on, for example cars, house or living then again this change would cut into the businesses profit and overall total income as there would be most likely a slump in the retail industry, this was seen last year as there was the first slump in clothing retail/retail for 20 years. Question 3 A stakeholder can be any person or organization; they can be positively or negatively influenced by the organisation or they can cause an influence on the actions of a company. Types of stakeholders are: * Primary stakeholders these are people who are those directly affected by the companies actions whether it be positively or negatively. * Secondary stakeholders are the â€Å"middle men† who are indirectly affected by an organizations actions. * Key stakeholders can also fall into the first two groups have a great influence within an organization. Further analysing stakeholders, identifying and categorising stakeholders on Moss Bros. Internal stakeholders are people who own the company, employed by the company or an own part in it like shareholders, employees or managers. All these people above work for the company (apart from silent share holders or investors who can be both internal and external stakeholders) and therefore directly get involved in the day to day operation of the company, these people will help make or break the company. There responsibility towards the company is to maintain and keep up good working standards for the company. Shareholders have a say in what the company has to do but if they dont have a large percentage of shares within the company then there words wont be heard as loudly as for example as someone who has 51% of the company shares. But with anything there is safety and loudness in numbers for example, Moss in store advisors are employed as customer service assistants but are on commission for every  £1000 of items of clothes sold. If Moss looked over this and identified that with the current climate recession this pay scheme needed to be cut back in order to cut over heads this may because a strike by the staff affected (managers/ supervisors/ advisers) with this HR would have to negotiate more up to date cheaper incentives for staff to keep motivated and passionate about selling up on brands. Human resource stream lining which is constantly monitored by the human resource department could be looked into by looking at the overall set up of the company structure this would have a positive and a negative effect of its internal and external stakeholders as redundancies and layoffs would occur but in turn the company would see the benefits in reducing its over heads and monthly salary pay out. This making the company a more efficient and cost effective company. Creating investment desirability from new investors on the stock market, possible mergers from other big high street names such as â€Å"house of Fraser†. External stakeholders are customers, competitors, suppliers, central and local government agencies, banks, trade associations. These stakeholders dont have many if any direct towards the company itself but they do affect it. For example the government is thinking about bringing out a new legislation that states that retail outlets cant stay open any later than 10 hours per day, this would directly affect Moss Bros because most of their stores are open 9am till 9pm this means they would have to redo there opening and closing times causing administration to work perhaps overtime along with other areas of the office, but some stores will result in disruption and this may have an effect on customers as if they are not informed of this change they might come to the conclusion that there store has closed and mightnt return causing a loss in profits. The trading times will have to be well thought out either by the managers of the stores affected or the department that deals with time tables and rotas which is usually personnel. Government bodies and banks have power to influence Moss Bros as well as any other organisation with the interest rates, VAT or inflation rates that they impose. Positive implications for Moss Bros could get grants from the government for bringing jobs to a high level of unemployment area. Instead of outsourcing there manufacturing to foreign labour they could promote that they manufacture there goods in the UK, this would be good promotion for the organisation and the cost of bring the work over here (minimum wages and standards) could be offset by these grants by the government. Stakeholder Mapping is a strategic business tool which identifies and assesses the effect of a different individuals or group of stakeholders in an organisation. It looks at the possible power in which a stakeholder can have; it also shows the possibility of them using their power to change to company organisation and their level of interest in the organisations activities. Stakeholders within the company are put into categories based on their rating and put into the following groups; â€Å"Low interest/low power (A) The company may require little or no effort to be focused on this group. The stakeholders pose no threat due to a lack of both interest and power. High interest/low power (B) This group has a high interest but has little power to exercise control so they can be maintained through the management of information to keep them informed of company events. Low interest/high power (C) – may not realise there overall power they have over the company but should satisfied. But because of their low interest in activities they are unlikely to exert or cause significant disruption. High interest/high power (D) – A company must try to satisfy this group first as they have the power to affect the company and have a high likelihood that they will use their power.† G. Johnson K. Scholes, Exploring Corporate Strategy, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002. This diagram has been recreated by the author. The benefits of an organisation using this tool is that when a project is getting planned then this tool will help identify which group are most likely to be affected by the organisations decisions. Also it helps identify ways to improve communication with stakeholders via their interest in the company. In Moss Bross case a stake holders who is interested in the company but has very little power may just need an email or leaflet to be kept up to date, but a stakeholder who is a â€Å"key player† may and more than likely will want a great involvement with company decisions no matter how small. Question 9 Demographics are the trends within a country, cotenant or on a global scale it describes the changes in a population over a certain time. For example, the average age of a population may increase over time. Certain restrictions may be set in place changing those numbers. For example, China with the one child policy. Demographics are generalisations about groups of people. Information gathered is not about specific to individuals. The weaknesses of demographic profiling are that such a broad approach can only offer a limited view of the information gathered and that the use of these are debatable. Also most demographic information is culturally biased. But still demographics can be useful for statistics, when a government wants to know about its nations political and economic state. â€Å"The first is an enumeration of the number of inhabitants distinguished by age, sex, and occupation. The second involves a continuous record of population trends from the registration of births, marriages, and burials. The third is documentation of the extent of internal and external migration† From Wikipedia Demography of the United Kingdom [Online] (Updated 16 Jan 2009) Available at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom [Accessed 14th December 2009]. Demographics are gathered by government by Censuss sent out to all UK households; they ask a range of structured questions to gather the nations current population make up. An example can be seen in appendix 1. Following some in depth research into demographics in the UK, the positive effects on a telecommunications company such as â€Å"T-Mobile† or â€Å"Orange†, an increase in population will mean that a wider selection of candidates and applicants (with the correct advertisement for the role in the appropriate places ) will be sourced from the local and national population. For example if human resources selecting a wider group of applicants they will give recruitment officers a choice of being â€Å"picky† in the recruitment process in order to get the best from the selection gathered. Meaning it will attract a higher performing work force because more people and the same jobs means that the ratio people to jobs are higher (3:1 = 3 people for every job) this means higher levels of applicants will apply for the role will have a higher skills set. Also this applies for languages; ethnicity and religion groups within the UK if they apply for the role within the organi sation the company will gather a wider scope of workers and a broader set of skills. Full research and data from demographics can be found in appendix 2. The population of the United Kingdom in the 2001 census was 58,789,194. This has since risen to 60,587,300 according to mid-2006 estimates by the Office for National Statistics.† Part Population (mid-2006) % (mid-2006) England 50,762,900 83.8 Scotland 5,116,900 8.4 Wales 2,965,900 4.9 Northern Ireland 1,741,600 2.9 United Kingdom 60,587,300 100 â€Å" (1 July 2006 population estimates by UK National Statistics) This would be useful in most departments in the organisation especially in sales as some customers can identify and relate to certain selling techniques and salesmen which can originate from different cultures. For example most of the United Kingdoms culture can be seen as typical â€Å"British Empiricism, a branch of the philosophy of knowledge that states that only knowledge verified by experience is valid, Britain is also notable for a theory of moral philosophy, Utilitarianism† From Wikipedia Demography of the United Kingdom [Online] (Updated 16 Jan 2009) Available at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_United_Kingdom [Accessed 14th December 2009]. This meaning â€Å"Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy, generally operating on the principle that the utility (happiness or satisfaction) of different people can not only be measured but also meaningfully summed over people and that utility comparisons between people are meaningful. That makes it possible to achieve a well-defined societal optimum in allocations, production, and other decisions, and achieve the goal utilitarian British philosopher Jeremy Bentham described as the greatest good for the greatest number. From Utilitarianism from Econterms [Online] (Updated 16 Jan 2009) Available at: en http://economics.about.com/od/economicsglossary/g/utilitarian.htm [Accessed 14th December 2009]. From this, selling to the general customer should be sold products by experienced staff who know and have a excellent knowledge on the product there selling on, both being able to identifying the customer needs and the business needs. Negative effects on telecommunications organisations from an HR perspective is with attracting a higher level work force can affect turnover of staff, as company retention may be low because the applicants may think that they are too good for the job and may be using it as a â€Å"stepping stone† or â€Å"experience gathering job† for a higher earning more prosperous job. Also costs to the organisation could be high as to pay back the initial investment of training is normally at least 6 to 12 month of employment. Generally people in the UK prefer (if there account is based in the UK) to be dealt with by a UK call agent. This again can be costly to a company if this is a consumer must, as offshore outsourcing is cheaper than that in the UK as minimum wage is less and labour is cheaper for building costs and over heads. Human resource implications from this could be a loss of custom due to the language barrier from offshore centres and the general moral stance by that particular customer. The remedies for this could be to only give the offshore teams particular roles, for example email replies, administration roles or computer based account management and have the UK call centres deal primarily for answering general, technical and sale calls. An ageing UK population combined with the trend for employees to undergo multiple career changes throughout their working life is likely to have some effect on the company as more people will have more money to spend as average pay goes up due to inflation and general pay increases as does the quality of life meaning more leisure money to spend. Also within these questions are asked usually questions about employment status or pay grade this is to gather a social grade definition for the nation. A positive implication towards HR within a telecommunication organisation could be the same as recruitment mentioned earlier where a high level of management or skills will be generated which can be seen as an â€Å"upper class† of workers. Towards the sales environment if the general population has a high pay grade then social and leisure spending will be high if the economy is in a fit state and not in a recession or slump. People will still look for a bargain but wont (as a general rule of thumb) be watching always what they spend going over there allowance and money wont be as tight as it would be in a recession and may not call customer services querying there bill for the money that they have spent back which would increase calls for the call centres and possibly the stores. But with this high level or skills set it means that some out sourcing may need to be outsourced as primarily telecommunication is in the tertiary sector which is services but needs the manufacturing sector (secondary sector) to install, build and maintain the masts and buildings of operation. If a recession hits the economy as it has done now the company would feel the effects of this. The company and the customer may very well be in a 30 day, 12, 18 or 24 month contract but it doesnt always mean they will pay their bills on time or even at all. This means that the companies finance and collection department will have a higher work load to take on and cash flow would slow down and cut backs in some areas would have to be thought throw by HR this causing conflict and worry for staff throughout the organisation. Recession in world markets – this would bring profits, productivity and sales down, as unemployment would be high and sales would be low this would be bad news for the company and its contractors/ sub contractors. Increase in oil prices – if this were to happen again then eventually it would cut into the companys profit as more money would be spent on the production of the garments and items then there would be less profit. Methodology section The assignment lay out comes in three parts for a portfolio presentation. Part 1 Evidence that relays knowledge and understanding of the main themes and issues covered by the module and answer questions to 3 out of 9 questions/exercises. Part 2 3 – methodology and learning reflection. Within this assignment I the author have gathered some strong data supporting the critical analysis written. Use of academic theories examples were made from both real life situations and case studies were used to support the debate. The analysis consists of research from text books, research from web based forums/ pages and past experience that I have had working in different organisations. Furthermore, trying to look at possible scenarios and points of view of all areas of the debate (question) was applied to the assignment in order for the reader to grasp a better understanding of the authors intentions of explanation. Primary and secondary data was collected from journals and texts book and for more up to date information the researcher used the internet. For this particular assignment this was the best approach of research following past experience. Lack of some key s and data hinder efforts to further critically analysis some areas in questions 1 and 3. The research design was more qualitative than quantitative as the aim is a complete and a detailed description rather than to classify features, count them or explain what is observed. Learning reflection section This module has been very interesting it has led the researcher to learn several things and grounded a deeper knowledge of the above areas. I feel that knowledge is vital, but it is useless without the practical side, in order to learning anything you have to notice on some level (whether it is conscious or unconscious). The work has to be decoded and made into the readers own understanding. Upon this I have found that a grasp of different side of the spectrum has been gained as this is present in the writing provided. An example of this is that from the research into stake holder analysis I didnt understand which communication routes stake holders were informed of company progress. It was rather interesting also to see how different stake holders were informed of different methods and information. From a human resources perspective knowledge gained were not only theoretical but also applicable to the general businesses and potential future employment. Other skills sets that were upd ated and learned through this assignment was the lay out and correct presentation of work in a portfolio method, I have done these before but not to this standard. Also the depth and obstacles that hinder an organisation both in the day to day operation and future planning and even to the degree of changing something within the company, reading into and understand conflict management was a great tool and theory gained and overall I think I have gained a high level of learning via this portfolio. Furthermore I already had covered some of the topic areas in previous years but I found that further reading and continuous learning will give me a better insight into the understanding of an organization and explore new avenues. I did feel however that the module wasnt directly linked to human resources but some of the context and implications could be used in future references, assignments and possibly future careers. Appendix 1 Question 9 Demographic Questions (Government Census) Are you†¦ PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX †¦male  £ †¦female  £ What is your age? PLEASE WRITE IN Do you have any long-term illness, health problem or disability which limits your daily activities or work you can do? (include problems which are due to old age) PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX Yes  £ No  £ What is your ethnic group? PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX White Asian or Asian British British  £ Indian  £ Irish  £ Pakistani  £ Other white background  £ Bangladeshi  £ Mixed Other Asian background  £ White Black Caribbean  £ Black or Black British White Black African  £ Caribbean  £ White Asian  £ African  £ Other Mixed background  £ Other Black background  £ Chinese  £ Any other group  £ What is your full postcode?  £  £  £  £  £  £  £ Does your household own or rent the accommodation in which you live? PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX Owns outright  £ Rents from a housing association  £ Owns with a mortgage or loan  £ Rents from a private landlord  £ Pays part rent and part mortgage (shared ownership)  £ Accommodation is a residential home or student halls  £ Rents from the Council  £ Other  £ What is your current employment status? PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX Self-employed  £ Employed full time (30 hours or more a week)  £ Employed part time (less than 30 hours a week)  £ Unemployed but have worked previously  £ Unemployed and have never had a paid job  £ Unable to work due to illness or disability  £ Retired  £ Student  £ Looking after home/family (this is your main activity and none of the other options apply to you)  £ What is your religion? PLEASE TICK (à ¼) ONE BOX None  £ Jewish  £ Christian (including Church of England, Catholic, Protestant and all other Christian denominations)  £ Muslim  £ Buddhist  £ Sikh  £ Hindu  £ Any other religion  £ From Demographic Questions[Online] (Updated 16 Jan 2009) Available at: www.oldham.gov.uk/community_cohesion_demographic_questions.rtf [Accessed 14th December 2009]. Appendix 2 Question 9 Ethnicity 2001 ethnicity of the English population 2007 ethnicity of the English population The change in Englands ethnic minority population (2001 2007) The 2001 census and 2007 estimates state the following ethnic groups: Ethnic group 2001 population 2001 percentage 2007 population 2007 percentage White: British 42,747,136