G4S Company Analysis | Best Homework Writers

Functions of a Manager

Planning– Managers are responsible for coming up with a plan for the company to meet its goals and objectives. It involves distributing employees, resources, and relegating responsibilities. They also set realistic timelines and standards for completion of projects. Managers must continuously check the progress of employees to make necessary adjustment when needed, keeping in mind a clear picture of the company’s bigger goals.

Organizing– Managers organize the internal processes and structures keeping in mind which teams or employees are the best for tasks. They provide the necessary resources for the employees and reorganize the team when new challenges arise.

Leading– Managers are supposed to comfortably command team members tasks whenever the need arises. They should give the employees a sense of direction and leadership as they set goals and communicate new products, services and processes. Leadership should also manifest through recognizing when employees require reinforcement or praise and to settle conflicts at work decisively.

Controlling– Managers constantly monitor employee performance, the efficiency and reliability of completed projects, and the quality of work. They make sure the ultimate goals are met and make the necessary changes once they are not met.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Distribution and Reach: G4S has many outlets in almost every state, supported by a strong distribution network that makes sure that its products are available easily to many customers in a timely manner.

Cost Structure: G4S’s low-cost structure helps it produce at a low cost and sell its products at a low price, making it affordable for its customers.

Dealer Community: G4S has a strong relationship with its dealers that not only provide them with supplies but also focus on promoting the company’s products and training.

Financial Position: G4S has a strong financial position with consecutive profits in the past 5 years, along with accumulated profit reserves that can be used to finance future capital expenditures.

G4S has a large asset base, which provides it with better solvency.

The geography and location of G4S provide it with a cost advantage in serving its customers, when compared to that with the competition.

G4S has a well-established IT system that ensures efficiency in its internal and external operations.

Weaknesses

1. High Day Sales Inventory: The time it takes for a product to be purchased and sold is higher than the industry average, meaning that G4S builds up its inventory, which adds unnecessary storage costs to the business.
2. Rented Property: A significant proportion of the property that G4S owns is rented rather than purchased. It must pay large amounts of rent on these adding to its costs.
3. Low current ratio: The current ratio that shows the company’s ability to meet its short-term financial obligations, is lower than the industry average. This could mean that the company could have liquidity problems in the future.
4. The company has low levels of current assets compared to current liabilities, and this can create liquidity problems for it in operations.
5. Cash flow problems: There is a lack of proper financial planning at G4S regarding cash flows, leading to certain circumstances where there is not enough cash flow as required leading to unnecessary unplanned borrowing.
6. Integration: G4S ‘s current structure and culture have resulted in the failure of various mergers aimed at vertical integration.

Opportunities

1. The growth in consumer spending in the economy is likely to increase consumption for G4S ‘s products.
2. Several new niche markets have opened and are growing. G4S can sell products in these markets and take advantage.
3. Globalization: Increased globalization does not restrict G4S to its own country. It can extend its operations to other countries, entering these markets and making use of the opportunities that lie in these markets.
4. Consumers within the industry are becoming more conscious of health, and this is a segment that is growing. G4S can take advantage by manufacturing products that are beneficial to customer’s health.
5. Trade barriers have been reduced on the import of goods. This will reduce the costs incurred on inputs for production.
6. Regulations have loosened in recent years making it easier for businesses to carry out their operations.

Threats

1. The fluctuating interest rates in the country do not provide a stable financial and economic environment.
2. Consumer tastes are changing, and this puts pressure on companies to constantly change their products to meet the needs of these customers.
3. Regulations on international trade keep changing, and this requires compliance by companies if they are to operate globally.
4. Substitute products available are also increasing, which is threat collectively for the whole industry as consumption of current products decrease.
5. The rise in prices of fuel has increased in the input costs for G4S . These costs have also increased as other industries that provide inputs for this company also have suffered from increasing fuel prices, thereby charging more.
6. Increased promotions by competitors have been a threat for G4S . On most media, there is more clutter than ever, and customers are bombarded with multiple messages. This reduces the effectiveness of promotional messages by G4S .
7. Constant technological developments require the workforce to be trained accordingly as the inability to keep up with these changes can lead to loss of business for G4S .

Categories of Planning

Strategic Planning

The planning looks into the reason behind things happening. The long-term thinking focuses on the bigger picture and has a mission and a vision. It looks into the high-level decisions of the entire business, and is employed to come up with long-term decisions spanning between two and ten years.

Tactical Planning

Tactical plans are based on what is going to happen on a short-term basis. They are specific, short-term, and focused where the work is being done. They support strategic planning and are chunks of the high-level strategic plans.

Operation Planning

Operational planning is focused on how things are supposed to happen to attain the mission. It describes the daily operations of the organization. They are created for short term plans such as events or ongoing activities such as policies, rules, and regulations.

Contingency Planning

Contingency plans are made when something random happens or when there is need for something to be changed. It should be expected even when other primary types of planning are engaged in moments when changes cannot be foreseen.

Benchmarking and Core Competencies

Benchmarking is the process of measuring the services, products, and processes based on organizations that are the best known in the field of operation. It involves comparing the best industry practices to the organizations practices. Core competencies are the skills, products, services, capabilities, and resources that make up the strategic advantages of a business. They are the tools that businesses use to keep up or stay ahead of competition.

Managers’ Concerns with Adapting Change

Change in an organization initiates many positive aspects in the organization. It keeps the employees and the organization on the competitive edge and helps them to remain relevant in the business’ field of operation. Change motivates innovation, fosters development of better skills among staff, and leads to better business opportunities. It also promotes staff morale.

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory suggests that people are motivated by five categories of needs: physiological, safety, esteem, love, and self-actualization. Physiological needs are basic physical needs such as drinking when thirsty. Some of these needs are ones that involve efforts to meet the body’s need for homeostasis. They are the most important needs and are given the priority to meet. Safety is the second requirement that one needs to meet. Since childhood, it is visible that children need to be in safe environments, react with anxiety and fear once the needs are not met. Adults demonstrate the need for safety by purchasing insurance and preferring to purchase familiar things and find it hard to try new things (Kenrick et al., 2010).

Love and belonging lies third in the hierarchy. It includes romantic relationships and attachment to friends and family. Having social connections is related to better physical health and its absence is associated to poor health and general well-being. Esteem follows in the hierarchy. It involves the need for humans to feel good about themselves. It involves self-confidence and feeling good and happy about ourselves. There is also the need to feel loved by others and that the achievements and contributions are noticed by other people. When the need is not met the person suffers feelings of inferiority. Self-actualization is the last item in the hierarchy. It is the feeling that one is fulfilled and living up to their potential. It is unique for every person. It is very rare is achieved by feeling that one is doing what one is meant to do.

Theory X and Theory Y Managers

Theory X managers operate from a pessimistic point of view of their employees (Lawter et al., 2017). They assume that the employees are unmotivated and hate their work. They think that the employees require to be prompted, punished, or rewarded constantly to ensure they complete their tasks. The managers are authoritarian and actively ensure that things are done.

Theory Y managers embrace an optimistic opinion of their workers. They engage in a decentralized, participative approach of management. There is a collaborative relationship that engages trust with the team members. Appraisals are frequent but they are meant to motivate open communication.

Six Steps in Selecting Employees

Announcing the job

Once a vacancy is determined in the company, the management comes up with the qualifications for the job. The human resources team decides where to advertise the job and may include staffing agencies or recruiters at this stage (Daniels et al., 2017).

Reviewing Candidate Applications

Involves going through the resumes, applications, and cover letters to reduce the candidate pool. It is done by discarding those that stray far away from the required minimum expectations.

Conducting Initial Candidate Screening

Phone interviews are used in this phase to narrow down the pool. It enables the screening of how well the interviewees communicate. However, the interviews cannot be used as the sole method of judging personality or professionalism, but it gives an insight of the candidate’s appropriateness.

Conducting In-person Interviews.

With a reduced number of candidates, it is possible to set up in-person interviews for better assessment of their qualifications. Interaction with the candidate enables assessing the candidate’s ability to communicate and whether the company culture suits him. It is necessary that an employee who will be working with them will be precent in the interviewing process.

Making Final Candidate Selection

Once the interviews are completed, the hiring manager narrows down to the best fit for the job. It is necessary that there is a runner up just in case the selected candidate declines the job offer.

Testing the Candidate

Before an applicant is brought in as a new employee, the management offers an employment offer which is conditional on passing tests or a background check. If they pass the test, the job is theirs.

The Kodak Corporation

1. Give me your opinion of why Kodak failed.

Kodak lacked understanding of the fact that their once effective strategy of traditional film cameras was depriving the company of success. They failed to embrace the new technology of digital cameras which was invented by an employee in the company and stuck to traditional cameras. By the time they upgraded to digital cameras, it was too late since competitors had already established themselves (Roychowdhury, 2019).

1. Knowing what you know now about this organization, if you had been the President of Kodak during the 1990’s, what would you have done differently to keep the company prosperous?

I would embrace the new technology and shift to manufacturing digital cameras. I would have helped to build a reputation in the digital cameras field keeping up with competitors.

1. How can today’s businesses and organizations avoid the fate of being a Kodak?

Businesses should embrace change and keep up with the constantly and rapidly changing technologies. They should also listen to employees’ suggestions and listen be ready to take risks in using new inventions.

The Most Important Interview Question of all Time

1. Document/explain your Most Significant Accomplishment that you have completed in your professional career. For example, explain how you achieved this accomplishment, what constraints did you overcome, how many people were involved, what was the budget for this project and was it enough, etc. I can assure you that you will be asked this question in your interview for your career job so make this good.
   1. If you lack work experience then choose an event that you have accomplished in an academic setting

Accomplishment

My most significant accomplishment in my professional career is receiving a promotion at my workplace. I was employed as a manager of the tracking department but I am now the unit manager of the entire branch. I earned my promotion by working hard and getting noticed by the seniors. I was promoted the moment the previous manager left due to my determination of working to be the best.

References

Kenrick, D. T., Griskevicius, V., Neuberg, S. L., & Schaller, M. (2010). Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations. Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 5(3), 292–314. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691610369469

Daniels, K., Gedikli, K., Watson, D., Semkina, A., & Vaughn, O. (2017) Job design, employment practices and well-being: a systematic review of intervention studies, Ergonomics, 60:9, 1177-1196, DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2017.1303085

Lawter, L., Kopelman, R. E., & Prottas, D. J. (2015). McGregor’s theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis. Journal of Managerial Issues, 27(1-4), 84-101.

Roychowdhury, K. (2019). A case study on kodak downfall.pdf. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336613727_A_case_study_on_kodak_downfallpdf