Analyzing a key business leader Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analyzing a key business leader - Essay Example Leadership plays a key role in the success of any business and can determine the success or failure of a business venture. Around the world, there are many notable leaders who have managed to steer their companies from small local enterprises to large multinational companies. Richard Branson is one such notable leader. An article entitled The importance of being Richard Branson (Knowledge@Wharton 1-3) reveals that Branson is the founder and owner of the Virgin Group – an empire of 350 companies with ventures in the airline, telecommunication, trains, cosmetic, credit card and several other industries. His empire is worth over 7 billion dollars and it employs over 9,000 people in 28 countries (Morris, par. He has also been recognized as one the 25 most influential leaders in the last 25 years. He is a leader who has mastered the ability to build successful brands and the ability to create a common purpose among his followers. At the core of Branson’s leadership style, is his belief that people, or more specifically his employees, are the foundation of his company success. A Wall Street Journal poll carried out in 2004 reported the following five characteristics as strengths that make a good leader; integrity, ability to get along with others, industriousness, intelligence, business knowledge and education (Ebersohn, 11). Branson’s integrity is perhaps best exemplified by his open and honest attitude to his employees. He believes that it is important that employees are aware at all times about the successes and the problems that the company is going through. He encourages the celebration of company successes and on the other hand also encourages his employees to suggest solutions and innovation to grow the company and solve any problems the company might be going through. Branson is known as a hard worker. His industriousness nature is often described as workaholic. His intelligence is manifested in his ability to identify good business

Improving Organisational Performance Assignment

Improving Organisational Performance - Assignment Example It is an ongoing process, where a supervisor should communicate the job responsibilities to an employee, make him/her aware of the expectations from him/her by the management and ensure that mutual understanding prevails between them. Performance management regularly monitors the position of the organisation and implements any skill development tools or training modules for the employees. The principle objective of performance management is to make optimum use of the resources that the employee is capable of to deliver (Parmenter, 2011). In the paper, the different performance management systems used by two large organisations in the UK i.e. Tesco PLC and Sainsbury’s in the retail segment will be discussed. The implications and challenges faced by the two organisations while implementing the performance management system will be observed in the paper and certain proposals will provided to the organisations to overcome those challenges. One of the largest British multinational grocery and general merchandise, Tesco, has spread its operations over 14 countries, employing over 492,000 people. The group after its incorporation in 1920 has extended over different sectors and formats. It has approximately 5,380 stores throughout 14 markets in Asia, Europe and the United States (Tesco PLC, 2012). United Kingdom’s oldest retailer, Sainsbury’s was originated in London in the year 1869. At present, it is the third biggest chain of supermarkets in the UK. It opened its first store in Drury Lane which sold eggs, milk and butter products. Later, the group has transformed itself from being a retail outlet with diversity in different sectors like Finance, Entertainment, Toys and Nursery (Sainsbury’s, 2012). Business Case for Tesco Tesco has introduced performance management in their organisation to analyze and to evaluate the performances of their employees. Therefore, performances in Tesco can be measured by tracking the results of a few of the fa ctors, namely, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), productivity, quality and safety. An employee’s productivity is measured by the quantity of work performed by the amount taken to do the work. Simultaneously, the quality factor falls in place when measuring productivity. Therefore, Tesco measures performance of the employees by measuring the KPIs. To measure the KPIs, Tesco introduced a management tool called â€Å"Steering Wheel†. It consists of four quadrants–‘Customer, Operations, People and Finance’ (TESCO an ADVENT Company, 2011). These quadrants are separated into small segments which focus on measuring the KPIs of each segment which are based on the targets achieved. The performances of an employee are communicated daily by their supervisors on the basis of their daily improvements, average performance in the group and within the organisation. This helps the employee to know where he/she stands in the group and what measures he/she should take to improve the average performance in the group (TESCO an ADVENT Company, 2011). Customer Operations Earn the reliability of the customers for lifetime All kinds of products are available Value for the prices Admirable staff and fast services Pleasurable shopping for the customers Work is clearly defined and it becomes simpler for the staff