Cross Cultural Management A study on Cadbury and Kraft Merger

Cross Cultural Management A study on Cadbury and Kraft Merger In the current era of globalization with the advancement in the technology, communication and the channels to access the external business world; the process of business has changed drastically. Corporate personnel and industry professionals are making effective decisions and are developing efficient strategies to sustain their competitive advantage in the market. Many new management disciplines like IT management, corporate governance, mergers acquisition, business continuity management and such new principles are becoming prominent. There are various reasons that are pointed out by the corporate firms which are behind these management concerns. They include cost cutting measures through economies of scale, global expansion, risk reduction, effective and efficient management practices and so on. Merger Acquisition is one of the effective ways to invest to gain market share and to expand the business. They help in global expansion, cutting costs, new knowledge and expertise acquisition, identification of niche areas across the global market, extension of customer base, accessing new technologies and many. Dealing with the integration of two similar or different companies, it also involves certain difficulties and issues to handle. Although companies are pursuing MA aggressively, it is found that 60-80% of them are financial failures regarding their performance in the stock markets or obtaining high profits (Salame, 2006). Through this study, I tried to understand the various management issues and concerns involved in the merger acquisition process with the help of Cadbury and Kraft merger. Kraft-Cadbury Merger: The Kraft takeover of Cadbury did not happen in a simple routine manner. It involved various management issues which had proved this event likely to shape future public policy towards acquisitions and corporate governance. The initial steps towards this strategic decision of acquiring Cadbury started in the year 2007 on 3rd October when Cadburys Somerdale factory plans that announced its to shut down the factory with a loss of 500 jobs and to invest the production in the Bourneville Plant of Birmingham to the new plant in Poland. In the year 2009 on September 7th, Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and CEO of Kraft stated that Kraft would be in a position to continue the Somerdale factorys operations without closing the plant and thus preserving United Kingdoms manufacturing jobs. But this statement given by the Kraft was not taken as granted by the Cadbury workforce before the takeover. The National Officer of the Unite the Union, which is a representative body of Cadbury workforce, Jennie Formby compared Kraft statement with the line there is no meat on the bones at all saying that there is no real intention of Kraft to come and save the jobs. Finally in the year 2010 on 19th of January, Cadbury announced the bid offer made by Kraft to its shareholders and the takeover is finally concluded on 2nd of February, 2010. But to the shock of the public and the stakeholders, Kraft, after a week of its confirmation of the takeover, announced that it would not be capable enough to maintain the Somerdale factory open and would like to approve the decision made by the Cadburys senior management to discontinue its operation. This decision made by Kraft immediately after the takeover led towards criticism. Marc Firestone, Executive President of Kraft Industries Inc. and Irene Rosenfield, CEO asserted their decision saying that before making a public statement Kraft was not aware of various factors like the internal structure of building, products of Cadbury in that facility, status of machinery and others (Mergers, acquisitions and takeovers, 2010 ) In this dramatic way, the whole process of acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft has been done making it an event that can shape the future endeavors of public towards takeovers, acquisitions and corporate governance. Inside Story of Cadbury and Kraft before Takeover Cadbury has faced many ups and downs throughout its journey especially under the visionary leadership of Todd Stitzer. Todd Stitzer working successfully for 20 years for Cadbury Schweppes has played a key role as a master mind behind the acquisitions of soft drinks industries made by Cadbury in US. He was later appointed as the chief strategy officer by John Sunderland to the confectionary side to achieve the similar success. The then competitors in the chocolates and sweets industry were the international companies Nestle, Mars, Kraft, Wrigley, Ferrero and Hershey. Stitzer said that acquisitions alone would not solve the problems of Cadbury. He said that the revenue growth model has to be revitalized to gain in the financial performance. Stitzer had developed many strategies, took some visionary steps and led Cadbury gain the business world with his strategic thinking. Stitzer and his management team aimed at the global domination in the Confectionary world, while the stakeholders w ere much worried about the financial performance. Overall with all his visionary leadership abilities and strategic decision making capabilities, Cadbury Schweppes split into pure confectionary leader Cadbury. Nelson Peltz, founder of the hedge fund Trian Fund Management also had his own role in the business of Cadbury. Irene Rosenfield, CEO, Kraft Food Industries Inc. had a keen interest in the confectionary business and proposed an offer to buy Cadbury to Carr, Chairman of Cadbury after Sunderland. Carr without consulting the stakeholders had refused the offer but Peltz who still owned the shares in the Cadbury with discussion and negotiation with Kraft finally made Cadbury lose its independence in January 2010. Impact of the Merger Cadbury-Kraft merger which involved a high dramatic and strategic process as discussed above has got its own pros and cons. Before analyzing the performance after a year later the takeover, there are certain agreements on which the takeover is being implemented. These include aspects like the brand name of Cadbury would be continued; previous commitments, pension arrangements would be honored and such, for at least two years. Regarding the business performance, the combined business has achieved profitable results despite of the difficult economic climate outside. It had improved the sales by 13% compared to 2009 and also has sold 300 million bars more comparatively. They improved and modified the corporate structure so as to combine the Cadburys successful chocolate history with the Krafts brand heritage. The combined systematic approach would create value and would help in economic and internal growth (Kraft Foods completes Cadbury takeover, 2010 ). There is high capital investment, support and commitment seen in the Cadburys RD sites so as to improve the combined business performance and the products. As we know, every coin has two sides; every decision would have pros and cons. As discussed above, the withdrawal made by Irene Rosenfield regarding the Somerdale factory led to the criticism from the workforce. Similar reaction is seen even after the takeover with many employees departing from the Cadbury. Kraft is trying to improve the relationship with local authorities so as to increase the employment opportunities. Due to the change in the working culture, a feeling of fear is seen among the employees to express their views and opinions. Kraft says Cadbury being a firm of values and heritage; we try to combine our efforts in bringing job satisfaction to employees and to outperform the market as well. (Update on progress made since Kraft Foods acquired Cadbury, 2011) To conclude, Kraft taking over Cadbury is not just acquiring an excellent company but establishing a strong connection with the public; so it has to work hard to prove and show the combined benefits of Cadbury and Kraft Foods.

Nike’s Ethical Dilemmas Going International Essay

Companies are faced with several ethical dilemmas when they decide to go international. They are faced with issues including child labor, hazardous working environments, below the livable wage earnings, long working hours, exploitation of natural resources, and bribery. For example, Nike was faced with many of these issues when they made the decision to go global. The company itself did not manufacture its own goods but rather outsourced their designs to manufacturing companies around the world. Nike’s main reason for doing this was to take advantage of the cheap labor overseas. However, this led them to be criticized because many people believed Nike was becoming rich by exploiting the hard work of underpaid workers. Most of these cases against Nike could have avoided if the company would have taken precautions about the ethically debatable working conditions that were going on in the subcontracted manufacturing companies. Nike could have researched the countries they were subcontracting their manufacturing to determine a livable wage. The company could then require their subcontractors to pay all of their workers at least a wage that could supply the needs of the individual worker. In doing this Nike could have avoided the criticisms about underpaying poor world workers for their input into the manufacturing companies. Also if Nike raised the wage enough to support the individual and their family it would prevent child labor from occurring. However, Nike should have also set a minimum age requirement with their subcontractors to ensure that no child labor laws were broken. A cap could have also been placed on the number of hours an individual could work per week to ensure that no one was being over worked in the manufacturing plants. With these requirements Nike would have keep itself safe from being convicted of having child labor, long working hours, and under payment to the workers in their subcont racted manufacturing plants. The subcontractors should have also been required to meet certain set of Health and Safety regulations to ensure that their workers were not exposed to any hazardous working environments. The factories should not allow any individual to be exposed to any level of chemicals that are above the Occupational Safety and Health Administration set limits for hazardous chemicals. To ensure that the companies were following these requirements Nike should have set up an auditing system that periodically checked on the factories to determine if they met all the requirements necessary to do business with Nike. The auditors in the system should be well informed of all of the safety and health requirements as well as the minimum age, wage, and amount of hours an individual is allowed to work per week. If any factory failed to meet the requirements within a set deadline the business agreement between Nike and the subcontractor would be terminated. If Nike would have set certain standards for their foreign factory subcontractors before they made manufacturing deals they could have avoided most if not all of the criticism concerning exploiting poor world workers for cheap labor. Making the right ethical decisions can be difficult to make especially when other companies are gaining an advantage by exploiting work of poor world workers. However, these benefits are only short term and they can lead to severe consequences down the road such as boycotts, lawsuits, and negative media. Doing the right thing can be costly but can have great benefits in the long run for a company. For example, if Nike portrays that it requires its subcontractors to have working environments that pass the Health and Safety regulations and well as it pays the workers a livable wage, it could boost sales in the United States because U.S. citizens like to know that poor world workers are protected from global companies trying to exploit their hard work for u nsustainable wages.

The Difference Between Essay Writing And Writing - 903 Words

Essay writing and report writing is quite much similar that many of people get confused in the difference between essay writing and report writing. Inspite of having some similarities, they both are written insignificantly different styles. Essay writing and report writing should be written in a formal academic style with checking of grammar,presentations and spelling . There are some similar things in essay writing and report writing because both start with an introduction, body with discussions and examine and then conclusions and both are established in inspective thinking. But essay writing and report writing,have some dissimilarity So writers should think about before planning a writing. For a particular question, In an essay writer are required to develop a logical argument . In essay there are no sub-headings to specify the structure of an essay. Linking between all stages should be clearly decided that what came before in order to introduce the next stage of the argument. To know about essay reader cannot read only a few lines to learn.,reader can must read complete essay to understand and how well you argue on your topic. In contrast, in report writing writer must indicate the structure clearly by using sub-headings for each section. Each section has a clear and understandable purpose. Occasionally the reader may wish to read one section of your report only to understand the whole report So each division be clearly clarified and should contain the type ofShow MoreRelatedAnalysis On The Data Collected For The Present Study1192 Words   |  5 Pagesstudy (i.e., pre-writing test, immediate-post-writing test, and delayed-post-writing test). It describes statistical analysis of the differences in the number of each cohesive device (i.e., reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunction) in the three tests conducted within and among three treatment groups (i.e., direct feedback group, coding with underline group, and control (no feedback) group). 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Comparing and Contrasting in English

Imagine you are participating in a discussion about ideas. Its not small talk. Its a discussion about how you feel about something important, like your beliefs, politics, who you feel is better for a job, and so on. Using the right phrases and grammar structures can help you express your ideas well. Knowing how to compare and contrast is a particularly useful tool to get your point across in an interesting way. Words and Short Phrases Used to Compare The following words or short phrases compare two items or ideas: likelikewisesame asas well asalso, toolikewise Here is a short paragraph using some of these expressions: Time, like money, is a limited resource. You cant buy everything you want, likewise, you dont have enough time to do everything you want to do. Our time is the same as our money: its limited. Also, time is a resource when work needs to be done. Words and Short Phrases Used to Contrast The following words or short phrases contrast two items or ideas: unlikein contrast toas opposed todifferent fromwhereas Here is a short paragraph using some of these expressions to contrast: Unlike time or money, desire is an unlimited resource. Think about it: In contrast to money which can run out, your desire for new experiences and ideas will never end. Whereas there is never enough time to do everything you want, your desire will always come up with something new and exciting. Forms Used When Comparing Ideas The most important form to use when comparing two ideas is the comparative form. For three or more ideas, use the superlative form. Comparative Form These sentences use the comparative form to discuss ideas concerning the difficult economy: Employment issues are more important than political problems at this point in time.Job training is more critical to a sustained well being than food stamps and other welfare programs. Politicians are more worried about reelection than truly improving the economy. As ... as A related form to the comparative is the use of as ... as. The positive form shows something is equal. However, when using as ... as, do not modify the adjective as in the comparative form. The loss of manufacturing jobs is as unfortunate as the drop in pay.Spending on education in my state is as high as in some foreign countries like Korea. The negative form shows that something is not equal. It isnt as easy as you think. The loss in production isnt as great as in the past. Superlative Form These sentences use the superlative form to state what someone feels are the most important aspect of success at university: Dedication is the most important factor in success at University. Opening my mind to new perspectives was the most rewarding part of my time at university. Conjunctions and Connectors Use these  subordinating conjunctions, connecting words, and prepositions to contrast positive and negative aspects. Though, Although, Even Though​ Although the initial cost will be high, we will eventually profit from the time spent. Its important to remember that time is money even though many believe that money is more important. However, Nonetheless We need to improve the local infrastructure. However, we must also respect nature. The government should invest in job training programs. Nonetheless, that would be expensive. Despite, In Spite Of Despite the difficulty, students will soon see the benefit of this topic of study. The situation will improve in spite of the economy. Practice Situations Find a partner and use these suggestions to practice comparing and contrasting ideas, events, and people. Make sure to vary the language you use when practicing rather than using the same phrase over and over again. For practice, you could try the following topics: Discuss the economic situation in your countrySpeak about the positive and negative aspects of a politician or political partyCompare and contrast two different courses at schoolConsider both sides of an important decision such as an investment, a career change, etc.