Carrefour - Company Presentation

Introduction:

Over the past 40 years, the Carrefour group has grown to become one of the world’s leading distribution groups. The world’s second-largest retailer and the largest in Europe, the group currently operates in four main grocery store formats: hypermarkets, supermarkets, cash&carry and convenience stores. The Carrefour group currently has over 9,500 stores, either company-operated or franchises.

Vision and Mission Statement

       Vision: Carrefour has one simple ambition to be the preferred  retailer wherever it operates.

Mission: Carrefour is totally focused on meeting the expectations of its customers. Our mission is to be the benchmark in modern retailing in each of our markets. As a global retailer, Carrefour is committed to enabling as many people as possible to purchase consumer goods, in accordance with the principles of fair trade and sustainable development.

 Management Structure:

Carrefour has a hierarchical structure with a more functional managerial organizational structure.  Their organization is such that the President of supervisory board and President of management board forms top of the hierarchy. Below him the Director of Organization and Systems and the Director of Merchandise and Marketing.  Beyond the functional divisions lies the director for each specific global zone or region for which Carrefour is located. 

This organizational structure works very efficiently for Carrefour.  It delegates, to the major functions of the large corporation, the abilities to handle all of the necessary business dealing requested by each separate division.  Allowing each function to know the dealings of each division allows them to compare better how each division is performing compared to the other divisions.  This also allows for a more standardized means of coordinating the functions of each division, limiting confusion and overlapping responsibilities.  Carrefour has several types of “products” (stores) and is located in over 20 countries, which would make a divisional structure very complex.

Awards and Recognition

1.    2011 Qualiweb customer relations award: Carrefour won the 2011 Qualiweb customer relations award in the corporate category.

2.     Top Employeur:   Carrefour wins a “Top Employeur” (Top Employer) award by CRF Institute for the second consecutive Year in 2010 in recognition of its performance in the field of human resources.

3.    Enseignes d’Or awards: On the occasion of the 19th Enseignes d’Or awards, the Carrefour Group was presented with the Enseigne d’Or de l’Efficacité (Golden Banner for Effectiveness)  for its new urban convenience concept, Carrefour City.

4.     UN Civil Society Award:  Carrefour received the “United Nations Civil Society Award” aimed at initiatives combating drugs. In cooperation with the Colombian government the company has helped families to grow alternative crops, such as coffee or fruit, instead of producing coca. 

5.    Carrefour ranked 5^th Carrefour was ranked 5^th in by Accountability in the “Fortune Global 100 Accountability Rating 2005” as well as by Innovest in its study on the Integration of Responsible Practices In Business Activity. 


CSR Activities

  

Carrefour Malaysia has taken an initiative to offer job to the handicapped people. This move is in line with the companies Corporate social responsibility which seeks to create equality in workplace by putting an end to the prejudice and discrimination often experienced by the disabled community.


Everyday Carrefour employees actively pursue initiatives related to its stores, logistics and own-brand products in order to reduce the Group’s impact on the environment. For example Carrefour actively promotes sustainable forestry through its partnership with WWF and the sourcing of FSC certified wood products. Carrefour has integrated environmental criteria into its paper purchasing and has made a life cycle analysis of both its catalogues and its check-out bags. Carrefour has launched a line of frozen fish products which guarantee the conservation of stocks and environmental protection, thus promoting responsible fisheries. Every year Carrefour’s business units organise awareness raising campaigns in partnership with local authorities and local NGOs for the UN World Environment Day. 

The Group is also engaged in promoting good nutrition through product development and information campaigns.

The company values: freedom, responsibility, sharing, respect, integrity, solidarity and progress are shared throughout the group, along with a code of ethics and regular dialogue with worker representatives

Customer Retaining Policy

Customer retention is very important in any of the business.

When it comes to service marketing this factor becomes more crucial. Carrefour has done a lot to make the customer loyal to the company. Following are some of the measures taken by Carrefour to make the customer visit the store frequently.

1.   The spacious and the comfortable shopping environment help the     customer to spend more time in the store.

2.   The merchandise was neatly displayed to help customer to easily find the commodities they needed.

3.   In 1995 they introduce a loyalty program called Spes Amica, which was based on the loyalty card used by the customer.

4.   Customer details were collected at the point of sale, further data analysis was done to enable CF to identify and classify customers on the basis of customer attributes combined with customer behaviour.

5.   To increase the loyalty, customers using the Spes Amica cards were given extra discounts, additional points toward a gift in a prize catalogue, entertainment offers, and special coupons.

6.    CF also offers supplementary services like free delivery for big appliances, free shopping for the everyday lucky customer, free parking, and goods return and exchange facility within 15 days etc.

7.    Website and toll free number help the customer to register their compliance so that an immediate resolution can be taken by CF.

Employee Satisfaction Measures

Carrefour believes that "The employees are a crucial part of a successful commerce business".

1.   Following are some of the facts related to Carrefour as an Employer.

2.    3 billion customers visit Carrefour stores every year475 000 employees in the world / 295 000 in Europe

3.   The 7th biggest private employer in the world

4.    More than 100 000 persons were recruited by Carrefour in 2009

              (Permanent contracts)

5.   Every day Carrefour employees serve or help to serve millions of customers and consumers in our various stores and trades

6.    In France, 75 % of the employees in Hypermarkets live less than 5km away from their stores.

7.    90% of the decisions of recruitment are taken in the area where the store is Located

Example of Romania

1.   There are around 9 000 employees working for Carrefour Romanian 2009

2.   There was no trade union before 2009.

3.   In 2009 UNI and Carrefour management promoted together the creation of trade unions inside Carrefour

4.   A first collective agreement was signed in 2010.

5.   Thanks to these negotiations between management and social partners employees got a collective salary increase, food tickets, better conditions for weekends etc.

Social dialogue at a European level

1.    A European Work Council since 1996 with 30 members from each European country

2.    One global meeting per year and 3 or 4 steering committees.

3.    Information on Carrefour group strategy at a European and national level

4.   Exchanges on good HR practices

SWOT ANALYSIS OF CARREFOUR:

STRENGTH

1.   Carrefour is the largest hypermarket chain in terms of size.

2.    Second Highest revenues in the retail industry after Wal-mart.

3.    Ranked third in terms of profit in the industry after Tesco and Wal-mart.

4.   Joint ventures in different countries

5.   Large network of Discount, grocery and convenience stores, cash and carry, hypermarkets.

6.   Employee base of approximate 495,000 around the globe

7.    Pioneer in hypermarkets especially in France.

8.    Selling number of products with its own private brands.

9.   Strong brand in the world of retail industry.

10.             More than 50% sales of the company come from France.

11.             Operating in 33 countries.

WEAKNESSES

1.   Reduce operating expenses.

2.   Weak position in Asia and Middle east countries

3.   Labour relations

4.   Taking too much time in opening new stores.

5.   Has not been able to attract Japanese customers

6.   Weak own brand sales

7.   Poor E-commerce performance.

OPPORTUNITIES

1.    Joint ventures and acquisition for more expansion

2.    Discount stores development

3.    Improve sale performance

4.   Reduce operating cost

5.    Research and development required in marketing area to understand the dynamics of different segment.

6.    Maintain better labour relations.

THREAT

1.   Threat from Walmart and Tesco who are bigger player than   Carrefour

2.    Recent controversies in Asia

3.   Declining sales in Europe due to Euro-crisis

4.   Change in management structure.

Three Monks

Yet another interesting lecture of POM and the excitement knew no bounds when we were told to watch a film. Just relax, feel comfortable, recline in your chairs and enjoy a 15 minute film on the projector. The lights were switched off and the movie was projected in the big screen. The only thing missing was a popcorn tub and a bottle of Pepsi but that was too much to ask for.  

 Let  me give you a premise to this short film. It is a short Chinese animated film released in 1990 directed by A DA. It was one of the most beloved films of the shanghai animation film production house. It was won many film festival awards throughout the world.

Hope you enjoy this rather simple story but having great wealth of knowledge.

Now that you have enjoyed the film, Lets me discuss a few things that I learned from it
Let us divide this story into four Parts

Take One

Here we see that the first monk has a happy and cheerful way of going about things.  He reaches the monastery atop the mountain. He sees the withering plant and decides to nourish it with water.  He readily fills two buckets of water from the river flowing at the bottom of the hill. He continues this routine for many days. Initially he is full of vigour and enthusiasm but as the days pass by the fatigue sets in.  He feels the need for extra help in order to carry on his duties efficiently.

Delegation: From managerial point of view, we understand the importance of delegation. No matter how skilled a person is, it is humanly impossible to handle all the work by a single person. If an employee invests too much of energy in work, his balance of life is disturbed. He cannot concentrate on the other aspects of life (Praying). His productivity is on a decline as the day passes. Hence it is important that the work is divided amongst the employees properly.

Take Two:

Here we see the entry of the second monk. Once he reaches the monastery, he volunteers to bring the bucket of water. Later both the monks feel the need to divide the work amongst them.  There arises a conflict between the monks as each one of them try to escape the work burden. The carry pole is too long for a bucket of water. As a result the two monks keep shifting the bucket weight from one side to other depending upon their convenience. Sanity prevails when the first monk brings out a scale which divides the work pole into two equal parts. This shares the work burden equally among the three monks.

Productivity: Here we see that the productivity of each monk has increased as the two monks have started working in unison. Let me explain this with the simple table.

Productivity = output / effort

Effort for carrying 1 bucket full of water = 1

                                  

	CASE  I	CASE II
Output	2	1
Effort / person	2	0.5

Thus it can be seen that Productivity in case 1 = 1

Productivity in case 2 = 2

As the work gets divided the productivity of the work increases. In an organisation the work has to be effectively divided among the employee in order to work efficiently. This lessens the burden of each employee and extracts the maximum output from each of them.

Quantifying work load – Just as the first monk uses the scale to equally divide the work load, it is important to use some innovative tool or a standardized and unbiased procedure to share work amongst the employee. This can act as an effective tool for conflict resolution and help the employee to work harmoniously.

Take three.

Now the third monk enters the story. Being stout and plump, it takes much of an effort to climb the hill and reach the top of monastery. He drinks all the water from the pot.  The other two monks tell him to replenish the pot of water it is seen that the pot of water is too less to quench the thirst os all the three monks. This triggers a conflict between the three monks. Finally no one bothers to bring water to the monastery.

 Bureaucracy - In case of lack of rules there is anarchy and lawlessness. For an organisation to function there has to be a proper framing of rules. This gives a definite direction to the course of work.

Take four:

At night, a mouse comes to scrounge and knocks off the candleholder leading to a devastating fire in the monastery. A s the three monk smell trouble. They spring to their feet. They start running with the bucket of water to the bottom of the hill and do everything to put off the fire. They work in unison in this moment of trouble and finally succeed in extinguishing the fire. The three monks then shake hands to acknowledge the effort put in by all three of them. They begin to live harmonious life. The temple never lacks water again.

Unity is strength: -

In the moments of desperation, the three monks acted like a team. Unfavourable situations are the true test of one’s character. It is only during such situation that we realise what we are capable of doing.

There is a lot to learn from from this video, this is just a tip of the ice-berg. hope you guys like this blog. Good bye till we meet again

valley Crossing exercise

The Valley crossing exercise

This was the exercise that we carried out in the class. I will give a a brief about this activity and what I learnt from it

The Activity

The task is to cross a deep valley. Well it may seem like a difficult and dangerous task to begin with. We have three main protagonists who have a bamboo strong enough to take the weight of each of them at a time. The three Protagonists devise a plan. They stand in a straight line, resting the bamboo on their shoulders. Step by step they negotiate the hurdles coming their way. helping each other out in the times of need and finally conquering the valley. The pictorial representation of the entire task can be shown a
follows:

And this is how the class activity was carried out

Though it seems like a simple task there are a few things that are very essential to the successful completion of the task. Below are few nitty-gritty’s of the activity.

Gap :

The gap between the three members should be equal and uniform.  The gap between any two members should be half of the width of the valley. Also the gap should remain the same all the time.

Synchronization:

By far the most important aspect of this task is the synchronisation.The speed of all the three members should be the same. Their steps should be in sync with each other. The three members should work in unison. This would not only take care of the gap between them but also give each one of them an idea as to where the other two members are and what is their position vis-a-vis the others.

Real time Communication

There is always communication between the members during the task albeit non-verbally. Also the bamboo can act as a communicating device since it is the common object of contact between the three people.

Close feedback loop:

For the activity to be successful there has to be a close feedback loop. The bamboo can be an effective means of communication as the tilt/positon of the bamboo gives the member an idea where the other member is positioned. This acts like a feedback signal. The other member can take the necessary step.

There are a lot of things that can be taken away from this exercise. I would mention a few of them.

Innovation:

The solution to the problem is very unique and also effective. It simply makes use of a bamboo and viola the solution is as simple as it gets. It is very intriguing that a problem can have such a simple solution.

Team work:

Team work is the main cornerstone on which this exercise stands. Each and every team member is in a position of danger when he/she is in the middle of the valley. That is when the other member shows confidence in you and takes you to safety.  This is how the organisation works in a nutshell. They cooperate with each other in order to achieve the desired goal.

Interdependent roles:

Here it can be seen that the each of the three members have a different role to play. The person at the front acts like a leader. He shows the way to the others.  The middle person acts like a co-ordinator. He follows the instruction of the person in front and communicates it to the last member albeit non-verbally. The third person then follows on the path of the second person. But he plays an equally important role to drive the team to their destination.

Simplicity:

The solution in itself is so wholesome and easy that any 3 people can carry out the task.  The solution tames the problem to such an extent that the problem seems like a cakewalk. 

It was a great experience watching and learning from this activity.

                                                                                                                                            

I find this exercise very similar to the flight of geese. Have a look at the picture below

There is a great lesson of teamwork in this V formation of geese. It has been proved scientifically that as each bird flaps its wing, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following it. By flying in this formation each bird increases its flight range by 71%. Quite similar to the people who are a part  of the team who share a common goal attain it quicker and easier.

It is indeed a reward, a challenge and a privilege to be a part of the team. 

The khan Academy

To begin with, let me give a small introduction of Khan academy. Its a non-profit organization targeted at revolutionizing the education system of the world. The website has thousands of video lectures covering all possible subjects like mathematics, history, healthcare, medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, computerscience etc. This seemingly small venture started Salman khan to educate his neice has now grown by leaps and bounds.This project is funded by donations. It has significant backing from Bill and Melinda gates foundation and google.

Below is the video of salman khan adressing the students of Rice university about "increasing the net happiness of the world"

Rarely do we see someone who has changed the course of our lifestyle. Salman Khan the founder of khan academy, a graduate of MIT   and Harvard business school has brought a revolution of sorts. He has started an online portal for delivering lecture on varying subject free of cost. What this means is that any individual who has access to internet can take the pleasure of this knowledge sharing process.

By providing an innovative solution to the degrading educational system, he has shown the path to not only the young and budding  but also the old mature minds who feel too shy to start learning.  It has thus managed to solve the problems of people of all age and sex category who don’t have to be dependent on others to learn. 


 The knowledge is now in your hands and it is just a click away.

.
The lectures of khan academy are very well conceived and lucid in description. An intensive research seems to have gone into choosing the subject of lecture and organizing the content. The lecture are designed in such a way that the fundamentals of the subject gets cleared. The series of lecture gives a holistic view of the entire subject. It caters not only to basic and fundamentals of a subject but also more advanced level subjects like economy, finance, astrophysics, calculus etc.  There is also a sense of familiarity in his teaching style, he has not completely done away with the traditional type of teaching. The black background and the paint tools just retain the original sanctity of the classroom

The present educational system are grade oriented and hardly centres upon the need to make the student’s concept clear. Students slog through their exams and once they get passing grades  nobody bothers to revisit the previous chapter. Also some of the bright student get stuck at a particular concept and find it difficult to regain the pace of the lecture. A recorded classroom lecture helps us to revisit the lecture umpteen times till all our doubts get solved. The lecture stresses upon the clarity of concept and makes learning more fun.

Indian Scenario

 India has been reeling under the problem of illetracy since the times of independence. Not only the reach of education system but alo the quality of education imparted to some of the less previliged children puts a major hindrance to  the personality developement of student.  The teacher student ratio is also very low. Classes wherein a single teacher handles a class of  80 odd students is not uncommon. It is becoming increasingly difficult to give personalized teaching to all of them. In such situations some students seem to get neglected and loose focus in their studies. Khan Academy can definitely be the answer to all the above mentioned problems. Its is upto the government to take the initiative to tie up hands with khan academy and increase their penetration to each and everyhousehold as well as the schools of India.

Future Scope

Even the Prominent B-schools of the world seems to  have taken a leaf out of Khan academy by starting flipped classrooms. Flipped classroom basically mean that students are supposed to watch the videos uploaded by their professors and then attend the classrooms. This makes the classroom totally interactive and there is a healthy exchange of ideas between the students and teacher.
 In fact what Khan academy has shown us is the future of world education system. It seems that the future classrooms could be modeled along the lines of khan academy.
I wish this venture all the best for its future endeavours