On Friday 7th December 2012 I had the pleasure to attend a guest lecture, headed by Colin Downes from Co-op head office in the Midlands. Colin spoke about the Operational Interdependencies within Co-op, to students studying Business Management, at Westminster Business School.
Background
Co-op has 123,000 employees across the UK
£800m Turnover
400 Trading Premises
200 Convenience Stores
900 Supermarkets
Key parts of a successful business
Marketing Mix – This is a key aspect of business everyone needs to consider thoroughly.
Price
Place
Promotion
Product
Total Quality Management
Reduction of waste
Just In Time
Minimal errors
Quality Circles
Small groups of employees doing the same related task or job. This improves job quality and problem solving.
Supply Chain
Companies supply chain needs to be adequate. It is not a viable option to keep one supplier. In case this supplier goes bankrupt, your business will have no supplier. Always source products from various different suppliers, or at least have a couple on your suppliers list in case you main supplier closes their business.
Stock Control
Introduce control into your stock. Just in time delivery is an excellent system, instead of keeping stock at your premises. This increases your cost of storage; also the stock could depreciate in value causing your company to make a loss, when selling to the end customer, so it is better to have stock arrive, once the system has alerted you that you are getting close to the buffer stock level.
Colin spoke about all of the above and how it tied into Co-op and any other business. It is just a reminder that business is not just about buying and selling, there are different aspects that need to be addressed.
