Newcastle operation

The recession in the UK affected expenditure in the economy. The competition in the luxury gift market intensified but there was still demand for quality. In his new role at Newcastle Leon decided that an area that could be further developed was the corporate gift business. This part of the business had not been fully developed by

J.O.C. but the former business, CG Chocolate, had been successful in gaining contracts with local councils. Leon realised that the public sector were cutting budgets so he needed to consider other markets. One area of business that still required corporate gifts was sporting events. There were opportunities in relation to the London Olympics and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games but these were ‘one- off’ events. Leon recognised that this afforded the potential to supply quality chocolates and that J.O.C. could offer unique chocolates that were related to the sporting occasion. J.O.C. management team were excited by Leon’s proposal. It was an opportunity for the merged business and it was agreed that Leon should recruit a marketing and sales specialist.

Organisation post-merger

Suzy Campbell remained Managing Director of the new merged business. Hafiz Shah continued to run the factory in Stirling with his assistant Adrian Buchanan and Leon Hourmond was appointed manager of the Newcastle operation with Mary Taylor as his assistant. Suzy knew this gave her the chance to reorganise and introduce changes to the Newcastle operation to bring it in line with the more nurturing culture of the Stirling factory. Amina resigned from her job with the bank to join J.O.C. full time as Finance Manager. Amina would continue to organise the finances which allowed Suzy to focus on making sure the new structure functioned as well as possible. Part of this was to ensure that the project team model would operate both in Stirling and Newcastle.

The following assessments are based on the case study of Joy of Chocolate. It deals with the background and development of J.O.C. and the people involved with the company. It then relates the further development towards a merger/takeover of CG chocolates. Answers to questions can use either of these businesses before the merger.

You must provide evidence from the case study in your answers.

1 Identify different stakeholders in the case study and explain their influence and interest.

2 Explain a content theory of motivation and a process theory of motivation and illustrate how they can explain actions of individuals in the case study.

3 Explain methods used by managers to improve job performance within the workplace and justify their suitability.

4 Explain precisely the importance of team working and state how it operates in the case study.

5 Identify and analyse three factors that affect team cohesiveness and performance. Examine the influence of the three factors in the case study.