Question

Questions

Q1. Briefly discuss the factors of production and their roles in economic systems.   

Q2. Based on your knowledge of the staffing and Leading process, discuss in 500 words some amendments could be applied to improve the performance within Coast Coffee.

Costa Coffee

Costa Coffee was founded in London in 1971 by two Brothers Bruno and Sergio Costa as a wholesale operation supplying roasted coffee to caterers and specialist Italian coffee shops. Acquired by Whitbread in 1995, it was sold in 2019 to The Coca-Cola Company in a deal worth £3.9bn and has grown to 3,401 stores across 31 countries and 18,412 employees. The business has 2,121 UK restaurants, over 6,000 Costa Express vending facilities and a further 1,280 outlets overseas (460 in China). The Coca-Cola Company announced its intention of acquiring Costa Limited from parent company Whitbread PLC for $5.1 billion. The deal, which closed on 3 January 2019, gives the cola giant a strong coffee platform across parts of Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. It is the second largest coffeehouse chain in the world, and the largest in the UK.

Costa Coffee operates 2,467 outlets in the United Kingdom as of October 2019. Overseas, it operates 1,413 stores in 32 countries. The first Costa store outside the UK opened in the UAE in 1999 and, in September 2017, was the first coffee shop worldwide to start delivering coffee via drones to customers sunbathing on Dubai's beaches. Following Whitbread's £59.5m acquisition of Coffee Nation, a chain of coffee machines, the machines were re-branded as Costa Express. The company plans to expand to target hospitals, universities and transport interchanges. In Denmark, Costa Express machines are located in Shell stations. In the UK, grocery store chain SPAR has become a major operator of petrol station stores, most of which have Costa Express machines installed

On 19 August 2019 Costa Coffee attracted media attention due to claims of unfair deductions from the pay of its employees. Reports stated that current and former employees had £200 deducted from their pay for training as well as additional deductions for till discrepancies and running costs. Claims of unfair deductions were triggered by a Twitter post suggesting that staff at a Costa store were forced to reimburse money lost to scammers who came into the store. Trying to distance themselves from the controversy, Costa said contracts for franchise stores are managed by partners and that some staff contracts did have "clauses relating to deductions".

On 23 August additional claims appeared in the media that Costa Coffee franchise workers are "not treated like humans". The report included managers' alleged refusal to pay for sickness or annual leave, working outside of contracted hours and the retention of tips. It cited an anonymous former employee at a store under Goldex Essex Investments Ltd who claimed they had almost £1,000 of their holiday pay deducted from their salary, despite being contracted to work 48 hours a week. The report went on to say that baristas and employees at managerial level have complained about the numerous deductions outlined in Costa Coffee contracts written by franchise partners. A former manager is quoted as saying she had £150 deducted from her wages because she was five minutes late opening the store. Other fines outlined in the contracts were for used uniform that was damaged when returned to the employer, excessive waste and till discrepancies. In response to this article a Costa Coffee spokesperson said an independent audit has been launched.

Answer 1

Answer 1. )

The factors of production are the main resources whose value go into making the products.

Some of the factors of production are as follows:

(i) Labor - This is one of the most important factor of production which is used to make the goods.Labor uses his mind and intellectual capacity to put the things in right order and maintain the supply chain at the optimum level.There is regular interaction between the labor units at different stages of production and it continues till the final good is produced.For example , the waiter serving foods at different tables in a restaurant is a labor.Similarly, the worker producing any equipment in a factory is a labor.

(II) Capital - It is also the other important factor that must be used in the production process in order to produce the good.It comprises all the technological components that are used in the production stage.For example, the robotics machines which are used to assemble the car components in a factory is an example of capital.The main advantage of the capital is it allows the producer to produce more at a given point of time with the given manual resources.

(iii) Land - Land is another factor of production that plays its vital role as without the land , the goods cannot be produced.It is necessary to bring together all the other factors - Labor and capital in order to start the production.Land(or factory) further facilitates the electric and water supply to ensure the smooth running of the production process.