Question

Creating value proposition is critical for success. A brand's value to customers is based on how they perceive your company. Identify a brand that does exactly this via their brand's value, vision, personality, attributes, benefits and positioning. Discuss how they do this in each of those areas.

Whole food market is one of the America's biggest organic and natural food retailers, world food market was not only America but the world's biggest organic and natural food retailer. World food market is basically an employee oriented organisation which focuses on growth of their employees that reflects in their working platform as well as the system. Organisation culture of the plant is very strong and contributes to the brand strength. Whole Foods Market’s organisational culture is considered as one of the best work culture for an organisation and is a fine example of an employee oriented workplace and culture in an organisation. This specific organisational culture attract the customer to their products and their store which results in increased profits and sales.

Basic features of whole foods market's organisational cultures are as follows:

⦁ Team focus

Whole Foods Market’s basic strategy includes focusing on the teams. Most of the task of the company are designed to be done by 18 which improve their overall efficiency as well as the productivity of the human resource. By optimising the employee morale and reducing the turnover company has successfully implemented the team system into its and work structure. The core value of Whole Foods Market is “Supporting team member happiness and excellence.” when the culture of the organisation contribution we human resource management.

⦁ Active participation

Company also introduced the active participation system into its organisation and supports the extensive employee participation in each and every job provided inside the company. For example employees select the team members according to their choices and mutual understanding for a better and productive work environment.

⦁ Interactions out of work environment

Whole foods market also very well known for interactions other than formal inside it stores. Employees are in touch with each other and always keep discussing about random things inside the plane as well as discussing things with the customers as well. The specific practice reduces the gap between the customer and the employees which is directly related to the growth of the business. Whole foods market also focuses on creating social relationships within the Company organisation and culturally support the workers as well as the customers.

⦁ Trasparency in workplace

Whole food market is one of the most transparent work environment available in the USA. By creating transparent report which has to inform the stakeholders is a key thing of transparency within the organisation. Not only the stakeholders but whole foods market also provide this financial report to their employees. Financial report provision to the Employees make them understand the form situation in a better manner. By introducing transparency in the workplace company also helps in the human resource management which is done in resilience.

Whole foods market culture is one of the best culture in the business. This specific culture is based on high ethics and morals of employees as well as the working environment. Using their work culture as a tool company uses this specific culture to improve their Human Resource Management hence organisational culture of whole foods market is one of the strongest points of its key success

According to VRIO framework whole food market can be divided into following categories.

-Value

Whole food markets have successfully compete with its competitor and created its own brand value by imposing their cultural activities as well as ethical working environment. Whole food market 2nd standard by maintaining ethical environment of their work places as well as the organisational system.

-Rarity

Whole food market has imposed a totally new idea to the market by implementing the green strategies towards the work so far system.

In terms of priority whole food market is not there resourced but their organisational culture in the rear and it is very hard to find a standard of this level in any organisation culture other than whole food market.

-Imitability

Ability of whole food markets is not that hard but imitation of their organisational culture is again very tough as they have done it so deeply that from the very beginning company has always work as a green and ethical company. By providing ethical advantages to its customers and implementing the system into the core strategies of the organisation they made it very hard to Limited.

-Organisation

Whole foods has organised to create the ethical values .Rather than focusing on profits, company always focuses on the employee employer relationship and the customer employee relationship which makes it one of the best working environment for an employee. Add a base of organisation whole food markets has successfully integrated all of its path into one place by creating a more and legal environment for business.

Whole food market has always been a Pioneer in the industry in maintaining the relationship between the employees as well as in its organisation.

Whole food market has always done its business with a clear vision towards a society. They have always maintain a balance between the cultural as well as social stand of the company. By providing one of the best working environment in the United States of America food market has become an icon of ethical business. Correct decisions and ethical thinking leadership made its working structure, the structure of employee.

Employees are motivated to work towards achieving their goal while being article. Whole food market fracture reducing peoples over all images by sharing most of the part on their original culture. inter employee relationship is always motivated.

Q: With the advent recently of new ownership of Whole Foods by Amazon, how do you see the Amazon culture affecting that of Whole Foods and visa versa? What are some of the steps companies must take when taking over another enterprise when it comes to cultural differences? How are brands affected by both organizations?

Answer 1

Cultural effects on Whole foods and Amazon:

In 2017, Amazon acquired Whole Foods and entered retail market of organic grocery. Whole Foods is a retail store having decentralized, employee empowerment oriented, team focused, transparent and open culture. Amazon, by contrast, is known for customer centric, strict performance oriented, efficiency focused and data driven decision maker to deliver the products at low cost. After the acquisition, Whole Foods employees had a culture shock with introduction of new processes and policies, more documentation over customer interaction, no freedom to decide what products on shelves, and new performance metrics with stress to accomplish the criteria. On the other hand, Amazon employees had no cultural effects as Whole Foods had no role in Amazon facilities.

Steps companies must take before taking over another enterprise to deal with cultural differences:

There must be some agreement when it comes to deal with the cultural differences. First and foremost is to understand nature of business and employee involvement with customers in day to day operations. For example, Amazon deals with the products for which customers do not need to confirm the quality physically, while Whole Foods sells the grocery that are chosen by careful quality check by the buyers. In case of Whole Foods, interaction with customers is mandatory to retain them. Secondly, enterprises must communicate the expected changes to the employees well in advance to avoid culture shock. Third step acquiring companies can take is to understand the culture of acquired company, identify major differences through proper report, and manage those cultural differences gradually.

Effects on brands of both organizations:

After the acquisition, if the change is not managed properly, brands of both the companies will hurt. For example after the acquisition of AirTran by Southwest Airlines, the customers from both the airlines had to suffer, which resulted into low expectations and bookings from customers. In the case of Amazon and Whole Foods, Whole Foods has problems to retain the customers, as customers found empty shelves of their favorite products, and assistance from employees has been decreased. Amazon prime customers have privileges to get the products offline with discounted rate. The bottom line is Whole Foods is facing the problems with its brand value.