Author Archives: Raymond Fleming

Retention

I believe the most demotivating part of Harper’s job is not being recognized or praised as a vital employee. Harper has been at the company for 4 years with the same job title. Her former manager has left six months ago, and she has been accepting additional work to help fulfil his responsibilities, along with her tasks. Harper had great communication with her former boss Jose, which he empowered her, and therefore she felt valued while he was the manager. Now with the new manager David, Harper feels like she is being overworked, and her work is unappreciated. Harper has reached the point where she is considering leaving the company, because she is overwhelmed.

My advice to David as an HR manager would be to first meet with the entire staff. This provides the chance to set the tone, and clear expectations that need to be honored by your employees. Solicit feedback and accept their input, they need to feel as you are one team, one goal! The employees should be able to set their expectations of their manager in return. I would then meet with the staff individually after this is done. During individual meetings you can address any performance opportunities, set goals with each employee, and get a sense of each of their strengths and areas of improvement.

David must make time for Harper specifically and meet with her one on one. He should commend her on taking initiative, and stepping up since her previous manager Jose has left. David should ask Harper what her goals are, or future career plans with the company. He can also ask her for feedback on the all the extra work that she has been doing, to try to find a more efficient division of labor. Harper has been at the company for a few years, so she has a lot of knowledge and experience to contribute. This is most vital to the company’s bottom line and productivity. David should just listen and accept Harpers ideas or viewpoints. David should set S.M.A.R.T. goals with Harper, and schedule time that they can meet to follow up on her progress. He should continue to empower Harper, and give positive feedback, or constructive criticism when needed.

The downside of losing Harper as an employee would be detrimental to Marketable inc. Harper is a key component to the company. Her assertiveness and determination have demonstrated that she does care about her job, and the company. This type of employee makes the manager’s job easier, because you have a competent subordinate that exceeds expectations. In my experience you must hire at least 20 people, and you’re lucky to find one employee with the same work ethic as Harper. Losing Harper can affect the moral of the company also. The other 6 workers are either going to attempt to fulfill Harpers shoes, or eventually leave the company also. From a managerial perspective, an employee is your biggest and most important customer!

Ethics Assignment

The business I chose was Starbucks. Starbucks is 99% ethically sourced. Their coffee is soon to be the world’s first sustainably sourced agricultural product. Starbucks has also made great strides in pursuing other sustainable business practices. One of the practices the company has implemented was the removal of plastic straws. Starbucks has changed its cold drink cups, to a sippy cup format. The usage of non-biodegradable straws isn’t good for the environment, and the company has ceased to include this with cold beverage purchases. Starbucks also does a wonderful job giving company stock incentives back to employees on an annual basis. This leads to improved employee morale, and retention. I was a store manager at a Starbucks location on the upper west side of Manhattan. Every night we would put aside the food and drinks that were soon to expire and donate them to a nonprofit organization. This is done to ensure someone eats the product, rather than assume it would be purchased by a customer, while waiting for the expiration date.

The Founder

The Founder was an amazing film. The movie tells the true story of a persistent salesman in a relentless pursuit to manifest his future vision of McDonald’s. Ray Kroc, a traveling salesman received an abnormally large order for some milkshake mixers, and he decided to deliver them in person to San Bernardino California. Once Ray arrived, he met 2 brothers who owned a restaurant named McDonald’s. Ray was fascinated by the taste of a McDonald’s hamburger, and the efficient processes that the brothers had in place to run their business operations. Ray was different from the brothers because he wanted to expand the McDonald’s business in terms of franchising. Ray pitched various innovative ideas to drive revenue however, the brothers were content and satisfied with how their business was already functioning. Ray eventually persuaded the 2 brothers to allow him to franchise the company, and Ray opened stores nationwide.

I think it was a good idea for the brothers to allow Ray Kroc to franchise, because the McDonald’s business needed to be exposed to the world. The quality of the product and the business efficiency was superb, basically groundbreaking at the time. I don’t think that Ray Kroc gave the brothers a fair deal regarding their ending contract. The brothers should’ve kept the rights to their name 100%, and never let any entity conduct business using the McDonald’s name, logo, and trademark without their final approval. This was the beginning of the brothers losing control of their company. The start of Ray Kroc taking over the McDonald’s business.

The local franchised stores initially bought their own land, then built their own McDonald’s stores. They generated their income from store sales. Ray Kroc eventually realized that he wasn’t profiting, and only earned a small percentage from the overall McDonald’s business. Ray decided to eventually buy vacant plots of land, then begun to lease said land to the franchisees. By doing this, Ray now gained equity from each McDonald’s location, and understood he was in the real estate business.  Ray Kroc became a real estate developer and multi-millionaire by building and leasing McDonald’s restaurants worldwide.

The Founder hasn’t changed my personal perspective of McDonald’s in any way. The movie helped me understand more about the importance of brand ownership. McDonald’s has and always will be the most recognized restaurant franchise in the world!