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The Dynamics of Danone Group International Strategy
The Dynamics of Danone Group International Strategy
Student’s Name
Institution
The Dynamics of Danone Group International Strategy
Groupe Danone is a French multinational corporation in the 9th arroundisement of Paris that produces dairy products, cereals, bottled water, baby food and yogurt. Among the internationally known brands that the company owns are bottled water Aqua, Volvic, Avian and Badoit. The company is behind the biggest European yogurt brand Activia and has company has over 30 years’ experience in infant nutrition. The company was originally founded by Isaac Carasso in 1919 in Barcelona Spain. The company was then moved to France ten years later and a factory built. Currently the company has four subsidiaries that are operating in United Kingdom. The company is committed to business success, social progress, protecting its resources and minimizing its impact on the environment. The company’s mission is to bring health through food and beverages to a maximum number of people around the world. Danone has more than 300 scientists worldwide who are dedicated to research on infant nutrition. The company looks at the universe as unique and has a powerful nature for values; openness, proximity, humanism, and enthusiasm CITATION Hun08 l 1033 (Hunter, 2008).
The company has transformed from selling in Spain, France and Italy to an international supplier of dairy products, bottled water and health foods. The company also has focus on international large markets like Mexico, Indonesia, china, Russia, US, and Brazil. Danone is concerned with management of its increasingly disparate business empire. In some countries the company has been able to expand through acquisitions and by organic growth or joint venture in others. The company’s efforts to go international have seen it penetrate new markets like Russia which is has become its biggest national market. In china the company faced a setback when it sold 51% of its interests in its drink joints to its partner wahaha. The company is divided into four business areas which are fresh dairy products, water, baby nutrition and medical nutrition CITATION Mel06 l 1033 (Melewar, 2006).
Danone’s expansion and growth strategy is acquisitions and joint ventures. The company has been able to beat its rivals by production of unique quality products hence penetrating in new markets like Russia which has become its biggest national market.
The company’s net sales per business line have been increasing since 2007. The trading operating income has also been in the rise since 2007. The total operating income has been rising too since 2007. The total sales and operating income has increased from 12.7 million Euros in 2006 to 19.3 Euros in 2011. The trading operating income increased from 1.5 million Euros in 2007 to 2.8 Euros in 2011. The sales grew from 21% in 2007 to 62% in 2011 CITATION Hug07 l 1033 (Hughes, 2007)
According to the first half semester 2014 financial reports, the company has faced challenges from false safety alerts, record inflation in milk prices and weak currency strengths in emerging markets. This has resulted into net sales going up by on 2.2%. The trading operating margins have gone by11.27 percent. The underlying distributed margin per share is also 11.1% down at Euro 1.16 per share. However the business still remains solid with sales stabilizing in Europe and emerging markets reporting strong growth. The consolidated sales fell back 5.3% in the first half to 10467 million Euros. According to the half year 2014 balance sheet, the company’s net debt 8678 million Euros up from 7966 million Euros in December 31 2013, the net financial debt is 5580 million Euros up from 4722 million Euros in December 31 2013. This clearly show that the debt is huge and in continuously increasing. This poses a threat to growth expansion plans of Danone Group of companies. http://media.corporateir.net/media_files/IROL/95/95168/Docs/DANONE%20-%202014%20Interim%20financial%20report%20GB.pdf)
Reference
Hunter, M. L., Le Menestel, M., & De Bettignies, H. C. (2008). Beyond control: Crisis strategies and stakeholder media in the Danone boycott of 2001. Corporate Reputation Review, 11(4), 335-350.
Melewar, T. C., Badal, E., & Small, J. (2006). Danone branding strategy in China. The Journal of Brand Management, 13(6), 407-417.
Bourlioux, P., Koletzko, B., Guarner, F., & Braesco, V. (2003). The intestine and its microflora are partners for the protection of the host: report on the Danone Symposium “The Intelligent Intestine,” held in Paris, June 14, 2002. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 78(4), 675-683.
Hughes, S. B. (2007). Using Form 20-F reconciliations to internationalize an accounting course. Journal of Accounting Education, 25(3), 137-151.
Power and Conflict
Power and Conflict
Introduction
Anger is an inward emotional feeling that consists of antagonism against something or someone, due to a deliberate mistake committed by the later. Anger can either be a good or bad thing, it depends on when and where the anger action takes place; more so, anger helps an individual to find tangible solution to the situation. Anger can be of different intensities depending on the extent of the problem caused; it can either be constructive or destructive. Constructive anger is associated to small minute reaction towards a situation or the affected person takes time to think about the problem and is in a capacity to control and maintain his emotions at a lower level. This category of anger brings no harm with it; instead, it influences healing process to take effect. Constructive anger is associated with physical harm. It is a quick emotional feeling that is brought about by the situation. Normally, hyper-reactive persons are associated with this anger. They lack the capacity to control their emotions as well as their feelings; hence they react to a situation with a lot of furies that might result to injury. Situations like; “break-up” from a relationship or lack of social support usually leads to destructive anger.
There are various ways that can be used to manage and control anger. Problem solving is one of the best strategies in approaching a situation. Anger is brought about by two conflicting parties over a situation or problem; this is due to a deliberate mistake that one party has committed. One group develops anger over the other group resulting to an emotional reaction such as; confrontation and a time lead to a physical fight. In order to control a situation such as this; problem solution strategy should be developed by the two conflicting parties. It should aim at coming up with ways that can be used to avert such problems.
Improving on communication is also another method that can be used to calm down anger. Emotion is brought about due to lack of proper communication. An angry person normally reacts to a situation by jumping over to false conclusions that lack adequate mental judgment. One of the best ways of developing effective communications is to slow down on one’s anger. This can be done by simply going through your response before you pre-empt it. Developing a series of slow judgments before reacting to a situation leads to anger management. This helps an individual to cross-check on the consequences of the conversation and the effects of the utterances from his mouth. Nature provides that, a person defends oneself in a situation of criticism. This should not comprise a fight back scenario, but constitute a series of understanding of the other party. All in all, keeping a cool environment that isn’t full of emotions through effective communication leads to anger management.
Changing the environment is another possible channel of averting anger. Excusing oneself from a tense environment allows free time to evaluate on your emotions and reactions to a situation. This leads to a better understanding of the problem hence chances of anger reaction will be reduced.
Anger management is a strategic approach that should be used when solving a problem. Learning to control one’s anger and that of your peers works to create an environment that is full of glamor. Effective communication and change of environment allows an individual to understand the situation better and avoid chances of misunderstandings.
References;
Boudreaux, D. J., Dahlen, E. R., Madson, M. B., & Bullock-Yowell, E. (2014). Attitudes Toward Anger Management Scale: Development and Initial Validation. Measurement & Evaluation In Counseling & Development (Sage Publications Inc.), 47(1), 14-26.
Burt, I., Patel, S. H., Butler, S. K., & Gonzalez, T. (2013). Integrating Leadership Skills into Anger Management Groups to Reduce Aggressive Behaviors: The LIT Model. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 35(2), 124-141.
England, E. (2013). ‘I Need Help with My Anger’. Pulse, 46-47.
Koçer, E., Koçer, A., & Canan, F. (2011). Anger Management and Factors that Influence Anger in Physicians. Balkan Medical Journal, 28(1), 62-68.
Powe_Intercultural-Communication-Paper_final-1
Part 1
INCA survey
The Intercultural Competency Assessment (INCA) survey was probably the first survey that I have taken that brought to light my intercultural proficiencies. Looking at the results of this quiz, it was easy to understand so that I could understand the different traits I can improve. The first elements known as Tolerance of Ambiguity validates how well I can stay focused and stay in uncertainty, or staying with the question, despite the discomfort of not knowing the answer, or not knowing where the question is headed. It requires relinquishing control, even though a solution isn’t always guaranteed, to make room for new and emerging connections to crystalize into a clear direction. Wherever there is a lack of clearness it defines how well I resolve the situation. Based on the survey, I scored a six on this component, which means I’m at the level of intermediate competence. This means I can appreciate and adapt to the differences in intercultural encounters based on my own personal experiences in life with others from different cultures. In the next element, Behavioral Flexibility, I was also awarded a six. Behavioral flexibility helps determine one’s ability to adapt from their traditional fashion, to a more untraditional fashion in order to deter certain conflicts of procedure and expectation. When correlating my score with the element itself, I believe I am able to discern when I need to be flexible with my behavior.
In the communicative awareness category I scored pretty high. This element exposes how attentive I am of what information I’m putting out to others. I have a noble sense of interpreting people’s body language. Based on people’s body language I can tell if the information I’m putting out is making them feel bad, neutral, or positive. The survey also revealed to me that, I am very mindful of circumstances where confusions may arise through dissimilarities in language, movements, mannerisms, and any other untraditional way of communication in a productive manner.
Insert Name
Insert Date
Organizational Communication
Intercultural Communication – Paper
Insert Professor
Part 2
The three critical incidents that I have selected are occurrences where some type of misinterpretation or problem, resulting in a total misunderstanding and a communication breakdown. The first critical incident I elected is incident fourteen. A man was walking past a cemetery when he noticed something very odd. To make sure he wasn’t mistaken, he went in to take a closer look. He was very surprised to see two names on the tombstone he was looking at. One was the name of someone who had already died, and next to it was the name of someone who was still living. The tombstone had a birth date but no death date on it. He just couldn’t believe it! The first thing the man notices are the two names on a tombstone. The man notices that only one of the individuals listed on the tombstone is departed. There are many assumptions in this case that can be made such as; what part of the country is this person from and where is he now? In some country’s customs it may be customary to place the husband and wife next to each other when they die. In the United States, peoples have even started to pre-plan their deaths. They are choosing to set up their headstones and burial plots ahead of time. When you speak about death, for some nations it is a sensitive subject for most cultures in North and South America and a less sensitive subject for some places like China. In America for instance, some people choose to be positioned next to their partner when they perish. This method of placing a label on a tombstone before you expire can save the family money when it comes to funeral expenses. Also, if this option of setting up the tombstone early is taken, the person will have the tombstone built with only a birth date.
The second critical incident I have decided to examine is critical incident number seven. Len teaches the evening TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) class. One day there was a conflict between a student who wanted to do more listening practice in class and a student who wanted to focus only on grammar. The next day, one of the two students came to Len’s office to talk to him about the class. She told him that she thought they had studied enough grammar and that they needed more listening practice. She assured him that she was not trying to tell him what to teach. A week later she invited Len to come to her home so that she could show him some- thing. He did not go. Then she sent him an e-mail, thanking him for his teaching and complimenting him on his looks. This made him very uncomfortable, so he made a conscious attempt to avoid her outside of class. This occurrence is happening because Mr. Len’s behavioral flexibility low. Rather than neglecting the youngster’s invite to her home, he should have contacted the parents of the child. It’s apparent that the child does not understand the teacher to student relationship. Good relationships between teachers and students have been associated with increased motivation and academic achievement.
This situation of visiting the little girl’s household and complementing him on his looks, was defiantly a sign of the student trying to build an inappropriate relationship with Mr. Len. The third critical incident I have selected is critical incident number one. A student was not satisfied with her new class. She wanted to move to a higher class. First, she consulted the student advisor who said that she could not move up at this time. The student, still unsatisfied with this answer asked the other student advisor. The second student advisor gave her the same answer. Next, she made an appointment to see the coordinator of the Language Training Program.
The coordinator consulted the student’s teacher and the student’s test scores and explained to the student that, according to the guidelines, she was unable to move to the next level at that time. The student was still not satisfied and made an appointment to see the dean and then intended to talk to the president of the college. Meanwhile, the teacher couldn’t under- stand why the student did not just accept her decision. She also could not understand why the student could not see that there were policies in place so that no matter how high up she went in the college hierarchy, it would not change the outcome for her. In this critical incident a young girl apparently from different country is unhappy with her existing assignment in her new class. After speaking to everybody that she could, she comes to the decision that the only way move up in class is to finish her current grade level. In this critical incident, I have observed that in the girl’s country that the cultural alignment behind work ethic and the relationship between teachers/ students may be very different. Students every year seem to go through this same type of experience. The education systems in China and in the United States are about as different as two systems can get, though both strive for and denote success at the highest levels. It is my conclusion that her knowledge of having all her prerequisites for the class she was trying to get into may have not been met, and this caused her not to be eligible for the next higher class. Regrettably for her, it also appears that some of her credits did not transfer over to the current college.
References
Huggins, M. (2012). Gone but not forgotten: sporting heroes, heritage and graveyard commemoration. Rethinking History, 16(4), 479-495. doi:10.1080/13642529.2012.697261
Historic Rock Castle. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from http://www.historicrockcastle.com/Blog/October_2013/Cemetery_Tip__Dates_upon_a_TombstoneWILKINS, J. (2014). Good Teacher-Student Relationships: Perspectives of Teachers in Urban High Schools. American Secondary Education, 43(1), 52-68.
Butcher, M. M. (2006). A Distance Education Model Used Across Cultures: An American Degree in China. International Journal Of Learning, 12(10), 287-292.