Report in Decision-making techniques Almarai Company

              Decision-making techniques adopted by the managerial staff draw impact on the overall organizational performance and level of efficiency in the operations of a company. Almarai Company is a Saudi company working in the food industry since the 1900s to provide healthy food in the GCC and European countries. In this assignment decision making, techniques are discussed in detail with the possible effects on the business operations of a company. While Competitive Advantage aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 heading also cover the Saudi vision 2030 and competitive advantage built by the company through the decision-making process. Somehow, to conclude all discussion recommendation and conclusion are presented that support the idea that efficiency can be brought in the company through decision making.

  Introduction of Almarai Company

              In the present times, the business of food industry is facing high competition. Food is the basic need of human being. Manufacturing and selling food is also risky as customers can easily switch to the substitute or alternative products when food items become unable to provide them their desired satisfaction level. Almarai Company is working in the food industry. They manufacture and sell out dairy, chicken, and bakery related items in more than 65 countries. As the business is increasing responsibilities of managerial staff is also increasing towards decision making. A wrong decision taken by the managers can change the fortune of the company. The company need efficiency in the operation but not at the cost of quality. Therefore, it goes under the responsibility of the managers to take the right decision that benefits the company and bring efficiency in operations.

Almarai Company

            Almarai Company is one of the largest food manufacturing and selling company in Saudi Arabia. Prince Sultan bin Mohammad bin Saud Al-Kabeer founded Almaarai company in 1977 with the mission to develop traditional dairy industry. From 1977 to the 2009 company introduced thousands of stores and outlets in the market. According to the records of 2009 only in Gulf countries, Almarai Company has more than 100000 retail outlets (Almarai.com, 2019).  

            Almarai company has 9 major brands Lozin, Today, Neuralak Balz Chorgo, Special Composition, Seven days, newora, almarai, newramama, and newerbie. All these brands have a different product offering for the different geographical regions. Seven days brand operates in more than 65 countries as an international brand of Almarai Company (Almarai.com, 2019). Somehow, a major product line of Almarai Company includes bread, dairy products, food items, burger and sandwich buns, butter, cheese, chicken, pancakes, juices, and desserts products.

             The senior management of the company includes the chief executive officer, assistant to CEO, Chief human resources officers, VP, and general manager of operations. The company is following the decentralized hierarchy in decision making at each position in the hierarchy has power and right to support decision making process through feedback and suggestions (Almarai.com, 2019). Senior management develops plans, policies, and strategies for the overall company. While employees support the decision-making process through sharing information and suggestions.

Decision-making Technique of Almarai Company

           Decision-making techniques and strategies discussed by the Bazerman and Moore in 2008 are commonly adopted strategies in successful organizations (Bazerman & Moore, 2008). book elaborate that what are the prime mistakes of the managerial staff in the organizations and how such mistakes can be avoided. in the light of information collected from this book Almarai company can be evaluated easily. According to the analysis, decision-making techniques help the almarai company to run more efficiently as the right strategies and techniques adopted in decision-making process reduce the chances of wrong decisions (Bazerman & Moore, 2008).

             Three major decision-making techniques commonly adopted in the organizations are analytical decision making, random decision making, and intuition-based decision making. Almarai company is following rationale decision-making process. According to this, the company develop several possible alternative options and select the appropriate one after comparison. In the decision making process efforts are made to avoid the common baises at maximum as baises can mislead the organizations. overprecision, overestimation, and over placement reduce efficiency in the organizations. because of overconfidence managers sometimes take the decision without analyzing the situation in depth. as a result, they misunderstand the possible outcomes of the decision and face problem in a realistic manner.

           For instance, an overconfident manager may purchase machinery in assets just by comparing the prices and ignoring the useful life of all available alternatives. this will definitely result in a double loss for the company (Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). In short, the wrong decision taken by the managers can increase the expense or cost of operations. while on the other hand, a wise decision can save time and money that brings efficiency in the operations (Sindhwani & Malhotra, 2017).

         In the almarai company, managers take the decision by following the information filtering technique. filtering help them avoid overload of irrelevant information. thus they easily take the right decision on the basis of most relevant information (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2014). while the company is also enhancing the communication system at the workplace through effective communication and direct interaction with the concerning person managers can take the better decision that definitely brings efficiency. it is sometimes considered that cost-efficient business operations benefit the organization.

               Almarai managerial staff use rational decision-making technique and evaluate all the possible outcomes and only follow up that cost-efficient operation which as no negative impact on quality (Bazerman & Moore, 2008). Almarai company also follow the negotiation technique sometimes for critical issues. through negotiation, managers can get more information that helps out the managers take the right decision (Almarai.com, 2019).  

              According to the Sindhwani and Malhotra research (2017), companies use multi-criteria decision making to make the right decisions in manufacturing industries (Sindhwani & Malhotra, 2017). several MCDM techniques are fuzzy performance importance index approach, interpretive structural modeling, and FAI. research findings present that through following these techniques quality of production can be improved along with overall increase in productivity (Bazerman & Moore, 2008). Almarai company is also following similar techniques in decision making at the production sector to enhance productivity that causes to bring down inefficiency of operations at the workplace.

Competitive Advantage align with Saudi Vision 2030

               Saudi vision 2030 is the vision or development plan introduced by the government of Saudi Arabia to describe the future plan for the whole country. Saudi vision 2030 includes information about the unemployment, inflation, economy, and social issues in the light of proposed solutions (Baker & Anderson, 2010). Saudi vision 2030 has influenced business operations of many companies working in manufacturing or service sectors as most of the companies working in the country want to align their operations with the country vision to build competitive advantage and get better positioning in the market (Portal.abuad.edu.ng, 2019).

             Fairness in decision-making process helps the managerial staff of Almarai Company in aligning the operations of the company with the vision of Saudi Arabia 2030. According to the Saudi vision 2030, the government of the country has to eliminate unemployment from the society. The country also has to pay focus on their strong community development (Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). Considering fairness and unbiased behavior in the decision making the process at the time of hiring and recruitment support the positive environment and culture development at the workplace. Developing positive culture reduce discrimination and stereotyping at the workplace (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2014).

               Social evils such as stereotyping and discriminative behavior not only reduces diversity (that is the most favorable factor for innovation) but also develop a negative image of the company in the market (Baker & Anderson, 2010). According to the research studies, customer prefers to purchase from the companies that have a positive social image in the society. As a result of all these fair decisions and positive efforts in human resources management Almarai Company is developing positive positioning in the targeted segment of Saudi Arabia and increase sales to strengthen the overall economy of the country (Luo & Bhattacharya, 2006). This is how decision-making techniques in Almarai Company are supporting alignment with Saudi vision 2030.

              However, other than human resources management, the company also take the effective strategic decision to build competitive advantages. (Portal.abuad.edu.ng, 2019) Competitive advantages developed through providing high quality and healthy food not only provide financial benefits to the company by an increase in sales but also align the operations with Saudi vision about healthy lifestyle (Almarai.com, 2019). According to the vision 2030, Saudi government wants to improve the lifestyle of the Saudi citizens.

              The government wants to work in partnership with the private sector to provide healthy and safe food to the citizens. By improving food quality and taking the right decision about the marketing, and production of the food company can provide food according to the standard of government. This will help out the company to be a partner of government from the private sector.

             Partnership with government will definitely work as a competitive advantage for the company in the highly competitive market (Eccles, Ioannou, & Serafeim, 2014). Other than all these companies are also familiar with the corporate social responsibilities that help the company develop a competitive advantage. Management is taking the decision to launch new projects that help the government archive their targets related to agricultural development in the country.

Recommendation of Almarai Company

·         Management at the corporate level of the company should develop a horizontal integration strategy for the company. Geographical expansion and acquisition will increase the profitability of the company. Increase in sales resulted in the increase in revenue can help the company to contribute to the strength of the overall economy of the country.

·         Furthermore, decision developed at the Almarai Company should be a practical translation of vision 2030. Working on this suggestion we help the company develop competitive advantage in the society as the aim of the vision is to benefit the society. Thus the following vision will make company beneficiary of society (Baker & Anderson, 2010). This will work as cost-effective promotional activities that will generate long-term positive outcomes for the company.  

·         The company should also follow up judgment heuristics in decision making to reduce the chances of wrong decision making.

Conclusion on Almarai Company

 Almarai company decision-making process is according to the rational decision-making approach. The company uses the most relevant information to take the right decision. Efficiency in the overall operations of the company is the main target that is managers are achieving through taking right decisions and avoiding wrong decisions in the production sector. Fairness and use of heuristics in decision-making process help the organization take right decision to build competitive advantages in the market.       

References of Almarai Company