Area of the Company to Focus: Constrains on Managers

Point 1: Exhibit 7-7 – Strong versus Weak Cultures

            According to Exhibit 7-7, there are so many points about a company’s culture, and these points will determine that a company has a strong culture, or it sustains a weak culture. The Face/Off Café has so many positives things to tell about, which would determine its culture. The fact to remember is that company is a small one, and trying to expand its reach to large amount of customers in Kuwait market, where so many competitors are there to through an intense competition. In such situation, it is extremely crucial to come up with a strong culture, which is based on good values. Face/Off Café has two managers, which are also the founders of the company.

Therefore, they have so much responsibility on their shoulders that being founders and managers, they must develop a strong culture by developing great values for their company so that employees can feel comfortable with those values, and work according to those values to sustain a strong culture. The strong culture as per Exhibit 7-7 has many aspects like values of the company are widely shared between the management and employees. Moreover, culture asserts that what kind values are more important than the others, and employees do know about those values and clearly understand them. For instance, the Face/Off Café has been able to develop a positive work ethic culture, which believes in doing the right thing.

It means that employees know that wrong actions may not be part of their culture, so they need to do things right in terms of making products or dealing with customers. These values make Face/Off Café’s culture a strong one, because the managers are leading the way in this regard. They are extremely effective leaders to lead their small company, and with their involvement, and setting the example, the employees are also well known to the culture, and they are also responding well. That’s why the company is getting good response from its customers, and being able to expand slowly with the help of their strong internal work and organizational culture. That’s why they are also looking to expand and hire more employees with the passage of time.

Point 2: Exhibit 7-9 – Type of Managerial Decisions

            According to Exhibit 7-9, there are four types of managerial decisions, which may be affected by the company’s culture. The first type is Planning, which says that how plans will be developed in a company. The certain individuals will make decisions or a team will be involved. In case of Face/Off Café, the decisions are being made by two individuals, who are the founders as well as managers at the same time. So, they make decisions by taking all risks into account in their planning. It is recommended for Face/Off Café to include employees in their planning as well so that they can together make better planning decisions. The second type of managerial decisions is leading. This type is linked with decisions, which are associated with employee satisfaction, and asserts that what leadership style would be sustained.

The leadership style of Face/Off Café manager is positive and effective so it is recommended for them to make sure that they keep employee satisfaction in their decision making. If they would do this, then it means that they are leading the way by keeping a strong culture in mind. The third type of managerial decision making is organizing. This type deals with organizing the tasks that how they would be performed; whether individuals will perform them or teams will be involved in the process. In Face/Off Café, the tasks are done individually like managers do their own tasks, and employees are also assigned individual tasks. It is recommended for the company that if they want to keep their strong culture going, then they must developed better interaction between employees and mangers so that tasks can be organized with the feedback from both, as they are the stakeholders of the company.

The fourth type of decision making deals with controlling. The controlling in decision making means that how different things will be controlled like how budget will be controlled, and how employees will be managed with a type of control. The control would be external by the managers which would force employees to work. It is recommended for Face/Off Café to control things with a nice manner, where manger should provide example and guideline for employees to perform duties, rather exerting any external pressure on them. It would give employees more commitment to do their action as per the strong and positive culture of the company. An unnecessary external control will not be considerable option for a small company like Face/Off Café.

Point 3: Exhibit 7-2 - Components of External Environment

            It is important for Face/Off Café to understand that which kind of external environment’s components can be crucial for their success or failure. The company needs to take all such external environmental factors into account, and see how performance is going at the moment, and what can be expected in the future. Here are two major categories to talk about external environment components:

1. Specific Environment of Area of the Company to Focus, Constrains on Managers

            In terms of customers, the Face/Off Café is getting better as they are getting fame amongst their customers, and they are now in a position to expand their business. The good thing is that they are developing an internal environment in the company with great values in place, which is attracting more customers. Moreover, in terms of suppliers, they are being very cautious in purchasing supplies as storage can be an issue. So, they purchase surplus stock neither they get shortage of supply, because they are maintaining a good supply can demand balance with the suppliers. The external environment with regards to competitors is a tough one, as there are so many competitors in the areas, and they are not far away from each other. So, the company has to come up with some great differentiation to stand out in the competition. Moreover, they have to deal with all kind of social or other pressure groups.

2. General Environment of Area of the Company to Focus, Constrains on Managers

            Face/Off Café has to deal with various external factors of general environment. For instance, they have to come up with a detailed plan so that they can handle all kind of economic pressures such as when tax rates are increased or inflation rates get high in Kuwait. They have to adjust their business according to those economic conditions. Moreover, there can be many considerable legal issues, which they have to keep in mind. The company has to comply with Kuwait’s law in all aspects so that they can avoid any fines or law suits. The company also has to consider all socio-cultural aspects in mind, while making any viable decisions regarding customers. They have to keep Kuwait’s culture and values in mind, along with demographics of the customers. Moreover, the technology is making so many impacts all around the world including Kuwait, so they have to make sure that they are using enough technology in their business processes to facilitate customers. The Essence of technology could be the most affecting external environment in current times as world is becoming globalised, and the companies have to come up with a global approach in their business. In Kuwait, the people from different regions live, so company has to make a global kind of strategy so that they can remain ahead in the competition in coming future.