UK Retail Market and Financial Comparison of GAP and NEXT Case Study

UK Retail Market and Financial Comparison of GAP and NEXT - Case Study Example This paper illustrates that the top five clothing retailers, M&S, Next, Arcadia Group, Matalan, and BHS, claimed 44% of sector sales in 2004 making the UK one of the most concentrated clothing sectors in Europe. In spite of this, value-led retailers, such as TK Maxx, ASDA (George range) and Tesco outperformed the rest of the market, continuing to be the fastest growing channel and generating  £2 billion in clothing sales. Next retail also continued to grow, overtaking the Arcadia Group and moving into second place behind M&S. The value clothing market has become increasingly competitive. Not only have many of the retailers in this sector really got their act together in terms of upgrading store environments and enhancing their product offers - becoming, in effect, the new lower middle market, but the middle market has been fighting back. The last 18 months have seen a strong recovery at M&S, and BHS - that describes itself as premium value- is also a much stronger player. Therefore , there is more and better choice for consumers. However, while 2001 and 2002 were buoyant years for retail and for clothing, 2003 is seeing a significant slowdown. It is much quantifiably harder to persuade consumers to spend. A key factor is that value clothing retailers now know that they cannot succeed with low prices alone. Consumers expect a pleasant environment and mainstream-quality merchandise even if they are paying very little. So they have had to make very significant investments in their store estates - at a time when many are expanding rapidly too. Also, this space and product expansion has been very challenging. Many have found that their infrastructure, systems, IT and logistics have just not been up to it and this has affected their sales performance. In 2004, the competitive environment in the UK retail market has experienced a dramatic re-shape. This re-shape has been led by the acquisition of the Safeway supermarket chain by Morrisons, which has created the count ry's fourth-biggest retailer and has given Morrisons the chance to pose a real threat to Sainsbury's, in the fight for third place behind the UK's biggest retailers, Tesco and Asda. According to new research analyzing the Retailing industry in the UK by Euromonitor International, the move towards greater consolidation continue to impact the UK retail industry over the next five years. Euromonitor suggests that future mergers and acquisitions in UK food retailing are likely both to be on a smaller scale and to involve the take-over of convenience retailers by hypermarket chains wishing to strengthen their presence in the UK's high streets. According to Raphael Moreau, Retailing Analyst "Diversifying into convenience stores is on the agenda for the UK's top hypermarket chains because this retail format offers good growth prospects. Convenience stores have increased their share of the UK food retailing market from 20% to 21.9% between 1999 and 2003. Clearly, these stores are appealing to UK consumers, thanks to their convenient locations and extended opening hours. Hypermarket retailers want to make sure they don't miss out on this growing area of the UK market." High Street convenience stores are also particularly attractive to hypermarket retailers, due to strict planning rules restricting the opening of new out-of-town hypermarkets. Euromonitor International believes that this trend is likely to intensify in the next five years.

Design & defend an optimal performance appraisal system for a position Research Paper

Design & defend an optimal performance appraisal system for a position you aspire to hold (medical supervisor) - Research Paper Example The typical methodology geared to dealing with performance appraisal systems relies on using a generalized approach where one performance appraisal system is used for a number of different hierarchical positions in an organization (Cascio, 2013). However, it would only make sense to design a performance appraisal system that is attuned to the needs of a particular position being appraised. This paper attempts to design an optimal performance appraisal system for the position of a medical supervisor based on current research findings. Description of Position The performance appraisal system under design is for the position of a medical supervisor. Essentially the position requires a large amount of daily interaction with patients as well as members of staff and occasionally contact with members of regulatory agencies. Additionally, the medical supervisor represents a senior position at any medical institution and is responsible for overseeing the training and skill development of his subordinates. The medical supervisor needs to keep tabs on the budgeting of resources and scheduling of staff members to ensure uninterrupted medical service to patients. The multifaceted nature of the job of a medical supervisor means that the incumbent medical supervisor needs to be ready on all fronts to deliver in order to be relevant to the organization’s overall objectives. Proposed Optimal Appraisal Performance System The proposed appraisal performance system for the position of a medical supervisor is divided into sections based on the major responsibilities for the position. The responsibilities are segregated through broad overviews since the current paper is not intended to dissect all of the responsibilities in complete detail. The primary responsibility of a medical supervisor is to the patients under treatment. Patients can be seen as the customers for any medical system so delivering to the customers is of the utmost importance. The medical supervisor is suppor ted by his staff at various levels and positions in order to service the patients so dealing with staff is a secondary responsibility to ensure satisfactory service provision at least. Moreover, the medical supervisor is responsible to his immediate superiors and members of regulatory agencies such as the American Medical Association (AMA) who require consistent feedback for continuous performance assessment. Performance Appraisal for Patients The basic contention behind performance appraisals is to provide employees with feedback regarding their performance (Broady-Preston & Steel, 2002). In the case of medical institutions, the customers are patients under treatment. Performance appraisal needs to emanate from patients and their relatives who judge the quality of services being delivered by a medical supervisor. Essentially such a grass roots level performance appraisal system bases itself on the 360 degrees appraisal system proposed by Milliman (1994). The idea behind such an app raisal system is to ensure that all people interacting with an employee especially customers provide their effective feedback in relation to the employee’s attitude and behavior (Cascio, 2013). This provides the medical supervisor with a more goal oriented performance appraisal system that encourages a quantitative method to evaluate job