Performance management and business overview [301807]

Forward

Organizational Culture becomes more and more used for having a good perspective about every small or big companies. Personally I [anonimizat] I am working in a multinational company. Because of that I was wondering many time what will be my perspective if I am Chief Executive Officer. Another interesting question which I had, sounds like that : “How can I influence my company to have a good organizational culture?”. Those questions made me to present you this thesis where we will find together how we can influence positive or negative the organizational culture.

The first chapter outlined the history of Foodpanda in Romania and in the whole world. Thus we can have a view regarding the company and how the investors chose Romania for the next branch of Foodpanda GmbH. The objective of this chapter is to take into consideration the internal and external environment of the company.

In the second chapter we presented a diagnosis of organizational culture where there were used many instruments for having a much better view. [anonimizat]. Those instruments helped us to indentify few index which present the team work environment. We could define the organizational profile of Foodpanda Ro S.R.L. and also we outlined how the preferred organizational culture will looks like. [anonimizat].

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We believe an organizational culture could not be changed in less than five years because of the complexity of existing cultures in the company. Having a [anonimizat] a [anonimizat].

Introduction

Diversity of organizational culture is a topics increasingly debated. We can consider that the Globalization could be the main reason of this occurrence. [anonimizat], constantacy or status quo compared to twenty years ago. [anonimizat].

Intercultural dialogue is conditioned by geopolitical reports between United States and world regions. [anonimizat] a very important role taking into consideration that in recent years the flux and traffic of ideas and information had registered new apogees.

[anonimizat], devoted a duality of cultural versus civilization. The culture it was associated with expression form of a [anonimizat]. [anonimizat]. The perception of other nations about Romania has changed over the time and varying between positive and negative. This was happened because of image deficit, a contradictory or confused perspective.

The company which will be presented in next chapters it is a great example to analyze the level of organizational culture for Romanian corporation. We are talking about a multinational start-up which is adapted at Romanian market using the cultural environment and also having a constant relationship with the other countries where this brand is existing.

Chapter I

Performance management and business overview

1.1. Overview

In recent years, on the international market, emerged a strong competition among countries that wanted to attract foreign capital. Thus, foreign direct investment (FDI) in services currently holds 55-60% of FDI inflows. Transnational corporations have a key role in this matter.

One of the largest transnational companies is Rocket Internet GmbH, an incubator for online start-ups from Germany that was founded in 1999 by Samwer brothers (Alexander, Marc & Oliver) which expanded rapidly in the international market. Since its establishment, Rocket Internet has founded over 100 successful online companies in 50 countries, up business is still evolving. One of the powerful countries interested in attracting foreign investment is Romania, which tried to create, to this end, an appropriate legislative framework and incentive for potential investors.

The growing share of services and practical consideration from recent years has led to a built-up concerning the theoretical and methodological matters of this area.

The work developed on WWW type networks is characterized by at electronic speed, a target of all the other traditional trade areas such as services, manufacturing, transportation and logistics. A demand can easily be created, but it can also become a threat if the same speed isn’t achieved in production or in the ability to deliver orders on time. For these reasons, virtual stores or online ordering platforms have had implications for both the consumers and the provider. Thus, consumers have difficulty in assessing competing services. They acknowledge the risk and give great importance to the sources of information, using the price as a gauge for the quality.

Through the experience gained since their launch, The Rocket Internet Company, has built the basis of a very well organized system. None of their over 100 online companies had experienced a failure rate higher than 0.9% of the orders per year.

1.2. Foodpanda GmbH

Sales using web platforms are growing day by day, even we are talking about clothing, cosmetics or food. This is the main reason that foodpanda caught life.

Foodpanda GmbH is headquartered in Johannisstr. 20 10117 Berlin, Germany with the Trade Register under no. USt-ID-Nr | DE 283789080.

The foodpanda group is the leading online food delivery marketplace in emerging markets. It enables restaurants to become visible in the mobile and online world and provides them with an industry leading software and technology to generate additional demand. For consumers, foodpanda offers the convenience to order food online and the widest gastronomic range, from which they can choose their favourite meal via app or online with a few fingertips.

The group is present in in 24 countries and 3 continents (Asia: India, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Brunei; Europe: Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia&Herzegovina and in Middle East: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt) and is constantly increasing.

Foodpanda processed and sends orders using automation methods agreed with the vendor from the start of collaboration ( via GPRS printers, Bamboo App, Desktop App, SMS notification) direclty in restaurant ( sometimes direclty in the kitchen).

Figure 1.1. Foodpanda Global Reach

Source: Foodpanda Ro S.R.L.

1.3. Foodpanda in Romania

Romanian company is founded in September 2013, under the name S.C. FOODPANDA RO S.R.L. Romanian legal entity headquartered in 2A Luncani Street, 1st District,Bucharest, registered with the Trade Register under no. J40/ 3012/16.03.2012, Sole Registration Code RO 29924573 – operator of the Internet portal www.foodpanda.ro, represented by Mr. Radu-Andrei Balaceanu. For the beginning, there was only three people: the managing director, a sales representative and a content programmer. They receive training from germans employees and other countries where foodpanda was opened at that moment.

The organization has to respond to new market conditions and adapt all the strategies to Romanian culture. This mission was, from the beginning, shared with managers, employees and potential customers from Romania. Thus, they difined the majos competitive spheres within which the company will have to operate. Another characteristic taken in consideration about the foodpanda founders is the long-term view that should make the mission of foodpanda to be relevant.

1.4. Object of activity

Foodpanda’s object of activity is consulting and business management. The company offers its customers: periodic report on the number of orders from both online (via mobile application or website www.Foodpanda.ro .ro) and offline (call direct customers in central Foodpanda.ro ); evolution charts that study the visibility of the restaurant’s profile; promotion expenditure analysis stacked with revenue from that campaign; marketing strategies customized for each client; ways to improve products and analyzes based on consumer feedback.

The company's activity is conducted in a restricted environment, with a total of 24 employees aimed at attracting customers and expanding the company on the Romanian market at the highest level. Here we are talking about national expanding in all cities with more than 100.000 population, which started in December of 2013 (Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara) followed by the opening in other cities like : Constanta, Brasov, Sibiu, Iasi, Oradea, Galati, Craiova, Ploiesti, Arad and Pitesti.

1.5. Product range and services

The promotion until now has been an aggressive one, due to the launch of the company, and its short presemce in Romania. Therefore, promoting restaurants through campaigns that were adapted to the consumer’s requests, demand regulations for attracting and satisfying Romanian consumer’s usng discount campaigns (which had unexpectedly great feedback) or promotions. There will also be identified restaurants that do not have a sufficient volume of orders and that would agree with such campaigns. This means reducing the company’s revenue, with discounts or promotions. Retaining those consumers through such campaigns is important.

SC Foodpanda RO SRL is a company providing services for business and management, and also helps clients in finding the best marketing solutions for their business. The restaurants are created in foodpanda platform, so they will have his own profile on platform with their food offer for consumers. In this way restaurant receive more delivery orders and foodpanda takes all the responsibility to create marketing campaigns for them. Restaurant receive these orders and only delivery to customers like there are calling them directly.

Customer can order food by entering their address on the platform and browsing for food from a list of restaurants. They can create a meal by browsing restaurant meals and selecting items that they want to order before proceeding to the checkout. Restaurant receive these orders and then delivery to customer. During this time, Foodpanda sends out an SMS to confirm the order and their estimated delivery time to customer.

Every restaurants has a list with reviews from other customers and rating according with their food offer. In this way the potential customer can see exactly from what restaurant he wants to eat his meal.

In the next figure we can have a view about what process would follow an order made using Foodpanda platform. The processing time of the order it is less than five minutes. During this time the restaurant confimr the order and send it in the kitchen while Foodpanda send the confirmation time to the final customer.

Figure 1.2. Oder Process Flow

Source: Foodpanda RO S.R.L. – Company Presentation

Each restaurant can choose from three promotional packages offered by foodpanda, so as to satisfy its need for marketing. These packages include the following market channels with its promotion methods:

In the online environment

Google Adwords

Google SEM

Promotion on social media (Facebook, Tweeter, Instagram, wehearit.com etc.)

Newsletters for all customers

Push Notification on foodpanda

Press releases with foodpanda restaurant partner ( www.wall-street.ro , www.zf.ro , www.businessmagazin.ro , www.stirileprotv.ro , etc.)

Release on blogs, food forums

Google Display Network with different restaurants

Facebook competitions where customers receive discounts and vouchers

Premium positioning on foodpanda platform for restaurants according with their promotional package

In the off-line

Co-branding doorhaangers or flyers campaigns, also according with promotional package

Billboard on subway, street or various buildings

Radio and TV Campaigns

Cinema commercials

Sampling in malls, offices, or at different events

Flyers on cabs

This marketing campaigns are established from the start of collaboration with each restaurant partner.

Also if the restaurant is not satisfied about the results, he can negotiate the contract with his Account Manager.

Instead of this services the restaurant partner, has to pay a commission at the end of every month for all money that foodpanda has generated to him. In this way the restaurant should be happy because it is now a fixed amount of money, and he is paying only after he receive orders so he collects money.

Foodpanda company enables restaurants to monitor his own orders in every moment (through a special account dedicated to foodpanda partners with access in orders manage). Thus foodpanda system provides graphics with count of orders, order volume per days, weeks and monthly, information very helpful for business partner.

1.6. Organization Chart

The organization of components (staff, material resources, information flow), how they are interrelated and how they interact, define the structure of a company. Its main elements can be of economic nature, reflecting an effective use of personnel, concerning the dynamics that should permit rapid and accurate flow of information from management to performers and vice versa, and of human nature aiming to create moral and material satisfaction of staff.

The organizational structure has a great influence on the conduct of business and on the efficiency of the organization.

The organizational structure is hierarchical and functional. Characteristic to this structure is that: it is based on functional and operational departments, organized in five hierarchical levels; executants are consulted is regard to the hierarchical chief; it eliminates double of multiple subordination, applying the principle of unity of decision and action. Each company is structured the same as in Romania in every country where Foodpanda.ro exists, and all are subordinated Foodpanda.ro GmbH.

Figure 1.3. Organization Chart for Foodpanda.ro

Source: Foodpanda RO S.R.L. – Company Presentation

1.7. Foodpanda in food ordering marketplace

1.7.1. Clients

In any business the main task is to delivery customer value at a profit ( or at least break-even point). A company can win only by fine-tuning the value delivery process in a hypercompetitive economy which has increasingly informed buyers and abundant choices.

Foodpanda clients are all the restaurants that signed a collaboration contract for the provision of management consultancy to promote online food ordering. From launching in September of 2013, on the Romanian platform they are more than 450 restaurants active and 13 cities.

Figure 1.4. Restaurants Portofolio

Source: Foodpanda RO S.R.L. – Marketing Department

Taking care of this clients is the main objective of the whole sales department. Actually this department is divided in two parts: hunting ( they are bringing new restaurants on the platform) and farming ( they are taking care of these restaurants, and influence their businesses with marketing campaign and business intelligence analysis ). Perhaps, Sales Department is the most important department from every company. Their main objective is to market company`s product or service.

1.7.2. Marketing

Marketing can be described as one of the functional areas of the business, district from operations and finance. In our days many organizations gives priority to effective coordination of marketing with another functional areas. This method is known as boundaryless marketing, and is ensures that a marketing orientation filters all value creating activities in a company.

Also The American Marketing Asociation defines marketing using as “an activity of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clinets, partners and society at large.”

Foodpanda can be easily called “marketing company” because of his services and advanced experience in this domain. We can think that marketing represent the art of selling foodpanda services and products which helps restaurant`s businesses to grow. In every country where foodpanda is activating, there are marketing departments who are in permanent collaboration with the central department from Berlin. This mean that every marketing campaign it is analyzed by the Berlin team, and if it generate resultrs in one country, in others can be implemented if the organizational culture is almost the same. In the next chapters we will see the criteria of implementing and adapting marketing campaign in other countries.

A lot of companies create yearly marketing plans. Marketers start planning allow time for analysis, marketing research, coordination between departments and management reviews. Managers will use scheduales, budgest and metrics for monitoring the results.

Here we can see the impact of each marketing campaign (online or ofline) that Foodpanda RO has make it in the next figure. In this way we can have a perspective image about what a marketing camping for an online business can represent. We are able to see that organizing monthly discount campaign has much impact than subway billboards (and the cost for each of this campaing is inversely propotional).

Those marketing campaigns are established on each six months after a long analyze period. Romanian team uses many marketing tools to identify the market needs in terms of ordering food. Here we can mention Google Adword analysis (with most accessed key work in Google search engine, conversion of Google Display Network (GDN) for each restaurant partner, conversion of Faceebook Ads and Newsletter or reorder rate from application Push Notification).

Figure 1.5. Growing of orders using marketing campaign

Source: Foodpanda RO S.R.L. – Marketing Department

1.7.3. Competitors

Weak firms ignores their competitors; mediocre firms copying their competitors while successful companies lead their competitors. On the other hand, there are companies only focused on their competitors and having a great view about market needs. In this way they can work on the best products or services, sometimes unique on Romanian market.

For Foodpanda we have only one important competitors on market – Oliviera (the other similar companies has only one cities where they are market leader while Foodpanda`s goal is to be national market leader). Even if is only one competitor, Foodpanda understood the market needs an had implemented an unique pay method for his partners – Vouchers. These vouchers are only on Foodpanda and they are helping the client in choosing the best meal offer.

1.8. Internal Environment

In is necessary for any company to constantly evaluate its internal capabilities and resources in order to know can perform. Internal analysis present strengths and weaknesses of the company and the capacity of achieving a ambitious advantage on the market.

Foodpanda Ro has the following strengths:

Small team. They are only 20 employees;

Dynamic team;

Decisions made quickly;

Self-discipline;

Planning and organizational skills;

Business reputation of being innovative;

Well-designed and successful marketing strategies;

Change direction quickly if they find that the marketing is not working.

Weaknesses we can take into consideration the fact that Foodpanda has only 2 years since launch in Romania so plenty room to grow. Lack of enough funds to grow as fast as we would like on a country-wide level. Being a small team, there are few procedures, maybe not enough process-flows and procedures; Also the people are overworked and the motivation become low. Always rushing to complete tasks the last minute. Missing or postponing deadlines and always asking for help in finishing tasks. Often exhibit low productivity.

Another weaknesses can be the lack of some skills. No person has all the requisite skills for the job profile. There is no one person who has all the skills for the job. And also they are vulnerable to vital staff sick, and leaving.

1.9. External Environment

A business should monitor significant microenvironment factors and key environment forces ( from general environment and the market) which affect the ability to earn profits. The main contrast between external environment and internal environment is the fact that the external business enviromnet is infinite while the internal environment is finite.

The main characteristic of the external general environment is the fact that its forces vary slowly in time, but their effects accumulate in a given period of time with possible negative consequences on the developed the method of the 5 forces. These forces are rivalry among established companies, risk of entry by potential competitors, threat of substitute products, bargaining power for suppliers, and bargaining power of buyers.

Porter`s 5 forces are explained the next rows. In this way we can have an external environment view for Foodpanda.

Force 1: Threat of new entrants

Foodpanda is a global group which adapt the business model to every country based on each market place. For Romania, this business model it is not simple as it seems. For example, during 2 years the foodpanda group invested in Romania more than 500.000 Euro in marketing.

Force 2: Threat of substitutes

The existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives. For example Foodpanda RO has only one big important competitor – Oliviera, which offers almost the same services like foopdanda does.

Force 3: Bargaining the power of buyers

The bargaining power of customers is described as the market of outputs: the ability of customers to put the firm under pressure, which also affects the customer's sensitivity to price changes.

Force 4: Bargaining power of suppliers

The bargaining power of suppliers is also described as the market of inputs. Suppliers of raw materials, components, labor, and services (such as expertise) to the firm can be a source of power over the firm when there are few substitutes.

Force 5: Industry Rivalry

For most industries the intensity of competitive rivalry is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.

Potential factors:

Sustainable competitive advantage through innovation

Competition between online and offline companies

Level of advertising expense

Powerful competitive strategy

Firm concentration ratio

Degree of transparency

For S.C. Foodpanda RO S.R.L. marketing environment includes all external and internal elements which can affect the organization`s performance. To being much specific we will also use the PESTLE analysis.

Political factors can be:

Governmental policies for multinational companies;

Taxes laws and tariff. Foodpanda uses Romanian CAEN code 702 “Management consultancy activities” which involves specific taxes and VAT;

Stability of government.

Economic factors involve all determinants of the economy and its state:

Credit accessibility;

Unemployment rate;

The monetary or fiscal policies;

The foreign exchange rate.

Social factors like:

Cultural implication;

The gender and connected demographics;

Promoting a healthy lifestyle;

Promoting balanced diet.

Technological factors:

Rate of technological advances;

Moving users away from a stationary PC promoting the mobility of the mobile APP.

Environment factors:

Geographical location;

The climate and weather;

Selling only eco friendly packaging.

Microenvironment factors, are factors close to a business that have a direct impact on its business operations and success. Before deciding corporate strategy businesses should carry out a full analysis of their micro environment. In this article we discuss common micro environment factors.

Chapter II

Organizational culture diagnosis

2.1. The key of organizational cultures

Diversity of culture and intercultural dialogue are intensive debated topics nowadays even we are talking about social and human sciences but also represent an interesting study regarding business field.

Cultural differences create a central science and theories about it and has to be in continuously research. Knowledge of cultures represent a big stept for helping and acknowledgment of the human character and to have an authentic dialog.

The issue of intercultural communication comes in the context of globalization to understand the size and complexity. A company`s organizations consists of its corporate culture, policies, and structures of which can be dysfunctional in a quickly changing business environment. Managers can change policies and structures (through with difficulty ) and the company culture is the hardest to change. Adapting a culture represent the key of successfully implementing a new policy.

Corporate culture or organizational culture can be difined as the shared stories, beliefs, norms and experiences that characterize an organization. If we are into any company the firs thing that hits you is the corporate culture (the way that people talks to you, office atmosphere, that way that people from that circumstances are dressed and so on and so fourth).

A customer culture can affect or much better said influence all aspects of an organization. Many times a corporate culture promote organically and is spreaded from the CEO`s habits and personality to the company employees.

The company`s ability to respect and interpret the communities in which it operates, is reflected in cultural partnerships, actions and initiatives with communities.

During globalization, the cultural problem was much studied like an essential problem for any company and organization interested about reaching new perspectives and goals. Thus organizational culture may represent an actuality concept which is influencing the way of thinking and action for many leaders from the entire multinational companies.

The interest of organizational culture has grow in the last years due to hard competitiveness and the way to survive in an aggressive international market.

In a company the organizational culture helps to understand the difference between official statements and tangibility of the offer. More than that, organizational culture set up and develop a structure of behavior for each cultural model. This is contributes at competitiveness growth of companies, respect business ethics, teamwork, tradition in that activity domain and also improvement of interpersonal relationship.

Therefore, the organizational culture shows direct improvement concerning about effectiveness of the company. The quality and quantity of human resources depends on financial and material power of our company, Foodpanda RO S.R.L. For example every new employees, even at interview, has a contact with an employees from head quarter from Berlin, and after hiring gives a feedback about the team and environment to them.

Organizational culture represent a system that makes a dffrence between a small company ( neighborhood firms, for example an mini-market ) and big companies like Foodpanda which has branches in 24 country on 3 continets. Thus, organizational culture includes all common element from headquarter company ( norms, values, images and cultural different aspects).

Company culture is associated with the following element: founders ( personal data, social origins, basic principles), history, activity, value, signs, languages, assumption, space).

2.2.Research Objectives

Our research has the main objective to evidence the organizational culture from a Romanian business and to determine a development. Very important is to avoid the possible changes that organizational culture may negative influence the company.

Each company is an complex and open system which consist of variables and all of these elements interact with external and internal factors. It is necessary to look for new solutions and procedures to increase focus on the objectives and work efficiency, including a continuous improvement of quality of services, use of new rules system, norms and values in the organization culture.

The main question which should help us to determine us to search and analyze a company`s culture has to be : Foodpanda is an effective organization and what factors define this effectiveness ?

The aim of our research is to define the type of the organizational culture at FOODPANDA RO S.R.L. and to have a diagnostic of it. Thereby we will analyze all factors that influence the organizational culture and we will create a characteristic of our company`s organizational culture.

A psychometric tool will consider The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to indentify their preferred culture and current. Further we will use three of specific instruments for establishing the organizational culture and the way that company`s employees perceive their desired future culture and existing ones. Only after that, the company can utilize these results to generate strategies.

Peter Drucker – the father of modern management, concluded that “We are in one of those great historical periods that occur every 200 or 300 years when people don`t understand the world anymore and the past is not sufficient to explain the future” (quote in Childress and Senn, 1995, p.3)

Nowadays it is difficult for any company or leader to accurately predict the future, to stay current and to maintain constancy of trajectory.

2.3. Classification of organizational culture

This subject was debated in the last couple of decades by many writers which proposed a variety of attributes and dimensions for organizational culture. Here we can mention Arnold and Capella (1985), Deal and Kennedy (1983), Kotter and Heskett (1992) or Cameron and Quinn (2006). The more that one studies the diversity of world culture, the more one finds another symbolic level and arguments for how should look organization`s culture.

Related to Cameron and Quinn, we consider that there are four major culture types as it fallows:

The Herarchy Culture which bring us an environment relative stable, the functions and tasks are integrated and coordinated and jobs and workers are under control. The lines regarding decision-making are stardized rules and procedures, authority and control. We can consider that this Herarchy Culture has leaders good organizers and coordinators and for long term the company can be stable, efficient and predictable.

The Market Culture represents those companies which are much oriented on external environment instead internal ones. Our company has a higher interest concerning contractors, regulators, unions and customers. The basic assumptions in a market culture are that the externalenvironment is not benign but hostile, consumers are choosyand interested in value, the organization is in the business of increasingits competitive position, and the major task of managementis to drive the organization toward productivity, results, and profits” relates Cammeron an Quinn (2006). Managers are very competitors and hard-driving producers.

The Clan Culture it can be considered as a family-type organization. Instead of procedures and rules this culture, the company is held together by tradition and loyalty and the workd place is friendly. Leaders are considered as patent figures or mentors.

The Adhocracy Culture show us a company that has ever-accelerated conditions and most of these companies which adopt this culture are mainly in the business of developing new services and are preparing products for the future. Unlike hierarchies or market, this culture do not have authority relationships or centralized power. Hence, this culture could be a dynamic, creative workplace and entrepreneurial. People are sticking their necks out and take all the risks. Leaders, here are risk-oriented, visionary and innovative.

Figure 2.1. The Competing Values Framework

Source: K. Cameron, R. E. Quinn – “Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture” , Jossey-Bass Publisher, 2006 p.46

2.4. The culture audit and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)

After this three instruments, we can classify the organizational culture and establish the ones that we can see in our study case. Following table will show all information that will help to have an overview regarding the instruments used.

2.4.1. Document analysis

Document analysis is about several internal and external document that are set up in the company. These documents relates the past and the present of the company.
For Foodpanda Ro, we will take into consideration the following documents:

Tabel 2.1. List of documents analyzed

Documents analysis represents a social research practice and it refers to the different procedures connected in interpreting and analyzing data caused from the examination of records and documents relevant to a particular study.

Table 2.2. Schedule of investment at Foodpanda Ro

Source: Foodpanda Ro S.R.L. – Marketing Department

The related documents form enterprise policy involves emphasizing sales strategy and policy which is represented in a diagram of the offer (Appendix 1). This offer is based on customer needs (restaurant neets) in terms of marketing campaigns and promoting their food. Every sales agent from the department has had an initial training with meaning of all marketing campaigns that foodpanda is able to create for their partners. Also they were trained for negotiation to create for customer and for foodpanda too, a win-win situation. The sales force compensatory plan is created in a way that they are motivated to bring important vendors and with a commission ( or price of sales) which will help the company to achieve break-even point. Thus, Berlin team generates weekly and monthly report of sales achievements and their performance. In this way every Sales department can evaluate each sales agents according with their results. In Appendix 2, we can find a Global Monthly Sales Report, which is generated by the headquarter, Berlin team.

From the start of company, the investors gives a deadline of break-even point after 2 years of activity here in Romania. After this deadline the Romanian company has a lowest extra marketing budget from Berlin. This makes the sales job an important ones for hole company. If they are not selling, our business is not generating money.

Organizational structure it is debated at Chapter 1, and all open positions in the Romanian company. In Appendix 3 we can see a Job description for Sales Agent position. Here we can find all the responsibilities and attributions that a sales agent have to respect and fulfill to a proper functioning of Foodpanda Ro.

Intern communication represent the way that the employees perceive their organization and transmit this in front of potential customers. For this the company has created a Company Presentation which is very important for every business meeting. There are presented important information about the company, history, object of activity, collaboration with No 1 online food platform benefits, automation method and the visibility in online market for a potential partner (restaurant).

In the following table we will see some marketing campaign that Foodpanda Ro is running during a 6 months.

Table 2.3. Yearly Marketing Campaigns

Source: Foodpanda Ro – Marketing Department

2.4.2. Observation

This instrument imply a medium term period of analyze and help Foodpanda Ro and also Foodpanda GmbH to have a better view regarding our manager`s personality and behavior, employees behavior at their job and in relation with clients, and last but not least the environment created for almost three years in Romania. We make the observation during 6 month the following elements from next table.

The observation has been used in a lot of disciplines as a tool for collecting informations about processes, people and cultures in a qualitative analysis.

Table 2.4. List of observations which was hold in Foodpanda Ro

The position of the Foodpanda Ro office is in north of Bucharest, in a crowded district of the city. There are many other companies near office, hotels and shops. The location is a medium-low cost but we are talking about a company which has 90% online activity so we can understand that the top management of it chose a low cost location and invest more money in marketing.

The environment, as we mention, is medium-low and placement of the office has no parking space and it is not connected with main thoroughfares.

Welcome call and reception of the meeting shall be company`s business card. That`s why this was a professional reception and office tour.

Meeting with potential clients most of times are made in their restaurants and not in the office. In this way, the potential partner can feel relaxed and the sales agent can see exactly where and how the food is made. All these meeting are not missing company`s presentation which has a very professional look and personalized business cards for each employee from the company.

Also inside the company, we have an age average of 27 years, which offers a lot of kindness and energy which was pleasant remarked. Another remarkable think was that in the office are some games like Darts where the employees can play sometimes when they are overtired.

2.4.3. Questionnaire

Written survey should be objective and specific for the organization. The questionnaire should follow a fundamental guidline of th organization, basic ideas, employees behavior and the image of the leader. Being a small company, Foodpanda Ro has a number of 24 employees for which we chose a survey with eighteen small questions with a completing time 10-15 minutes. Also the survey has only close questions. In this way we are trying to establish values and measures that Hofstede relates in his personal studies ( here we will calculate individualism index and hierarchical distance index)

Hierarchical distance index can be calculated only based on the questions regarding actual leadership style in the company, if there are necessary changes that has to be done in management and so on and so forth. This index has is define using the following formula:

Hierarchical distance index = 135 – a + b – 25c

Explication:

a = percentage of employees who prefer a consultative leadership;

b = percentage of those who through that their manager`s type is autocrat plus those that are consider their manager being paternalist type;

c = the average of employees with not answering or neutral answer.

Theoretically the distance fluctuates between -90 and +210. A constant result is 135 and is intended to help for generating an index with value between 0 and 100%.

In our questionnaire, we chose the question number 3 from Appendix 5, and our index has the following results:

Employees who prefer a consultative leader : a = 32%;

Percentage of autocrat plus paternalist manager type: b = 40%;

And average of not answering or neutral : c = 3,4%.

Hence our index is composed by the following formula:

Hierarchical distance index = 135 – 32 + 40 – (25*3.4) = 88%

Thus this index will help us to understand the fact that employees are not equal and has different physic and intellectual capactities. The result can be interpreted as : 0 – means that we have a low hierarchical distance and 100 – means maximum and we consider in this case that we have a highest hierarchical distance. In this case, the result is 88% which represents an important power of management concerning their employees.

Individualism index, was calculated from the beginning by Hofsterde in his research. This index has also a formula, as following:

Individualism index = 76(1D) – 43(1G) + 30(1C) – 27(1A) – 29

Explication:

1D = average percentage of importance for working conditions;

1G = average percentage of importance for hobbies and free time (or holidays);

1C = there are some employees which consider that are not sufficient employees in their departments;

1A = average percentage for cooperation level between employees;

For this index, we analized the question 3 from Appendix 5, and we registered the following results:

1D = 4.50

1G = 5,10

1C = 3.92

1A = 4.50

Hence our individualism index will have the next formula:

Individualism index = 76*4.5 – 43*5.10 + 30*3.92 – 27*4.50 – 29

= 342 – 219.3 + 117.6 – 121.5 – 29 =89.9

= 89.9

Foodpanda Ro has an index of 89,9 percentage result from employees attitude which tends for your personal interest and our index is a higher one. We can consider that we are talking about a company where their employees put their personal interest prior to their engagement for the company.

Masculinity index it is used to have a better view for the other answers that foodpanda employees were subjected to respond. This index reveals the importance for other work characteristics. Thus we will use the following formula to find the result:

Masculinity Index = 60 (1C) – 66(1B) + 36(1E) – 29(1F) + 76

1C = same value as individualism index

1B = average score for a bigger compensation plan;

1E = average of importance for stability of the job;

1F = importance of promoting to another positions in foodpanda.

We estimate that we will have an average of ± 6 points. For example in all over the world were registered maximum in Japain (95 points) and lowest result in Sweden (5 points).

For this questions, we registered the following score for each question:

1C = 3.92%

1B = 4.92%

1E = 3.51%

1F= 2.50%

Hence our index will have the following form:

Masculinity index = 60*3.92 – 66*4.93 + 36*3.51 – 29*2.5 + 76

= 235.2 – 325.38 + 126.36 – 72.5 +76

= 39.68%

In our case, Foodpanda Ro has a masculinity index = 39.68 % which mean a medium masculinity. This index helps the company to define a trend regarding social and sexual differences between their employees.

Even the trend of this two indexes (individualism and masculinity ) is growing, here in Romania are companies where we are facing a problem which persist from the communism period of time (1965-1989) and other companies, multinational with a higher organizational culture like Foodpanda Ro were we are happy to find that the war between sexes or social problems ( like racism) are slowly but certainly changing. In the next Chapter we will reveal some methods for organizing a change strategy at the company`s level. This represent a very big advantage for a leader if want to grow along with his team. For Romanian team is very important to use these method because in a multinational company you are forced to be the best against other companies from other countries. Let`s have an example for marketing budgets. The headquarter decides monthly were they will invest more money for marketing campaigns. If Romania has good results with other campaigns and they were correctly implemented to generate results, then Romania will receive much more money.

Using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument we be much easier to identify the organizational culture for Foodpanda Ro. For example using this instrument we will have a qualitative and quantitative analysis together. This mean that we measure the key of cultural dimensions and qualitative methods including incidents, stories, symbols.

The objective of Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument is to measure six dimensions of organizational culture. These dimensions has another four statements in accordance with our four organizational culture types. The culture define the assumptions, the core values, approaches and interpretations that describe an organization.

Various aspects of organizations and worked with organizations in the process of change, we have discovered that the Competing Values Framework also orders attributes of organizations in addition to cultural values and forms of organizing.

We used a questionnaire to find out the employees perspective about their organizational culture. It has been applied to all employees, inclusive Country Manager of Romania. There are no wrong or right answer because we have affirmative or negative statement. We can find in Appendix 5, the questionnaire use for establish organizational cultire for Foodpanda Ro.

Also we complete another “Preffered” answers for our questionnaire. At the end we will see the difference between those two : a score with ornganizational culture as it is currently and another as we wish it to be in five years.

As we mention, we will have six statements and each one has four sentences ( A,B,C,D). We count all the results and we have a percentage of affirmative responses for each sentences. Hence we add together all A responses, all B responses ans so on, for “NOW” and also all A responses, all B, all C, and so on for “PREFFERED”. At the end of each table we made a simple arithmetic calculation with sum of scores and average score for each sentences.

Table 2.5. Now and Preffered Scores from question no. 3

Using the above table, we can define the profiles for each individual item used in the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument.

Figure2.2. Dominant Characteristic Figure 2.3. Organization Glue

Figure 2.4. Organizational Leadership Figure 2.5. Strategic Emphases

Figure 2.6. Management of Employees Figure 2.7. Criteria of Success

Foodpanda`s final view of organizational culture is showed in the below table. This will allows us to determine the measure to which the current culture, it is suitable with the preferred score.

Table 2.6. Average score between Now an Preffered

Using the above table, we can design the organizational culture profile for Foodpanda Ro. Having a drown image of overall organizational culture at Foodpanda for all 6 culture attributes, will help to define specific strategies for next years.

Figure 2.8. The difference between current organizational culture and proffered

Foodpanda Ro has an very interesting organizational culture profile. As we can see, the averages of all employees answers were generate a mixed culture. For this organization all our six attribute in the company are also important as the others. We face an organization that focuses on flexibility and internal maintenance ( The Clan Culture), external positioning with degree of individualism and flexibility ( The Adhocracy Culture), internal maintenance with needs for control and stability (The Hierarchy Culture) and do not forget about an organization with focus on external position ( The Market Culture).

In the other hand we have the preferred score, which require more focus on external environment ( potential clients, competitors and so on) and less for external positioning. For Hierarchy Culture the company needs lees micromanagement, more decentralized decisions and trying more crazy idea. This is no meat that will be anymore acceptable not holding people accountable, not monitoring performance or not following the rules.

Chapter III

Changing organizational culture based on multicultural level at Foodpanda Ro S.R.L.

3.1. Communication challenges in multicultural companies

The business environment in Europe and in whole world has undergone appreciable transformation since 90’s with serious implications for all factors of the marketing mix. Deep cultural understanding can be a source of advantages for global companies like Foodpanda GmbH. While marketers has to be secure in their traditions and persuasion is required to understand the value and integrity of other way to cohabit and other`s point of view. Because culture is an understand behavior it can be impossible for untrained leaders to comprehend. Thus we can take in consideration the fact that a small company or a new one tend to progress through an foreseeable pattern of organizations culture modifications. This mean that we can encounter a company members that gets a lot of their emotional or social need fulfilled in the company. The cultural profile for Foodpanda Ro was produced in the previous chapter, were we defined the mix of all four cultural types. Culture change occurs in large mature companies but less in a foreseeable pattern. In these companies the culture change must be managed consciously.

Foodpanda Ro was open in September 2013 in Romania, and can be considered that we are faced with a young multinational company in continuously growing. We are saying this because in 1 year of activity in Romania, Foodpanda becomes market leader with more restaurants ( portfolio much bigger) then the next competitor on market. We have to mention that Oliviera (the main competitor) it is on market since 2011.

Romanian company has implemented the business model required by the headquarter company (Foodpanda GmbH) and this was the biggest advantage for online food ordering market for our country.

If we agree Hofstede`s notion for culture as “the collective programming of the mind” then it is logic to learn about culture by studying the beliefs, attidudes and values shared by Foodpanda`s employees.

In the following lines we will elaborate a strategy for organizational culture change and effectiveness for all departments of Foodpanda Ro. In another words we will help the company by implementing this measure to create a much better relationship with the headquarter organization and to optimize Romanian company`s requirements.

3.2. Organizational culture and multicultural effectiveness

The key elements of organizational culture change for Foodpanda Ro shall help us to outline a successful company in 2-3 years. Thus, we had in the previous chapter a diagnosis of what organizational culture means for Foodpanda`s employees so therefore we will consider the key elements in our changing proposal the following:

Understanding the old culture. We can not change the culture in a day because we are talking about human resources. A new culture has to be understood and applied by all employees.

Supporting all employees who has a view about what changing culture means. This is a very important step that all managers should follow. In an organization are a lot of people with many ideas to improve their company. Also they have different personalities and a wrong changing culture implementation could eliminate all good environment that was created during 2-3 years of activity.

Finding the best efficient solutions for all subcultures of company and providing examples for the employees. In this way they can learn to become more productive and dynamic.

Organizational culture is not directly under attack. We have to create an environment in which all employees will become more efficient.

Organizational culture can be changes only with the power of example and this will influence the most important player of the Foodpanda Ro – Country Manager.

Our objective is to implement all the following measures which will influence the organizational culture and multicultural effectiveness in relation to Berlin team (the headquarter). We consider that implementation of these measures will take 5 years ( 2017-2021) and they will start from January 2017.

We considered to create a measure for each organizational culture analyzed in the previous chapter. In this way we can outline strategic objectives to record our increase of decrease organizational culture in different directions.

3.2.1. Measure 1: Support and promote team work

Even if the Clan culture has to remain the same according to Foodpanda`s organizational culture profile, we have to maintain the same importance for the employees. In fact they are the most important element from a company. If HR department identify and recruit people who has experience and vision that a start-up needs, then we have a successful company.

For this measure, we will outline the following elements for getting the measure done.

Organizing team building at 6 months. In this way, all employees will have the chance to meet each other in another environment and they will share a lot of ideas about how their company has to look like. The period of time for implementing this element is 2 years.

Support team players with brainstorming sessions. It is very important for an employer to know that he has his manager support. We will establish weekly and monthly sessions on every Friday. Every team manager will establish with their team some problems which the employees are faced it every day, and then this problems will be debated in weekly meeting. First 6 months of the Organizational Change Process, we will make only monthly sessions, for adapting the employees to this change. Period of implementation will be 1 year, after that we will analyze the results.

High Level of trust for employees. Using the previous element we can create a competition. This mean that the company will give a paid holiday or money for that employee which is very active in weekly and monthly sessions.

Those element will be showed using the Gantt Diagram. In this way we have an overview for this measure and very important thing, the period of time when will be implemented. We expect that this measure will be done in 3 years.

Figure 3.1. Gantt Diagram support and promote team work

3.2.2. Measure 2: Acquisition of good materials

In the main Organizational Culture Profile, preferred could be interpreted like decreasing Adhocracy. This decreasing does not mean to abandon projects or careful analysis on the contrary. We need to have almost the same focus on customer requirements and become a more forward-looking company. For this measure, we though that is necessary to redistribute our focus on company dynamics but to be more flexible regarding the risks and changes.

In this measure we will elaborate the following elements, which will have a period of implementation of one year. After all organizational culture change period of time, all this measure will be separately analyzed and establish its strengths and weaknesses and how much affect or help the organizational culture.

We chose to implement this measure because the Foodpanda`s employees needs to be on a high level of technology. We are talking about a start-up, a new business with exclusive activity in online, so it is important to be on trend with all it is new.

Purchase of goods and materials to engineering the use of efficient devices. This first step involves the following steps:

Identify the market best products and its analysis. For this element the marketing team will have only four weeks.

The composition of applications for entry into possession of money from the parent company. The Foodpanda Ro team will create a full project which will be sent to Berlin for its approbation. This step could need six weeks.

Request a discount from two best vendors on the market. In next Table we can see two options of prices from Emag and Flanco, those two suppliers. This will take almost five weeks with price negotiation.

Implement the procurement staff work. The company needs only four weeks to implement this process.

To that extent there were put together requests for tenders on the following goods, required for a better activity of the company`s:

Tablets – 7 pieces

Competitive Laptops -10 items

Smartphones -7 pieces

GPRS printers -20 pieces

USB Headphones -4pieces.

We chose two proposals (Emag and Flanco) which were subject to detailed analysis based on the discounts offered by them to purchase goods. These are analyzed in the following table, along with their prices:

Table 3.1. Price offer for good materials

By analyzing the offer, the first option has lower prices than the latter, but when it came to it, company no. 2 provided a +5% discount in comparison with the first company, therefore, the acquisition was made from company 2.

It is estimated that applying all the stages will take three months, as a result, a Gantt, chart should be done in order to highlight that must be met.

Figure 3.2. Gantt Diagram for acquisition of good materials

3.2.3. Measure 3: Create procedures and processes for each department

For Hierarchy Culture, which according with preferred organizational culture profile has to increase, we considered necessary to have specific processes and procedures for each department. This culture type uses more logical structure and require many production schedules.

They are existing but in a small for, so for this measure Foodpanda Ro will need help from other countries. We chose Hungary and Russia, because they are on market since 2012. Their teams are much bigger than Romanian ones ( Russia has 2100 employees and Hungary 370 employees). The measure will be implemented in 8 months.

The elements witch will help us to carry out the measure will be:

Establish communication sessions with MD`s from this two countries selected. We expected a necessary of two weeks.

Create a needs structure for Romanian team. For example it is mandatory to create a Sales Book for all Romanian agents. There they can find all services that Foodpanda offers to the client. Also they can read it anytime when they are not sufficient informed about something. This will help very much the team leader. Also for this element we can take four weeks for implementing.

Establish a “To-Do” list with all improvements that has to written those procedures and processes. This can take only one week. Thus everybody will know what they have to do.

Analyze all materials created and organize them. This important step require much time, so this element will be finished in eight weeks.

Implementing the procedures. All Romanian team will be informed about all this processes even they know which they are. For this element we will need one week.

Figure 3.3. Gantt Diagram for creating procedures and processes in Foodpanda Ro S.R.L.

3.2.4. Measure 4: Trainings for Sales Department in other countries

On this measure the main focus will be redirected to Sales Department. We are talking about Market Culture for which we need a significant decreasement. This is not meant that the company has to ignore the completion or to neglect the customer.

Training in other countries where Foodpanda is activating will help the sales agents to outline customers profile, negotiation processes within customer culture and problems which can appear after singing the contracts. For this step we will have 4 months of implementation with the following elements:

Choose two countries where Sales Department will have the trainings and request approbation from Berlin team. This element will take less then two weeks.

Divide the department in two teams, one in a country and the other in another country. Sales agents has to prepare a documentation for this trip. They will have only 3 weeks for doing this.

After this we need to know an estimative cost for this measure and has to be approved by Berlin. We expected a necessary of five weeks.

Evaluating the knowledge acquired by the staff upon return. Estimated time for element is two weeks.

The training in Russia and Hungary will help the team leaders and also the Country Manager of Foodpanda Ro to have another perspective about risky decisions which are taken countries with strict rules. They will be made aware with Russian and Hungarian legislation which is very different between Romanian ones.

Figure 3.4. Gantt Diagram for Training for Sales Deptarment

3.3. Forecasted effects

At the end of implementation all these measure, we will have to see an improvement of organizational culture for Romanian company. The opposite will change some aspects from the company like employees effectiveness, environment culture and so on.

We illustrate all these measures in only one Gantt Chart to having on overview of how they will intersect each other in some points. We are capable to understand that in the period of time when two or three measure, the organization`s environment can be risky because of the overwork. Only with good skills in organizational culture, a manager can face this kind of situation.

Figure 3.5. Gantt Diagram for measures which will change organizational culture

Conclusions

Amplification of intercultural communication was caused by intensive growth of globalization in the last decades. The need to diagnose and having a growing organizational culture in significance partly because of the fact that emphasizes the needto merge different company`s culture as a structural changes have occurred. They are so many company which have internationalized due to the need of massive increasing and development in foreign market. This is the main cause that we analyzed in these papers the Romanian multinational company – Foodpanda Ro S.R.L. in relations with the headquarter Foodpanda GmbH.

Relatively stable market from Romania determined primarily intestors to bring Foodpanda here on a market which can insignificant grow and five –six years. Thus our research confirm that Romanian employees are open to change organizational culture and with amazement we consider that Foodpanda Ro could be adapted to any organizational culture types. They are already using a mix of all four culture type and we believe that this recipe could help every multinational company to adapt a global business to any organization culture type from any country.

The measures presented in the last chapter of this paper will have a significant influence on company`s work environment and culture. In this way our organization tend to develop a commanding organizational culture over time as thy respond and adapt to changes in the environment and challenges. As well as individuals who face ambiguity, threat and uncertainty researt their habituated behavior with redouble face. Culture consistency and reinforces continuity in the organization through adhesion to a clear set of consensual values. Because of the need to change and maintain stability in a company, the organization culture assessment is increasingly important and helps to have a diagnostic instrument to recognize core organizational behavior. In this paper we used this useful tool in effective management of company`s change.

Synthesizing the initial premise, Foodpanda Ro S.R.L. has a mixed organizational culture with possibility of quickly changing on some organizational instruments.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Cameron K. (1997) “Organizational Culture: Enhancing Organizational Performance”, Washington D.C.: National Academies Press;

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Harberberg A., Rieple A.(2008) – “Strategic Management. Theory and Application”, Oxford: Univerity Press.

Hotler P. (2004) – “Principiile Marketingului” ,Bucuresti: Editura Teora;

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Keegan W., Green M. (2005) – “ Global Marketing – fourth edtion” , Canada: Pearson;

Kennedy A. (1982) – “ Corporate Cultures: The Rights and Rituals of Corporate Life”, Boston: Addison-Wesley;

Kotler P., Keller K.L. (2012) – “Marketing Management 14E”, New Jersey: Prentice Hall;

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APPENDIX

Appendix 1: Sales Offer

Appendix 2: Global Sales Report Model

Appendix 3: Sales agent – Job Description

Annex 4: Foodpanda Presentation

Appendix 5: Questionnaire

Your gender:

Lady

Gentleman

Which range includes your age?

18 – 24 years

25 – 29 years

30 – 35 years

> 35 years

According to the following statements, please answer with “YES” or “NO”.

Dominant Characteristics

YES NO

The organization is very personal place.

The organization is a very dynamic enterpreneurial place.

The organization is very results oriented.

The organization is a very controlled and structured place.

Organizational Leadership

The leadership is generally exemplify mentoring.

The leadership is exemplify entrepreneurship, innovating.

The leadership is considered a no-nonsense, aggresive.

The leadership is considered to exemplify coordinating.

Management of Employees

The management is characterized by teamwork.

The management is characterized by risk-taking.

The management is characterized by high demands.

The management is characterized by security of stability.

Organization Glue

Commitment to this organization runs high.

There is an emphasis on being on the cutting edge.

Aggressiveness and winning are common themes.

Maintaining a smooth-running organization is important.

Strategic Emphases

High trust, openness, and participation persist.

Trying new things and prospecting for opportunities are valued.

Hitting stretch targets and winning in the marketplace are dominant.

Efficiency, control and smooth operations are important.

Criteria of success

The organization basis of the development of teamwork.

It is a product leader and innovator.

Competitive market leadership is key.

Do you apply the training that you received in your daily duties?

Yes

Neutral

No

Overall, you are satisfied with the training you received for the present job?

Yes

Neutral

No

Do you think that manager nationality could influence organizational culture?

Yes

Neutral

No

Do you consider necessary to have a training in another country?

Yes

Neutral

No

Foodpanda clearly communicates its goals and strategies to you ?

Yes

Neutral

No

In the company, employees adapt quickly to different situations?

Yes

Neutral

No

Do you receive encouragement to come up with better and new ways of doing things?

Yes

Neutral

No

Appendix 6: Financial Balance 2014-2015

Bilanț Contabil la S.C. Foodpanda Ro S.R.L.