Jb Hi-Fi Contemporary Organisation

Subject – Understanding Contemporary Organisations.

Names- Parth Gor (18782194)

Himani Dadhwal (18790694)

 Harsh Patel (18849426)

Executive summary

JB Hi-Fi is one of the famous retailers that deal in consumer electronic goods and also games, music and CDs. They have developed a chain of retail stores to provide electronic products to customers at lowest possible prices by maintaining a low-cost business model and keeping up to date along with various technological changes and making those new products available on their store at the earliest. In this report, we will explain JB Hi-Fi’s organisational structure, their people management practices, marketing practices and financial practices. We have also developed an integrated analysis of the organisation by showing how these practices effect the functioning of the organisation (JB Hi-Fi, 2017).

Table of Contents

Executive summary        1

Introduction        3

Organisational Structure        4

People Practices        5

Marketing Practices        7

Financial Practices        8

Integration        9

References:        10

Introduction

JB Hi-Fi limited is a speciality discount retailer of branded home entertainment products. JB Hi-Fi has 194 stores across Australia and New Zealand. The products that the organisation deals in, fall in the category of consumer electronics, car sound systems, music, DVDs and white goods. The organisation has been known for continuously surviving the test of times by continuously changing the way they carry out their operations. In 2012 November, launched JB Hi-Fi HOME, a concept store retailing whitegoods, cooking and small appliances. The company had rebranded Clive Anthony stores as JB Hi-Fi HOME. Also, recently in 2016 the company announced it had an agreement to acquire The Good Guys, a chain of consumer electronic retail stores for a total cash consideration of $870 million. The company does not produce or manufacture the goods it puts on its shelf, instead they provide a variety of products to the consumer by securing supply from their suppliers. The company carries out its operations in Australia and New Zealand and employs over 7800 staff throughout its operations. The organisation is also listed on the ASX and has its headquarter in Chadstone, Victoria (JB Hi-Fi, 2017).

Organisational Structure

JB Hi-Fi has a charter that provides the summary of Board of Directors’ roles in the structure of the business and company’s operations. All the decisions regarding the growth and diversification and the company’s operation are taken by the board of directors and the CEO as a globally centralised structure is preferred by JB Hi-Fi so that they can have more control on the organisation through the decisions that the highest authorities pass. JB Hi-Fi follows a functional organisational structure so that can implement new strategies and plans throughout the organisation as a whole. A hierarchy is maintained in the organisational structure of the company and as a result each individual store follows the commands and instructions given by top authorities instead of having autonomy in individual stores. Geographically there are two segments of JB Hi-Fi which are Australia and New Zealand and these segments are further divided under the category called Home consumer products. This structure allows the organisation to keep on changing according to the needs and requirements of the consumers. Due to this the organisation, can easily shift their focus towards the dominating demands of the consumers. For e.g. In 2004 the dominant category was visual and software but in 2016 the dominant category has become large appliances such as smart TV and computers. As the demand of consumers changed, the organisation also changed their focus on prioritising the availability of large appliances on the store. Over the number of years, the company has consistently achieved growth in their sales figure and with the injection of funds that sales generate, debts have been reduced and allowed the company to grow. This has not happened by chance but because of its structure that allows them to diversify and change continuously (JB Hi-Fi annual report, 2016).

People Practices

Employees are the essential asset of a company. Success and failure of the business depends on the performance and attitude of the employees. Likewise, JB Hi-Fi performance is based on its employees and to get 100% from the employees’ company needs to understand the needs and requirements of the employees. JB Hi-Fi has authorised its employees to do bargain on the prices of products and they pay base salary plus commission to their staff to increase their sale. JB Hi-Fi has set “go price” which is decided by managers which is higher than the cost price including gross profit. If employee sells product on price tag or above the Go price, then she/he earns 10 percent commission on the difference between tag price and cost price and if the price is lower than the Go price but higher than cost price, then commission is 4 per cent (Murphy, 2016). Two years back, JB Hi-Fi has initiated a new partnership with fair work ombudsman to provide better workplace environment across all its stores. JB Hi-Fi has given high priority to its workplace compliance by entering into a three years’ proactive compliance deed with fair work ombudsman which will eventually foster a strong relation and better communication between employers and employees (Inside retail, 2015). Furthermore, every year JB Hi-Fi takes employees crucial survey regarding the working environment and treatment they are getting on job (JB Hi-Fi, 2016). To look after the requirements of its customers JB Hi-Fi accordingly provides training to its employees. JB Hi-Fi as an electronic retail giant is making attempts to boost the number of women workers in its workforce and have been successful in achieving their objective of having a gender diversified workforce so far. A system has been developed by JB Hi-Fi to start regular reporting and assessment of progress to implement the higher gender diversity objectives. Moreover, employee pay is reviewed regularly to see that whether there is any inequality in gender exists or not (JB Hi-Fi annual report, 2016).

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1. Rise in number of female employees (JB Hi-Fi annual report, 2016)

By getting more number of women in their superior positions, the company is trying send a message about gender equality which in turn will help the company in attracting more highly efficient workers and reducing the labour turnover rate. There are some moral principles of JB Hi-Fi as a company to respect its employees’ dignity, rights and freedom provides safe, challenging and rewarding environment and each employee gets recognition on their achievement. JB Hi-Fi is creating team culture of giving by matching each employee’s donation dollar-for-dollar which is eventually doubling the boosting workplace giving. JB Hi-Fi developed a connection with the needs of their community. In result, they got positive increment in team loyalty, retention and recruitment (Redkite, 2016).