GROUP ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: Nguyễn Nhật Anh Student ID number: 22002498

Student name: Lữ Đinh Quốc Bảo Student ID number: 22003499

Student name: Dương Minh Nguyên Student ID number: 22002748

Student name: Nguyễn Quỳnh Kim Ngọc Student ID number: 22004165

Student name: Student ID number:

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: Principle of Management Unit number: PM-T123PWB-4

Tutorial/Lecture: Tutorial Class day and time:
Lecturer or Tutor name: Ms. Tran Thi Huong Trang

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Title: Reflection Report 3- Tutorial 4.2

Length: Due date: Feb 10 Date submitted: Feb 10

DECLARATION
I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from
any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another (previous or
current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission from the Lecturer /
Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
No part of the assignment/product has been written/ produced for me by any other person except where
collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned.
I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the
purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism
checking).

Student’s signature: Anh

Student’s signature: Bảo
Student’s signature: Nguyên
Student’s signature: Ngọc
Student’s signature:

Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been
signed.

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 Reflection Report
of Group 5

Principle of Management
PM-T123PWB-4
Mr. Chris Paget & Ms. Tran Thi Huong Trang
ISB - Global Pathways
February 10, 2023

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Feedback for Group 3…………………………………………………………………3

What we learn from Group 3………………………………………………………….7

Feedback for Group 9…………………………………………………………………10

What we learn from Group 9…………………………………………………………12

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FEEDBACK FOR GROUP 3

Overall, our group believes that the presentations and debates from all three groups
were great.

SPEAKERS

Members of group 3 managed to deliver their content to us with clear voices and
fluency. The group can divide the questions equitably so that all members of the group
can answer, as well as divide the time evenly so there is no overage. A sliding table of
contents is required to summarize the presentation's content. However, they should
present slower next time because there is some information that we could not hear
clearly. Notably, there was a thrill in the debate session as other groups asked tough
questions, but group 3 could answer them all with their logical arguments.

PRESENTATION

As for the slide decoration and layout, group 3 decorates the slide with cute bright
colors. They also distilled several determinants that made their presentation
enjoyable..

ON TEAM DEBATE:

First, it was a debate session between team 2 and team 3. The question for team 3 was,
"Based on what you have said about what underpins the A.S Watson groups,
what kind of operation management helps make them successful? How does it
make their business successful?", and group 3 answered, "A.S Watson Group since
the late 1990s experienced a series of Organizational changes in the Company.
The changes that occurred in the organization were mainly the expansions that

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had been made to the business. They launched a number of mergers and
acquisitions in Europe and Asia in the late 1990s. Due to this, it had to overcome
some internal processes of change, such as a new strategy for the newly
established organization, a change in the composition of the workforce, and new
and innovative equipment and technology for the newly expanded work
conditions. Additionally, some external changes had to be dealt with as well, such
as new government laws of the new countries they started operating in and
customizing consumer needs according to geographical preferences. In short,
A.S. Watson Group has strict standards in quality control and product design.
They also have clear operational plans and good staff management. Moreover,
what makes them so successful is the consensus of effort and cooperation of
everyone in the Company." Team 3 gave more detailed information about A.S
Watson Group and how they operated successfully.

Next was the debate between team 1 and team 3. The first question for team 3 was,
"In the 90s, A. S. Watson expanded their business to international markets such
as Thailand and Malaysia; therefore, it faced external problems which required
them to change its business model both internally and externally. Which one was
the most important to them? Why? "and the answer of team 3 was, "First, having
been admitted that scaling an organization's operations is extremely challenging.
Watson's starting point is in Hong Kong. Its headquarters are there, so building
a structure in a new market can hardly be guaranteed to be smooth and stable.
Government regulations can also be an external barrier to communicating this
new store to consumers in a new market. Language barriers, shopping culture,
and customers' attitudes and behavior will be a huge influence on a foreign
corporation. Second, considering the separate foreign policies of Malaysia and
Thailand, they have different treatment for foreign investors, forcing investors to
find ways to facilitate entry into the country. Next is the structure, the operating
apparatus seems to be completely indigenous, so it will be more difficult to

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transmit ideas, business philosophy as well as social communication. Our team
believes that facing and solving internal or external problems is not easy, and
entering a new market, these challenges are normal that a corporation must solve
to ensure the operation will be stable. About the most challenging, according to
mate's team question, our team supposes that what would they do to unite and be
in harmony with their internal structure due to having been weak in the core, the
development and success cannot be built.". The second question for team 3
was "With the aim to orient the Company according to the new business trend, it
is undeniable that the employees will face great pressure. So if you are the
manager of A. S. Watson Group, what policies will you have to support
employees to reduce stress? Can you give detailed examples? ". They provided
quite brief examples; however, they contained profound meanings. The final question
was, "According to you, to surpass A. S. Watson, what can other companies do to
achieve it?" and their response was "Supercity, stylised in logos as "city super" (the
company name is City Super Limited), is a retail chain in Hong Kong and
Taiwan. Its core format of upmarket supermarkets sells primarily fresh produce
and groceries. The Company also operates LOG-ON, which offers stationery,
cosmetics, gadgets, fashion accessories, and travel goods. 
City super specialises in imported produce and goods and holds regular thematic
promotional events to popularise its imported goods, such as Seafood & Sparling
Fair.

The chain has been called "elitist" with its premium and unique selection of
specialist products. Its high-end fruit is a popular choice for gift-giving, especially
during festivals and celebrations. Focus on customer experience, have a policy, and
focus on providing the best service for them. Watson has its own research team to
explore the market. For instance, they have done exploratory research in their
business to help marketers gain a greater understanding of something that they
don't know. For instance, if a shampoo is popular with consumers, they may be

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curious as to why it is selling better than the competition, such as whether it has
unique features or appealing advertising. Through this study, they can gain a
thorough understanding of their consumers' wants and deliver precisely what
they require."

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM

PRESENTATION GROUP: 

The presentation performed by group 3 has given much information about A.S.
Watson Group, one of the most significant health and retail beauty groups. S. Watson
Group began as a small dispensary in the south in the 1870s. In 1981, it was acquired
by Hutchinson Whampoa, a Hong Kong conglomerate. Hutchinson Whampoa helped
the S. Watson Group to launch several mergers and acquisitions, including the
acquisition of the Dutch Kruidvat Group in 2000. In 2014, Singapore's Temasek paid
$5.7 billion for a 25 percent stake in Ka-Shing Li's S. Watson Group. S. Watson
Group is one of the most significant health and retail beauty groups, with operations in
more than 15 Asian countries and regions. The company has faced significant
challenges integrating newly acquired businesses into its structure. To maintain its
competitive strength, Watson Group relies on its parent company.

DEBATE GROUPS:

During the debate session, group 3 had absolute dominance in answering all the
questions other groups gave with clear main points and logical explanations to support
the ideas of their answers. In the first question, we determined how the company
remains successful after making changes. A.S Watson Group has undergone several
organizational changes since the late 1990s, including a new organizational strategy, a
shift in the workforce, and the adoption of cutting-edge tools and technology.
Additionally, external changes had to be handled, such as changing government
regulations of the various nations they began doing business in and tailoring consumer
requirements to local tastes. Given the following question about the group's

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understanding of the company's quote, Group 3 answered the brand is unyielding
around the witticism "see great, feel awesome, and have fun," which superbly captures
the zeitgeist. The logic "Look Great, Feel Incredible, and Have Fun' brings a happy
involvement to shopping in Watsons and fulfillment to all the clients. Watson
encompasses an incredible opportunity as a result of this since it, at that point, makes
returns from client convictions and well experiences, along with the requirement for
casual shopping encounters and a few intangible variables like benefit and brand. As a
result, Watson guarantees to put "Your Individual Store" at the center of their
operations. It is committed to making strides and improving the lives of its clients by
helping them in feeling awesome, look incredible, and have fun. Customers' needs are
continuously put, beginning with Watson, whether it's through individualized
excellence and well-being exhortation or frequently overhauling their endless choice
of high-quality and inventive items. In the end, we know that Watson created its claim
administration logic in arrange to determine if it was easy enough for its target clients.
Also, in the third question, the group could tell how other companies can learn from
A.S Watson Group's "new business model by concentrating on the geographic needs
of its target market while growing its businesses both physically and digitally. They
even had a relevant example of Masan Group, one of the biggest companies in
VietNam, which used Watson's business model as a springboard to introduce their
own innovative strategic business paradigm and win the Vietnamese market and
NetJet, which is the biggest private jet fleet in the world, a multibillion-dollar
company that Warren Buffet's company Berkshire Hathaway acquired in 1998. Lastly,
we learned from the question answered by group 3 that the company underwent a
structural change because its initial base was a neighborhood dispensary. However, as
one of the largest health and retail beauty groups, its business now includes food,
beverages, and electronic products in addition to luxury perfumes, cosmetics, and
health and beauty products. Many structural aspects of the merger must be altered to
facilitate the transition, including the elimination of redundant departments, the
reassignment of some employees to new roles, the termination of others, and the

8
adoption of additional policies and procedures like effective procurement, effective
logistics, and effective distribution systems to increase standardization and aid the
company in achieving favorable financial results. The A.S. Watson Group also
changed its organizational structure by changing its strategy.

CONCLUSION:

What group 3 presented from both the presentations and group debate was insightful,
with in-depth research of the company, credible examples, and convincing
explanations for their answers. Overall, we learned not only how A. S. Watson Group
had made its company one of the largest health and beauty retail groups from the case
but also how its system operates more specifically from the debate session.

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FEEDBACK FOR GROUP 9:

Overall, our group thinks that all three groups have done a great job in presenting and
debating.

SPEAKERS

Members of group 9 helped us understand the topic easily with good timing and
intonation. Their voice and pronunciation also were quite clear. Notably, the debating
session was exciting. Notably, they used statistical data to support their ideas, which
was very disruptive and intelligent. As a result, that data helped them to express ideas
accurately and more quickly to comprehend. As for debate, group 9 speakers were
more likely to answers all questions from others group because they are quite simple.
Therefore, the debate session was seemingly tedious.

PRESENTATION

Group 9 had unique and aesthetic slides. However, instead of putting too many words,
they should put more pictures to make their presentation become more attractive. They
presented their ideas really clearly, which is easy to understand, and their summary
was quite good.

ON THE TEAM DEBATE

First is the debate between group 7 and group 9. The first question for group 7 was, "How can
Tesco convince its employees to participate in changing the organisational culture instead of
them leaving the company?" group 9 answered, "As we mentioned in response to question 7.16,
he stressed the idea that customers' satisfaction is a key point to promote the company. He also
regained prestige by paying the suppliers on a specific date and hardly delaying its payment to
the suppliers in order to improve the company's margin. He wanted every member of the

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company to strive for the goals instead of leaving their current positions.". The second question
from group 7 was, "What can Tesco do to minimise the drawbacks of the scandal, and how can
they avoid similar mistakes in the future?" and group 9 had solved the situation very
thoughtfully "When the scandal happened, he directly informed the company's members
through email that he was not a part of the financial issue. From that point, he would
encourage each employee to trust the company. Moreover, he changed the organisation's
culture by stressing the importance of customers' needs.We believe that when the company
could identify the mistakes, the managers might come up with clear strategies to ensure that
such mistakes do not occur in the future.". 

Next is the debate between group 8 and group 9. The first question for group 8 was, "Do you think
receiving many opinions of the company's employees in changing the organisation's culture is
necessary or Dave Lewis should just do his major well as a manager to control the
company?" and group 9 answered very logically "We suppose both factors are necessary, which
is that Dave Lewis should listen to the staff's opinions in changing the company's culture,
combining with his role of managing to correct their mistakes if they want to help Tesco to
develop again. From my perspective, it is since the managers need to have skillful leadership to
guide their employees, and they also must know the organisation's missions and visions, which
help them to be confident in making decisions. Besides the supervision mastery, the perfect
managers are the ones who are good at communicating and listening to their employees'
opinions to unite each individual in the workplace to enhance performance.". The second
question from group 2 was, "If you were Dave Lewis, besides sending an email to the company's
staff members to change the organisation's culture, what would you do in order to revive Tesco
from the scandal?" and their answers were quite similar to our group's opinion "We believe
changing the company's culture is good but not enough to revive Tesco. If we were Dave Lewis,
we would apologise publicly to the customers and the suppliers. We would also promise to do
business honestly, pay the suppliers before a certain day, produce more high-quality products
to advance the customers' trust, and work together with our employees to build a reliable
relationship among staff and bosses."

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM

PRESENTATION GROUP: 

Thanks to the speech of group 9, our group accumulated vast knowledge related to
Tesco's financial scandal. To be more specific, Tesco was the largest supermarket
chain in the UK, but in 2014, it was accused of overstating its profit to maintain the
company's value, resulting in a financial scandal. Several different problems caused
Tesco's accounting issue. A change in top-level management raised concern at a time
when the company's revenues and profitability were under strain. The PwC, the
company's auditor, had warned Tesco over the recognition of commercial income, but
the Tesco audit committee declared no issue in May 2014. Moreover, staff members
were instructed to delay paying money to suppliers in order to improve margins for the
time being and avoid being seen to be under performing. When we look at the
omnipotent management view, it is clear that managers were involved in the crisis,
which demonstrated Tesco's poor performance. They disregarded their manager duties
and hid the truth about the business while serving as its public face. Moving on to the
symbolic view, the employees who were in charge of paying suppliers may not have
been directly involved because they would have been able to do so without managers'
orders. To ease the impact of the financial scandal, the CEO - Dave Lewis, made the
decision to inform all staff must have faith in the company and promised that there
would be a change in the organisation's culture via email, along with emphasising the
value of the customers. Regarding the consequence, it had negative impacts on many
stakeholders, such as suppliers, employees, Grocery Code Adjudicator, the serious
fraud office, and the CEO. Workers and the CEO of the company were most affected
by the scandal. To illustrate, employees had to work harder and more productively to
catch up with the alter in the organisation culture, while the old CEO - Dave Lewis
resigned, and Philip Clarke had to tackle many financial problems to regain Tesco's
reputation. Additionally, suppose that we are looking to join Tesco, but hearing about

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the scandal. In our group's opinion, we will take back our choice to be a part of the
company. Even though the company can bring us many benefits as it was a famous
firm in the UK, many people, including us, question their honesty and credibility due
to what happened in the past.

DEBATE GROUPS: 

Throughout the debate among the three groups, our group also gained more
knowledge about different aspects. To prevent employees from leaving the companies,
Lewis proved to them that the company would change by paying the suppliers instead
of delaying to improve the company’s margin as in the past. Moreover, our group
believes that the CEO should apologise publicly to the customers and the suppliers,
promise to do business honestly and produce more high-quality products. As a result,
these actions can minimise the consequence, establish a relationship between
managers and staff, and regain customers’ trust.

CONCLUSION:

To sum up, throughout the case of Tesco and what group 9 delivered, our group thinks
that lying about achievement is not the right thing to do. Admittedly, there are some
upsides to it, as companies can gain much fame and people’s trust. However, if the
truth comes to light, those firms will witness the loss of large trust, which may lead to
the collapse of the company. Therefore, the best way and most effective way to
become a successful company is honest.

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