Mission Statement of Wesfarmers Company and Performance of Its Chief Executive Officer - Case Study Example

Running Header: Strategic Practice 1 Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Introduction The purpose, the reason for being and mission is a must for each organisiation. Mostly, the mission outlines why the organisation was initially established- to accomplish a need indentified sometimes ago. Some instances, the same difficulties that the company initially attempted to tackle continue to haunt from one generation to another. The mission of the organisation may be alive, current and healthy but this does not mean that the organisation has articulated that purpose into a vivid, concise mission statement. An excellent mission statement should clearly elaborate why the organisation exists and what it aims to attain in the coming days (Radtke, 1998). It translates the organisation’s basic nature, it work and its values. Wesfarmers is one of such organisations that must have purpose, the reason for being and mission for their very existence. It is a diversified organisation that started it operations in 1914, expanding into one of biggest employers and listed companies in Australia (Wesfarmers c, 2011). Diversity of its operations include department stores, supermarkets, office supplies and home improvement, insurance, energy, coal mining, fertilizers and chemicals and safety and industrial products. The main objective of the company is to offer satisfying results to its stakeholders. This is the major guiding principle to developing a disciplined, highly focused and a unique business culture. Additionally. Wesfarmers is committed to four core values: boldness, accountability, openness and integrity. This paper seeks to evaluate mission statement of Wesfarmers Company and performance of its Chief Executive Officer. Wesfarmers Formal Mission Statement The mission statement of Wesfarmers is to retain commitment to offering satisfactory results to shareholders. The company has managed to achieve its goals through strength obtained via diversity. The conglomerate of a broad range of prospering businesses and the strong commitment of the team of this company makes sure that it develops long-lived value and hence offering satisfactory returns for its shareholders. The company mission statement is emphasizing on diversity since this company has a wide-spread portfolio across various sectors in Australian economy. Its various business operations are Coles, Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks, Target, Insurance, Resources, Chemicals, Fertilizers, Energy and Chemicals, and Safety and Industrial. Wesfarmers mission statement is bound by philosophy that is based on four core values: boldness, accountability, openness and integrity. Though the Organisation is committed to giving attractive results to its shareholders, it puts into consideration priority of community and sustainable responsibilities. The depth and diversity of Wesfarmers business operations reach into many New Zealand and Australian communities. This implies that the organisation has a huge role of getting its efforts of sustainability in the right tract in a bid to preserve its philosophy and values. Every year, this organisation complies a sustainability report that gauges its advancement in managing community and sustainability matters across every operation division and offers the basis on which the organisation will improve and expand its efforts of sustainability into coming days (Adams, 1999). The principles that guide these efforts includes: a. Offering a secure and safe work environment for every customer, employee and stakeholder (Victorian Government,2010). b. Enhancing and maintaining the physical environment where it has operations including plans to reduce emissions of carbon, improving energy and water utilizations and reducing commercial waste and by-products. c. Operating in high standards of ethics as possible. d. Investing in the society via sponsorships, partnerships and programs over and above the direct commercial and economic benefits Wesfarmers offers. These undertakings are experienced through the entire business operations of Westfarmers. The division of Coles was created in 2007 November after a successful Coles Group acquisition. This division is one of the major leading retail organisations in Australia with brands such as Coles Express, Vintage cellars, Liquorland, 1st Choice Liquor Superstores, Coles and BI-LO supermarkets. The division of Cole is a part of the retail sector in Australia with over 100,000 employees and more than 2,200 stores across the country. From the nature of this division of Wesfarmers, it is clear that it champions the mission of rewarding its stakeholders with satisfactory result through diversity. Cole has diversified its business across the entire retail sector in Australia. Philosophy of Wesfarmers -which is boldness, accountability, openness and integrity-, is highly revealed by Coles. As a leading retailers in Australia, Coles has taken a bold step of acknowledging the effect it may put on the environment and this has resulted to its commitment to looking for means of reducing any negative effect and maintain the environment. This is the highest level of openness and accountability any organisation can go. From 2001, Coles has been in a close collaboration with Landcare Australia to help funding projects on sustainable environment across the country. The association has been focusing on rehabilitating and protecting natural resource and enlightening young people on how to take care of the environment (Elliot, 2005). Through these efforts, and with Landcare dedications and its team, Cole has been aiming in building a sustainable future for its environment, business and its customers. This is integrity of the highest order. The company mission is championed in every division of operation. Wesfarmers is one of the major Australian open-cut mining companies and is a top metallurgical producer of coal with interests diversified on 3 coal mines. The operations of division includes the Curragh mine in Bowen Basin Queensland, 40 % in the Bengalla Mine in the New South Wales’ Hunter Valley, and the Premier Coal mine at Western Australia in Collie. Wesfarmers Resources has its own mission that is to manage and build a portfolio of resource and high quality mining assets, delivering excellent financial and operational performance. The overall mission of Wesfarmers Resources is a an expanded mission of Wesfarmers company where it is committed to be a high performing division with an aim of offering value to shareholders via growth, innovation and initiative. The values of this division are, ethical conduct, sustainability, people first, sustainability, high performance and organisational learning. All these values covers the entire philosophy of the company which is boldness, accountability, openness and integrity. Curragh uses a plan of continuous rehabilitation, where disturbed lands are rehabilitated as they become available following the process of mining. Lease of Curragh mining covers 12701 ha. From the start in 1983, a total of 7471 ha have been disturbed by associated activities and mining and 1427 ha has already been rehabilitated since 1988 (Jonathan, 2000). This division has EMS (Environment Management System) that is applied to all contractors, employees, and visitors to Curragh and covers all aspects of environmental management including biodiversity, water management, cultural heritage, rehabilitation, waste management, energy management and greenhouse gas (Felix & Eugenio 2002). In 2011 a total of 1,75 megaliters of raw water was pumped from the River Mackenzie for use in the site. As a result of sustainable management, Curragh water consumption in 2011 was estimated to have reduced by 40% when compared to 2010. The mission of Wesfarmers Company is continued to the rest of divisions. Environment sustainability has been a concern for every organisation that values its environment (University of Idaho Sustainability Center, 2010). The performance of the Wesfarmers Chief Executive Officer According to Bryman (2010), Success of any organisation is mostly associated with its leadership and for this reason the performance of Wesfarmers under its managing director is going to be evaluated. Richard Goyder is the managing director of Wesfarmers Limited, he is a Bachelor of Commerce degree holder from the University of Western Australia. He has a wide experience since he held various positions with Australian tubemakers, specifically roles of business development, before moving to Wesfarmers in 1993. In 2005 July he was appointed as a Managing director and Chief Executive Officer Wesfarmers. Under the leadership of Richard Goyder, the shareholders have to enjoy an increase of 22.8 % in net profit after tax, a 22.8% increase in earnings per share and a 20 % increase in dividends for the 2011 (Wesfarmers a, 2011). Though the organisation has enjoyed a successful financial year on many fronts, it has done so under adverse conditions of environment ranging from earthquakes, floods and uncertainty of economy. Under leadership of the current CEO, Wesfarmers has continued to performing good where the group retail businesses recorded combined earnings growth for the year, up 8.2% to US $ 2532 million, including impressive performances from both Bunnings and Coles, in what was a problematic trading period for retailers(Wesfarmers b, 2011).. Earnings per share of 116.7 5 were up 22.8 & on the last year, mirroring the firm profit growth attained. Additionally, average return on equity increased to 7.7% from 6.4% in the last year. Under the leadership of current CEO, safety of employees has remained to be one of principal focus especially in Wesfarmers Resources division. The initiative of this year was to cement and improve upon the safety performance attained in 2009/2010. There was a significant reduction in fatally at Curragh due to improved safe workplace for the employees. There has been strategy of incorporating indigenous community via Aboriginal employment and engagement plan (Durkin, 2009). The company has commitment to attracting, retaining and engaging it people, leading to introduction of a division-wide employee survey to attain feedback from its employees (Women Tasmania, 2006). The survey has been in use to steer employees’ enhancement plan. This has been a success to employee retaining program under the leadership of current CEO. Various divisions in diversified portfolio of Wesfarmers have been aiming to customer satisfaction under Richard Goyder. This can be confirmed via improved financial performance of the organisation in the past financial year. A good example of a customer focused operations can be illustrated by Target division that was formed under the leadership of the current CEO. Target is a leading center for homewares and fashionable clothing. It is compliment by national brands giving high value to country and city clients equally (Susana et al. 2008). It has more than 2400 members of team and 290 stores in the country that offers clients with easy access to products that are of high value, style, and quality (Bagozzi, Gopinath, & Nyer, 1999). All these positive attributes have been made possible through reliable suppliers. Conclusion In conclusion, under the leadership of Richard, CEO of Wesfarmers, the main focus has been to maintain it mission which is commitment to offering satisfactory results to shareholders. His leadership ability to remain focused to the goals of this organisation has been revealed by how the organisation has taken endless endeavours to diversify its operations by opening additional stores and acquisitions of other ventures. Wesfarmers mission statement is bound by philosophy that is based on four core values: boldness, accountability, openness and integrity. The main priority of this organisation has been to satisfy its shareholders. However, CEO has seen the need to put sustainable as one of the organisation priorities. This has helped various divisions funding projects on sustainable environment across the country. Shareholders have to enjoy a 22.8% increase in earnings per share and a 20 % increase in dividends for the 2011 financial year. The company has commitment to attracting, retaining and engaging it people. References Adams, W. (1999), Sustainability, Introduction Human Geographies, 6, (4) , 125-130. Bagozzi, R, Gopinath, M, & Nyer, P (1999), The role of emotions in marketing, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 27(2), 184-206. Bryman, A. (2010). The SAGE handbook of leadership, London: SAGE Publication Ltd. Durkin, D (2009), Loyalty in the Workplace, 1-10. Elliot, J. (2005), An Introduction to Sustainable Development, London, Routledge. Felix, M. & Eugenio J. (2002), Natural resources, bio-diversity and agriculture, International Symposium on Trade and The Environment, 2 (6), 55-76. Jonathan, M. (2000), Basic principles of sustainable development, Global Development and Environment, 1 (4), 2-26. Radtke, M. (1998), How to write a mission statement, Journal of Business strategy, 40 (7), 208-211. Susana et al. (2008), consumer buyer in fashion retailing, Empirical Evidences, University of Beira Interior, 1(1), 401-411. University of Idaho Sustainability Center 2010, University of Idaho Climate Action Plan, 5- 25. Victorian Government, (2010), Fair and Flexible Employer, 1(1), 1-2. Wesfarmers a, 2011, Shareholder Review 2011, 1-40. Wesfarmers b, 2011, Annual Report 2011, 1-63. Wesfarmers c, 2011, About Wesfarmers, Retrieved November 27, 2011 from http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/about-us.html Women Tasmania, (2006), Practical flexible work practices to achieve a work and life balance, Flexible Workplaces, 1(1), 1-45. Read More