Cosentino Final Paper Discussion
Order ID:89JHGSJE83839 Style:APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Pages:5-10 Instructions:
Cosentino Final Paper Discussion
Discussion 1: Cosentino Final Paper Topic.
Cosentino Group is a family-owned multi-international building materials firm based in Almeria, Spain who are the creators of Silestone® which is an engineered quartz-based material and their flagship product. Cosentino also exports a wide array of natural stone from various parts of the world.
Cosentino Group has a presence that spans over 90 countries with the majority of their operations in North America and the United States as their largest market share.
Cosentino Group is structured in a “hierarchal” style organization with ultimate decision-making power at the office of the President & Chairman in Almeria, Spain, Francisco Cosentino. The Spain headquarters, however, does allow for a good amount of autonomy to the “Leadership” of Cosentino North America, as it is led by the President & Chairman’s’ son, Eduardo Cosentino, CEO (Bloomberg, 2018) for the North American operations.
The effectiveness of the organizational structure is challenging due to the oftentimes lack understanding from a “cultural” and “work-style” standpoint of the US worker. There are also times where decision-making for the North American operations in regard to matters of legal compliance are hamstrung by the global headquarters, again due to a lack of urgency and understanding of implications of inaction.
At the core of Cosentino Group, the overarching culture is “Somos Familia en Cosentino” meaning “we are family at Cosentino.” In concert of this global family, organization is the DNA (Cosentino, 2018) a structure that defines who and how people will succeed at Cosentino. Being a purveyor of architectural elegance through science Cosentino’s success demonstrates innate creativity in the midst of insanity; affectionately referred internally as “Cosentino Crazy, “ if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
The Cosentino Group mission is defined; To be a leading company that works in collaboration with its customers to create high-value, innovative surfaces for the world of architecture and design, in a responsible manner. (Cosentino USA, 2019)
The vision defined; To lead the global market for surfaces through our actions related to our brands, with innovative architectural solutions that provide designs, value, and inspiration in the lives of our customers. (Cosentino USA, 2019)
The values defined; We recognize and understand the contribution our work makes to customer satisfaction (both external and internal), so we take the needs of our customers as the focal point for our activities. (Cosentino USA, 2019)
Cosentino Group strategic goals are focused on waste reduction and re-purposing this waste. Water treatment, atmospheric control, and energy efficiency. Lastly, a commitment to the education of young minds coming from impoverished and disadvantaged segments of society.
References:
Cosentino USA. (2019). Mission, Vision & Values | Cosentino USA. [online] Available at: https://www.cosentino.com/usa/people/mission-vision-values/ [Accessed 26 Jun. 2019].
Eduardo Cosentino. (n.d.). Retrieved August 11, 2018, from https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=223954092&privcapId=61435838&previousCapId=61435838&previousTitle=C&C North America Inc.
Discussion 2: Mission Values Statements
According to the text, a mission statement is “…a set of organizational goals that identify the purpose of the organization, its basis of competition, and competitive advantage…” (Dees, McNamara, & Eisner, 2018)
In the case of Cosentino, their mission in essence is to be the leader in the niche of building materials that are optimal quality and highly recognized by the architecture and design leaders around the globe.
To be a leading company that works in collaboration with its customers to create high-value, innovative surfaces for the world of architecture and design, in a responsible manner. (Cosentino USA, 2019) Cosentino is known for its collaborative culture whereas global cross-functional teams are brought together to take on project initiatives that are directives from the Spain leadership team. However, this collaboration does not come without its challenges from time zones, communication to work-style, but still, hold true to its mission statement.
Cosentino is vision is “…to lead the global market for surfaces through our actions related to our brands, with innovative architectural solutions that provide designs, value, and inspiration in the lives of our customers…” (Cosentino USA, 2019) A vision is a goal that is “massively inspiring, overarching, and long term.” It represents a destination that is driven by and evokes
passion. (Dees, McNamara, & Eisner, 2018) Clearly, the Cosentino vision is all about inspiration and its goal to be the market leader in this business segment and their approach is effective.
Cosentino USA. (2019). Mission, Vision & Values | Cosentino USA. [online] Available at: https://www.cosentino.com/usa/people/mission-vision-values/ [Accessed 3 Jul. 2019].
Dees, G.D., McNamara, G. & Eisner, A. (2018). Strategic management: Text and cases (9th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
Discussion 4 – Strategic Tools
Value is the amount that buyers are willing to pay for what a firm provides them and is measured by total revenue, a reflection of the price a firm’s product commands and the quantity it can sell. A firm is profitable when the value it receives exceeds the total costs involved in creating its product or service. Creating value for buyers that exceeds the costs of production (i.e., margin) is a key concept used in analyzing a firm’s competitive position. (Dees, McNamara, & Eisner, 2018)
Porter’s Value Chain focuses on systems, and how inputs are changed into the outputs purchased by consumers. Using this viewpoint, Porter described a chain of activities common to all businesses, and he divided them into primary and support activities, as shown below. (“Porter’s Value Chain: Understanding How Value is Created Within Organizations”, 2019)
Primary Activities
Inbound logistics – Cosentino’s supply chain and logistics process include highly skilled Demand Planners, Material and Logistics Analysts that ensure all inbound materials from the global headquarters is received on schedule and in optimal condition. Partnerships with vendors such as Maersk Line, Agenmar and Kenco who are one of several 3PL partners that Cosentino utilizes.
Operations – These are the transformation activities that change inputs into outputs that are sold to customers. Here, your operational systems create value.
Outbound logistics – Cosentino boast state-of-art distribution and fabrication centers that stores in over 90 countries a minimum of 100K square footage of warehousing and production sites that store, and custom fabricate to specifications natural and quartz-blended materials. Cosentino transports their materials to clients such as Lowes, Home Depot and several custom builders and commercial architects using their own fleet. Partnerships with Braxton-Bragg, Hyster, Comandulli, and Park Industries are just a few of the relationships that drive success for Cosentino.
Marketing and sales – Cosentino hires the best and most persuasive Account, Territory Managers and National Sales talent in the stone industry, who are able to effectively call on and influence lead architectural firms, builders and third-party distributors to experience Silestone, Dekton or other brands that Cosentino manufactures.
Service – Cosentino being a company known for innovation also stand behind the quality of the product they sell. Cosentino’s warranty department are highly training client representatives who manage the claims process to ensure that our customers are receiving the very best level of service.
Support Activities
Procurement– Cosentino’s global procurement team is responsible for vetting the need, reviewing request, approvals, sourcing, negotiating and contracting for the organization across all business functions from paper clips to industrial equipment.
HR Management – Cosentino’s HR team is a very lean support function that is focused on attracting high potential talent to their niche business, acclimation, training and development, engagement and total rewards. HR corporate communication is based on the following culture “somos familia en Cosentino” meaning “we are family at Cosentino.” (Cosentino, 2018) which give a strong sense of belonging and all of which ties into a source of value, that gives Cosentino that advantage over their competitors.
Technological Development – Cosentino’s technology is driven by Gemma Hernandez, CIO who is a believer in always being on the cutting-edge of technology. Cosentino’s business relies on SAP SD, MM, PD, FICO and on the HR side, SAP HCM and SuccessFactors which are easy to scale for global organizations. Cosentino’s invest heavily in securing their data and strives for a 99.9% uptime for their environment across the globe which is a point of value creation.
Infrastructure – Cosentino’s Corporate Secretary and General Counsel, Finance, General Managers and administrative function provide the necessary day to day operations companywide.
Dees, G.D., McNamara, G. & Eisner, A. (2018). Strategic management: Text and cases (9th Ed.). Chapter 3. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Mission, Vision & Values | by Cosentino. (2018, May 10). Retrieved from https://www.cosentino.com/people/mission-vision-values/
Porter’s Value Chain: Understanding How Value is Created Within Organizations. (2019). Retrieved 18 July 2019, from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_66.htm
Discussion 5 – Control Systems
According to our text, the traditional approach to strategic control is, “…a sequential method of organizational control in which (1) strategies are formulated and top management sets goals, (2) strategies are implemented, and (3) performance is measured against the predetermined goal set. …” (Dees, McNamara & Eisner, 2018 )
Cosentino’s is an organization that utilizes the traditional approach in strategic controls because all strategic initiatives are developed by the executive team in Almeria, Spain and rolled down to the management of each business unit which defines the MBO (Management by Objectives) for each quarter.
Based on overall organizational and individual business unit KPI’s and whatever the goals or initiative that were set to be achieved, the results are examined in the dashboard. For example, if the HR goal was to reduce the “time to fill” of job requisitions from 60 to 45 days by the end of Q2, and the end result achieved was from 60 to 42 days which is a 30% decrease improved by 5%.
My argument against the traditional approach in the 21st century way of doing business, this method is antiquated. The traditional approach to strategic controls is a process that when developed did not factor in the complexity of the now current business environment. The business environment today is unpredictable and strategies deriving from the tradition path focuses on the current state and not so much on the future state. There is also this lull that can occur within the business, such as not being equipped to respond to sudden shifts in business needs, external threats and even technology that can hamper the pace of change.
Dess, G. G., McNamara, G., & Eisner, A. B. (2019). Strategic management: Text and cases (Ninth edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Discussion 6 – Leadership and Ethical Culture
Successful leaders are actively involved in building structures, teams, systems, and organizational processes that facilitate the implementation of their vision and strategies. Without appropriately structuring organizational activities, a firm would generally be unable to attain an overall low-cost advantage by closely monitoring its costs through detailed and formalized cost and financial control procedures (Dees, McNamara & Eisner, 2018,p.336).
Cosentino Group as a family-led private organization decision making power is centralized at the Spain headquarters, there is a hybrid of leadership approaches at play. Cosentino Group is a company that is entrepreneurial in nature, and employees who are successful in their roles allowed autonomy to improve their own workflow. Cosentino is committed to developing teams and organizational strategies that promote the mission and vision. Cosentino is a dynamic organization that is characterized as “transformational” and “democratic” leadership styles. (Mertz, T, 1998)
Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes a change in individuals and social systems. Leadership within Cosentino is motivating, demanding and promotes empowerment to their employees which is more on the transformational bent. Leadership also has democratic characteristics of allowing subordinates to make contributions to the organization that can improve a work-flow process or increases efficiency, and the communication is active both upward and downward which promotes creativity, honesty, fairness, and intelligence and is most preferred in any organization. Transformational leaders motivate others to do more.
Examining Cosentino Group from an ethical prism, they have encountered their external challenges regarding question surrounding the possible use of child labor. Cosentino made it a priority to address this issue head-on by the development of their Corporate Social Responsibility 2017 for the organization. In collaboration with TFT (The Forest Trust), Cosentino has made it priority one to ensure the extraction of raw material “takes place following the maximum quality standards and respecting Human Rights and the environment” (Cosentino CSR, 2017) This is to ensure that no child labor is taking place nor any forced or slave labor as well.
Cosentino Group CSR Corporate Social Responsibility (2017) https://fr.cosentino.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/07/Cosentino-RSE17-GB.pdf
Dees, G.D., McNamara, G. & Eisner, A. (2018). Strategic management: Text and cases (9th Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Retrieved from: https://ambassadored.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259900440/cfi/6/22!/4/50/2/2/2/2/2@0:69.9
Merz, T. (1998). Transformational Leadership. www.Langston.edu, 35-56. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-72032-1_4
RUBRIC
Excellent Quality
95-100%
Introduction 45-41 points
The background and significance of the problem and a clear statement of the research purpose is provided. The search history is mentioned.
Literature Support
91-84 points
The background and significance of the problem and a clear statement of the research purpose is provided. The search history is mentioned.
Methodology
58-53 points
Content is well-organized with headings for each slide and bulleted lists to group related material as needed. Use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance readability and presentation content is excellent. Length requirements of 10 slides/pages or less is met.
Average Score
50-85%
40-38 points
More depth/detail for the background and significance is needed, or the research detail is not clear. No search history information is provided.
83-76 points
Review of relevant theoretical literature is evident, but there is little integration of studies into concepts related to problem. Review is partially focused and organized. Supporting and opposing research are included. Summary of information presented is included. Conclusion may not contain a biblical integration.
52-49 points
Content is somewhat organized, but no structure is apparent. The use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. is occasionally detracting to the presentation content. Length requirements may not be met.
Poor Quality
0-45%
37-1 points
The background and/or significance are missing. No search history information is provided.
75-1 points
Review of relevant theoretical literature is evident, but there is no integration of studies into concepts related to problem. Review is partially focused and organized. Supporting and opposing research are not included in the summary of information presented. Conclusion does not contain a biblical integration.
48-1 points
There is no clear or logical organizational structure. No logical sequence is apparent. The use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. is often detracting to the presentation content. Length requirements may not be met
You Can Also Place the Order at www.collegepaper.us/orders/ordernow or www.crucialessay.com/orders/ordernow Analyze the Water Footprint Results