Management And The Body Shop

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Management and The Body Shop

In this paper I will be taking a look at basic management functions. The approaches, and the synthesis of two views of management. I will attempt to take an overview of culture and its effect on a company.

In today's changing global environments many companies have joined the open trade policies, and existing foreign opportunities available to growing companies with positive views and socially responsible attitudes.

It all sounds like a lot to cover in a short essay so I will introduce a company that has in its short, yet very successful existence transformed through all the levels and practices mentioned above. The company is called "The Body Shop", I hope you have heard of it for that would make our journey through it's development even more enjoyable.

Management is described as the process of getting activities with and through other people. This philosophy has been so widely examined that there are literally millions of opinions and differing views on the subject. We will only be examining the functions of management where the basics of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling apply to The Body Shop. In 1976 an inexperienced Anita Roddick got tired of unsubstantiated Management and The Body
Shop

claims of the cosmetics industry that their products couldn't deliver. She decided to make a decision that would change her life forever. Anita became a manager of her own small business in Brighton England. Selling the natural secrets found throughout the world; learned from extensive travel while employed as a teacher with the U.N., she created a cottage industry of exotic personal body care products.

Planning proved to be the first big obstacle to learn in the road to efficient management. Taking care of buying from around the world for her special products had plunged Anita into a frightening and difficult role that she needed help with. Anita organized her financial burdens by taking on an investor Ian McGlinn, in turn giving him a 50 percent stake in the business.

Furthermore she sold the name The Body Shop to personal recruits, carefully lead and controlled by her own philosophies and ideals. Anita had become an ideal example of the classic top level manager taking on the responsibility of decision, communication, and information needed to project her company as a serious competitor, ready for today's gl...

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...e locations for Canada - BC.
If interested, the Body Shop Web Site can be located at:

http://www.the-body-shop.com/contents.html

In conclusion, The Body Shop has a very effective style of management with Anita
Roddick still in control of the planning, leading, organizing, and making decisions for all the franchise stores. The general management views and culture are responsive to the needs of their employees and their customers. The Body
Shop is a multinational company that is a pioneer in the foreign trade department. Bibliography

Stephen P. Robbins and Robbin Stuart-Kotze
Management Canadian Fourth Edition (Prentice - Hall INC., ONT., 1994) pg.
15-142

Keegan, Moriarty, Duncan, Paliwoda
Marketing Candian Edition (Prentice - Hall INC., ONT., 1995) pg.
738-48

William G. Nickels, James M. McHugh, Susan M. McHugh, Paul D. Berman
Understanding Canadian Business (Richard D. Irwin, INC., 1994) pg. 199-
411

Dr. Kent E. Curran [kecurran@unccvm.uncc.edu]
MGMT 3140 - Management Concepts and Practices (http://unccvm.uncc.edu/~
~kecurran/lect-02.htm; August 25, 1996.)

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