Body Shop Reaches Middleage
IntroductionThe Body Shop a globally recognised brand name in the natural cosmetic and toiletries industry, founded by Dame Anita Roddick, in the year 1976. Dame Anita began Body Shop to create a living for herself and her family (About Dame Anita Roddick, n.d.). The Body Shop which began as a small store in England today has over 2400 stores across 61 countries in the world with over 1200 products (The Body Shop website). The Body Shop also has a strong value and ethics based business concept, which has helped it strengthen its customer loyalty and its market growth.
Organisation StructureThe Body Shop in its birth stages had no organisational structure except the leadership of Dame Anita Roddick, who took Body Shop to a flying start as the organisation was in the beginning years and needed a strong leader, although leadership and management are two distinctive features they are also complementary systems of action, which was necessary in this case for the business in the beginning but also both are necessary for success in a business environment (Kotter, 1990). Body Shop for nearly 20 years mostly comprised of a centralised structure, which showed its negative effects, when the company entered the US markets and had a stagnated growth in the mid and late 90's, as centralised structures slows down the decision making process and is also not a great help when an organisation is internationally expanding (Altinay, Levent, Mehmet, 2004). Although this structure helped the company develop its brand and image in the earlier years, it realised that this structure was not helping the growth of the company and in the mid 90's they moved towards the organic structure and on the global front moved towards the global geographic structure. The company currently has a global structure, covering the UK and Irish Republic; the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific (The Body Shop website). Body Shop moved toward the decentralized structure to increase
Organisation StructureThe Body Shop in its birth stages had no organisational structure except the leadership of Dame Anita Roddick, who took Body Shop to a flying start as the organisation was in the beginning years and needed a strong leader, although leadership and management are two distinctive features they are also complementary systems of action, which was necessary in this case for the business in the beginning but also both are necessary for success in a business environment (Kotter, 1990). Body Shop for nearly 20 years mostly comprised of a centralised structure, which showed its negative effects, when the company entered the US markets and had a stagnated growth in the mid and late 90's, as centralised structures slows down the decision making process and is also not a great help when an organisation is internationally expanding (Altinay, Levent, Mehmet, 2004). Although this structure helped the company develop its brand and image in the earlier years, it realised that this structure was not helping the growth of the company and in the mid 90's they moved towards the organic structure and on the global front moved towards the global geographic structure. The company currently has a global structure, covering the UK and Irish Republic; the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific (The Body Shop website). Body Shop moved toward the decentralized structure to increase