Scenario

MultiCorp is a diversified, multi$-$profile company. It is essentially a conglomerate company with

three diverse strategic units acting as independent businesses under separate brands in different

industry sectors: Unit Alpha, Unit Beta, and Unit Gamma. MultiCorp is governed by the central

head office, which oversees the three subsidiary business units and their financial performance

indicators without any operative interventions. Each strategic business unit has its managing

director who has complete discretion and accountability for its competitive strategy, investment

priorities, budget allocation, and yearly profits or losses.

Unit Alpha is in the food manufacturing business. The unit produces and distributes various goods,

including, but not limited to$,$ vegetables, groceries, meat, and dairy products. These product lines

require unique production processes, storage arrangements, transportation approaches, and

underlying equipment and are organizationally implemented by a separate specialized product

department. However, these products are delivered mainly to the same circle of customers,

including major retailers and local food shops. A shared and common organizational structure

serves all the product lines' needs in HR$,$ finance, accounting, logistics$,$ legal, marketing, and sales

support.

Unit Beta competes in the restaurant business. Specifically, the unit controls a chain of small fast$-$

food restaurants occupying the low$-$cost market niche. The chain includes more than $80$ restaurants

located in different geographical regions, and more restaurants are planned to be opened in the

near future. All restaurants offer their customers the same interiors, menus, prices, meals, and

services and imply standardized policies, working procedures, and supporting equipment.

However, each restaurant is run separately by a chief manager responsible for its overall financialservicing, cleaning, and complaints management. Except for Unit Beta's lean central office, where

chain$-$wide branding, marketing, and other strategic decisions are made, the restaurants operate

independently, and chief mangers are responsible for each restaurant's profit and loss statement.

Finally, Unit Gamma runs a chain of resort hotels. These hotels gravitate towards the high$-$end

price segment and offer premium$-$quality services to their customers. Unit Gamma's competitive

strategy implies improving its brand recognition and achieving a consistent customer experience.

For this purpose, the unit's leadership plans to standardize all customer$-$facing and, to a lesser

extent, back$-$office processes across all chain hotels and all its suppliers and service providers.

Moreover, Unit Gamma intends to become "closer" to its customers and build lifelong customer

relationships. This strategy requires collecting and managing more customer information,

individual preferences, and transaction histories. Further, Gamma leverages and takes advantage

of the information by aggregating it to provide customized services, launch loyalty programs,

develop special offers, and promote personalized discounts.

Case Questions

$1.$ What are the particular business processes standardized company$-$wide and within each of

its business units?

$2.$ What types of data are integrated across the whole company and within its business units?