Whole Foods Market Company

Whole Foods Market is a United States supermarket chain that solely sells food that does not contain artificial preservatives. Thus, their products do not contain sweeteners, flavors, hydrogenated fats, and colors. The first Whole Foods Market was started in the year 1980 in Texas precisely in Austin. The company was formed after four business persons arrived at a decision that the Whole Foods Market was ready for transformation to a supermarket format. The founders were Renee Lawson, John Mackey, Mark Skiles and Craig Weller. Whole foods are organic and natural foods that are free of additives and have been refined or processed partially.

Whole Foods Market is a grocery store that offers organic and natural foods. The company provides the highest quality and healthiest grocery products in the entire industry. It is also devoted to the promotion of sustainable agriculture. As Wright notes, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as the 30^th largest retailer in the U.S based on revenue size. It is a publicly traded entity whose shares are currently trading at a price of $ 33.58 (Wright 247). Ever since the grocery company opened its first store, it has been growing at a very high rate. Today the company has stores not only in the U.S but also in the United Kingdom and Canada (Wright 247) This growth has been achieved through a mergers and acquisitions expansion strategies. Some of the companies forming the Whole Foods Market include; Whole food company, Wellspring Grocery, Bread & Circus, Fresh Fields and Amrion.

Whole Foods Market has values that define the company’s culture. Some of its values are to sell quality organic and natural foods. To please, delight and sustain their customers. The company also utilizes the collective intelligence and energy of team members so as to achieve excellence and happiness. Wealth creation through growth and profit is another value of whole foods supermarkets. Similarly, the company desires to serve the community and to practice environmental stewardship.

Whole Foods Market also educates its stakeholder on healthy eating habits in a bid to empower them to make the best decisions. The vision of Whole Foods Market is the same as its motto. The company’s vision is; “Whole Foods, Whole people, Whole Planet.” (Makower 81). While it’s mission is to provide quality products and to define standards of brilliance for all food retailers. Whole Food Markets’ mission clearly shows that it aims to lead the industry as far as excellence standards are concerned. Whole World Market is guided by the principle of trying to improve the world through changes.

In Whole Foods Market, teams have the duty to solve problems through discussions, addressing any issue that arises and to make major decisions. Equally, teams also have a responsibility of acknowledging the contribution of every member. Teams lead to innovation since when the collective intelligence and energy of all the members is used, a new product, process or idea is generated. The generated ideas and products are sources of competitive advantage for Whole Foods Market.

After being a member of a team, one gets to appreciate why Whole Foods Market adopts a team approach to running the retail grocery. Teams play a key role in innovation since when group members meet they can brainstorm and in the process, a new idea arises. Accordingly, every member has an idea which is added to the thoughts and ideas of the other members, and this leads to the creation of a new products or processes. The new products and processes become the unique competencies of Whole Foods Market.

Founder or Leader of Whole Foods Market

John Mackey is a U.S business man and a co-founder and the present CEO of Whole Foods Market (Mackey 15). He is a key supporter of the ongoing organic foods movement in the U.S. Mackey and Renee Lawson; his girlfriend co-founded the first grocery store in Austin. He devoted all his career life to the provision of high-quality organic and natural foods to consumers. He turned the grocery company to a public company and conducted 19 acquisitions of other businesses. The first outlet was Safer way but over time the company has acquired and purchased their competitors and small firms. John Mackey worked as a vegetarian for at least thirty years.

Mackey operates under the philosophy of the generalist approach, and he identifies this as the main reason behind his success. Equally, his leadership philosophy states that “do right by your stakeholders and they’ll do right by you.” He is also guided by the philosophy that states that great powers are associated with more responsibilities. The good leadership of John Mackey has united all the employees, and they work as a team. In so doing consultations and better decisions are arrived at. As the Whole Foods Market CEO, John Mackey ensures that the company’s’ activities run smoothly. Mackey wrote the book that discusses conscious capitalism. Conscious capitalism is a paradigm that creates value and caters for the well-being of a company’s stakeholders (Kowitt). The role of Mackey in the movement is to promote the physical, cultural, social, financial and ethical interest of the stakeholders.

Conscious Capitalist Movement

Through the scientific management theory, Fredrick Taylor developed a technique that was to improve efficiency in most workplaces. Taylor analyzed various tasks and the behavior of people. His theory split large work practices to small manageable tasks. It thus became easy to determine the amount of time that can be used to successfully complete a task. According to Taylor, organizations should identify the best techniques for performing a task. Workers should then be trained on how to perform the task. This theory greatly changed the way organizations are managed.

Milton Friedman came up with the theory of free markets. Mintzberg developed the roles of management in organizations. The named theories differ from the conscious capitalist movement since the latter is a model that only considers the interest of stakeholders. While the three theories are aimed at improving how organizations are managed. In the business world, community and government, conscious capitalism ideology mean that to be in good terms with all the stakeholders a company should consider their interests.

In conclusion, Whole Foods Market is grocery stores that sell high-quality organic and natural foods. This means that the foods do not contain sweeteners, flavors, hydrogenated fats, and colors. In Whole Foods Market, teams have the duty to solve problems through discussions, address any issue that arises and to make major decisions. Equally, teams also have a responsibility of acknowledging the contribution of every member. Conscious capitalism is a paradigm that creates value and caters for the well-being of a company’s stakeholders. It is through the good leadership and the strong philosophies of John Mackey that has united all the employees and enabled them to work as a team.