Saturday, May 23, 2020

An Analytical Report On Wesfield Incorporation Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2270 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Establishment: It was founded in 1903 in Georgia as a manufacturing of disposable paper cones for the growing textile industry. Employees: Westfield employed more than 1000 person in operations throughout the United States. Position: Westfield was the leading manufacturing of paper tubes for the paper industry, the 3rd largest manufacturing of composite cans, and one of the largest users of west paper. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "An Analytical Report On Wesfield Incorporation Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Conversion to packaging company: Westfield was a paper company but through accusations and internal development, it was now (in 1986) disrobed as a packaging company. The company was moving into plastic packaging with the production of plastic containers to complement the composite can product line. Composite cans Project Composite can are manufactured from convolutedly or spirally owned plies of paperboard with labels and liners of foil, plastic or paper. The major advantage of composite cans is that they offered definite cost advantage. For can manufacturers, they were less expensive to fabricate than material and glass container. The composite cans could be produced at a rate of 24000 per hour. No proprietary technology was employed in the manufacture of composite cans. Companies competed on quality, service, and packaging innovation. Price was already low less than one half can per cent. There was little room for price wars. Packaging innovation was either developed internally or at the instance of a customer. Customers allows try to introduce their product at a differentiated form. So as to insure competitive advantage then other competitors and to insure cost saving. The outside packaging was usually the first thing the consumer saw of the product were making the decision of which the product to buy. The package had to be easily filed and functional in holding the product without product without package or product deterioration. The composite can satisfied a majority of these characteristics requirement. It met customers need for a strong, lightweight alternative to metal and glass containers and could take advantage of high speed filling equipment with minimal changeover cost. Criteria of project selection When any project is evaluated, Westfield maintains the following criteria: 1) Westfield requires a 15% after tax return on investment. 2) Pricing should cover the following cost: variable and manufacturing cost, plant fix ed cost, marketing, technical and administrative cost (MTA), and recovery of initial capital outlay. 3) Westfield used a straight line depreciation period of eight years and allocated MTA as 5 percent of net sales. 4) Account receivable and inventory averaged 25% days of sales and 50 day of cost of goods sold, respectively. Critical Analysis of the Project People: Every organization is the group of people striving to achieve common goal. People are the blood of every organization. So it is very important to select good and effective people those can achieve the organizations goal. This people must be directed by the efficient leader. By analyzing people composition of the company is quite good. It is the third largest company of its industry. It is lead by right people. Project management: A successful Project Manager must effectively manage the resources assigned to the project. This includes the labor hours of the designers, the builders, the testers and the inspect ors on the project team. It also includes managing any labor subcontracts. However, managing project resources frequently involves more than people management. The project manager must also manage the equipment used for the project and the material needed by the people and equipment assigned to the project. ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ People: Project employees, vendor staff, subcontract labor ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Equipment: Cranes, trucks, backhoes, other heavy equipment or Development, test, and staging servers, CD burners or Recording studio, tape decks, mixers, microphones and speakers. ÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¢ Material: Concrete, pipe, rebar, insulation or CD blanks, computers, jewel cases, instruction manuals. Managing the people resources means having the right people, with the right skills and the proper tools, in the right quantity at the right time. It also means ensuring that they know what needs to be done, when, and how. And it means motivating them to take ownership in the project too. Team leadership: Team leadership differs from traditional top-down leadership in the following ways: Responsibility for group effectiveness is not on the leaders shoulders but is shared by the group. Control over the final decision is not held by the leader but is best left to the group. The importance of ones position and power are de-emphasized in team leadership. The leader perceives the group not as a set of individuals but as an interacting and collective team. The task-oriented functions of the team are not performed only by the leader but are shared by the entire group through its new roles. Group maintenance functions are not performed systematically but are emphasized and shared by the group as a whole. Socioemotional processes and interactions, while mostly ignored by leaders in top-down settings, are observed closely by team leaders. Expressions of members needs and feelings are not discourag ed but are encouraged by team leaders and are dealt with openly in meetings. SWOT Analysis Strengths: Westfield was the leading manufacturer of paper tubes for the paper industry. It is the 3rd largest manufacture of composite cans and one of the largest users of waste paper. Price is lower each cans at one and half cent The major advantage of composite cans was that they offered definite cost advantages. Weakness: Packaging innovation was either developed internally or at the instance of a customer. Historically Westfield was thought of as strictly a paper company Opportunities: Westfield had just licensed a plastics forming process, The plastic package was an attractive substitute for composite cans. Plastic packaging provided a functional solution to a long problem. Composite can satisfy the customer demand for convenient, reasonable packaging. Plastic would give Westfield a proprietary technological competitive advantage and provide i ts customer with a container that Westfields competitors could not offer. Threats The composite cans market had been threatened by alternative packaging type, principally plastic. If the plastic technology cannot be introduced portfolio in the market, the competitors will take the advantage of sneaking market share of Westfield. Take the more effective plasticak technology in time. Competitors can be more effective plastitek technology before the implementation of Westfield technology. As a result the Westfield expected market share can significantly fall. Risk Analysis Business risk Business risk is the uncertainty of income flows caused by the nature of a firms business. The more uncertain the income flows of the firm, the more uncertain the income flows to the investors. Business risk depends on a number of factors that are as follows Demand variability: The more stable the demand for a firms products, other things held constant, the lower its busine ss risk. Sales Variability Variability of Net Income Sales price variability: Firms whose products are sold in highly volatile markets are exposed to more business risk than similar firms whose output prices are more stable. Input cost variability: Firms whose input costs are highly uncertain are exposed to a high degree of business risk. Ability to adjust output prices for changes in input costs: Some firms are better able than others to raise their own output prices when input costs rise. The greater the ability to adjust output prices to reflect cost condition, the lower the business risk. Ability to develop new products in a timely, cost effective manner: Firms in such high-tech industries as drugs and computers depend on a constant stream of new products. The faster its products become obsolete, the greater firms businesses risk. Foreign risk exposure: Firms that generate a high percentage of their earnings overseas are subject to earnings declines due to e xchange rate fluctuations. Also, if a firm operates in a politically unstable area, it may be subject to political risk. The extent to which cost are fixed (operating leverage): If a high percentage of its costs are fixed, hence do not decline when demand falls, then the firm is exposed to a relatively high degree of business risk. This factor is called operating risk. Financial risk Financial risk is the uncertainty introduced by the method by which the firm finances its assets. If a firm uses only common stock to finance assets, it incurs only business risk. If in addition to using common stock, a firm borrows money to finance investments, it must pay fixed financing charges prior to providing income to the owners. Presently west field, Inc debt is low in so it incurs less financial risk but when the company will go for higher debt to capital structure then it will raise the financial risk. Financial Leverage: Financial leverage is created by sources of financing th at have fixed costs such as primarily debt requiring interest payments, preferred stock which obligates the company to make preferred dividend payments, leases which requires specified lease payments. These financing costs effects the companys EPS in the same way that operating fixed cost effects EBIT. The more fixed charge financing the firm uses, the more leverage it will have. The degree of financial leverage is calculated as: The degree of financial leverage reflects the leverage in the firm that is due to the firms financing policy. The effect of financial leverage is to magnify changes in EBIT into larger changes in EPS. The British expression of financial leverage is gearing. DuPont Analysis The importance of ROE as an indicator of performance makes it desirable to divide the ratio into several components that provide insight into the causes of a firms ROE or any changes in it. This breakdown of ROE into components ratios is generally referred to as the Dupont syste m. To begin, ROE ratio can be broken down into two ratios- net profit margin and equity turnover. Net Income Sales Total Assets  ¸  ¸ Total Debt Total Assets  ¸ Asset Turnover Profit Margin Financial Plan Return on Assets  ¸ (1-Debt/Assets) Return on Assets Return on Equity  ´ = From the figure we can see that Westfields return on equity was 18.29 % in year 1981 and after that return on equity decreased to 13.14 % in 1982 and 14.18% in year 1983. But after that ROE increases and in year 1985 ROE increased to 16.9%. Qualitative Judgment Price -Quality- Service Relationship If Westfield can ensure better quality service than other competitors it can charge little bit higher price. Competitive advantage Plastitek would give Westfield a proprietary technological competitive advantage and provide its customers with a container that Westfields competitors could not offer. Market Share Westfield already holding 23% market share of the total FCJ market. As their strategy in case of plastitek is proactive rather than reactive, so it has an opportunity to charge a higher price. Findings If Westfield launch Plastitek at the prevailing price of composite cans it can earn after tax ROI of 12.5% over the estimated eight year life of the projec t. If the projects life is stretched for further two years past its eight year estimated life it can earn on an average ROI of 13.67% over the life of the project. To meet the target after tax ROI of 15% Westfield would have to charge a price of $53.75 per thousand units that is $ 1.41 ( $ 53.75-$ 52.34) higher than the prevailing price of composite cans. NPV of the Plastitek project (at the prevailing price of composite cans For the estimated eight year life $ 847.39 thousands For 2 years past estimated eight year life $2394.57 thousands 5. IRR of the Plastitek project (at the prevailing price of the composite can) For the estimated eight year life 18.9% For 2 years past estimated eight year life 21.39% 6. NPV of the Plastitek project (at the new price of $ 53.75 per thousands) For the estimated eight year life $ 2763.29 thousands For 2 years past estimated eight year life $4514.86 thousands 7. IRR of the Plastitek project ( at the new price of $53.75 thousands) For the estimated eight year life 18.9% For 2 years past estimated eight year life 21.39% Recommendation Composite can project should be replaced by innovative Plastitek technology and will charge a price of $ 53.75 per thousands of cans. Besides this some significant recommendations are given below: Westfield should increase the employee cohesiveness by facilitating various social campaigns inside the organization. Management process should segmented in small groups and delegating authority to this small group to influence innovation. Besides management innovation technological innovation should bring to fulfill the customer needs and demand. Though financial condition of the firm is good more dynamic decision should bring in to accelerate their growth. Justification Targeted after tax ROI could be ensured with charging little bit higher price or premium of $ 1.41 than prevailing price (per thousand cans) to make the project economically feasible. Expected NPV with different scenarios is positive. Expected NPV with additional risk and inflation adjusted WACC is positive. The premium adjusted price that has ensured the targeted return would be quite possible because of Quality services provided by west field Introduction of innovative packaging system that would enhance price level through differentiating customers product than other competitors via increasing demand for Westfields plastitek packaging system. The tendency of moving toward plastic packaging of the industries that could provide the opportunity of price premium via increasing demand. IRR is higher than risk and inflation adjusted WACC Conclusion It could be expected that projects are managed and therefore that management theory would apply to the management of projects but this research has revealed that the commercial nature of the origin of management and the industrial nature of the origin o f projects has kept these two theories on separate paths. Of particular interest has been the discovery that neither management nor project management, despite their importance to society and longevity of application, have to date not been ascribed professional status. That is to say no formal accredited body represents the profession in either case. If one is to consider that these two occupations are responsibly for practically all of wealth production and consumption, then greater is the surprise that no governing body exists.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

The Myths About Immigration By David Cole - 865 Words

An interesting chapter from Current Issues and Enduring Questions was chapter twenty four, Immigration: What is to be done? Throughout this chapter multiple authors argue their opinion of immigration in the United States. There is much to learn about this topic because it is extremely controversial in today’s society. It is necessary for one to know both sides of agreeing or disagreeing with immigration to fully understand the situation and base an opinion from this knowledge. The multiple authors within this chapter have different views about immigration but they all make reasonable accusations. The first essay in chapter twenty four is â€Å"Five Myths about Immigration† by David Cole. He begins his essay by exploiting a group from the mid-nineteenth century called the â€Å"Know-Nothings† who blamed all of America’s problems on immigrants. Cole then goes on to acknowledge what he believes are the five myths about immigration. These myths include: Ameri ca is being overrun with immigrants, Immigrants take jobs from U.S. citizens, Immigrants are a drain on society’s resources, Aliens refuse to assimilate and are depriving us of our cultural and political unity, and lastly noncitizen immigrants are not entitled to constitutional rights. Cole gives reasons why these five myths are not true and by using facts he makes his argument more believable. Cole (1994) stated the following: There is virtually no evidence to support this view, probably the most widespread misunderstandingShow MoreRelatedQuestionable Immigration Myths850 Words   |  4 PagesJason Professor English 1020-52 14 October 2004 Questionable Immigration Myths David Coles Five Myths about Immigration, while not a persuasive argument, is obviously a personal issue for the author who believes Americans treat immigrants poorly. 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David Burgos a writer for adage, a website that specialize in advertising states, â€Å"I bet most of you thought about Blacks or African Americans and Hispanics. Probably some of you mentioned Asians too, and maybe a few even associated it with non-race- or ethnicity-based minority segments such as Muslims. IndeedRead MoreRace And Crime Of The Criminal Justice System6937 Words   |  28 Pagesfair and speedy trial in most cases as our constitution states is their right. As for African Americans, a huge minority group in America there is no question that they commit all kinds of crimes minor and major but the disparity comes when we talk about the treatment that the African American race receives in the United States criminal justice system. 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Does National Culture Affect Organizational Practices? 30 Point/Counterpoint Lost in TranslationRead MoreHuman Resources Management150900 Words   |  604 PagesResources, he and his staff began by restructuring and decentralizing the HR entity so that each functional area of the company has an HR manager assigned to it. The HR managers were expected to be key contributors to their areas by becoming knowledgeable about the business issues faced by their business functional units. Today, HR managers participate in developing business strategies and ensure that human resource dimensions are considered. For instance, the HR manager for manufacturing has HR responsibilitiesRead MoreProject Mgmt296381 Words   |  1186 Pages(alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-07-340334-2 (alk. paper) 1. Project management. 2. Time management. 3. Risk management. I. Gray, Clifford F. II. Gray, Clifford F. Project management. III. Title. HD69.P75G72 2011 658.4904—dc22 2009054318 www.mhhe.com About the Authors Erik W. Larson ERIK W. LARSON is professor of project management at the College of Business, Oregon State University. He teaches executive, graduate, and undergraduate courses on project management, organizational behavior, and leadership

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Sustainability as a Key Critical Success Factor Free Essays

Executive Summary Sustainability is one of the popularly emerging principles in project management and is rapidly becoming a critical success factor as considered by some businesses. However, there are also a number of other critical success factors in project success which include time, money, and the involvement and skills of employees and management. However, sustainability is viewed as socially responsible behavior and may be beneficial in promoting a business’s sales and media relations. We will write a custom essay sample on Sustainability as a Key Critical Success Factor or any similar topic only for you Order Now Contrarily, some businesses still view it as a fourth constraint in project management against time, scope, and money. Businesses such as Zara’s and Nike have implemented sustainability in their project specifications and have gained a favorable reputation with consumers. However, while all companies may not be duly aware of how to implement such processes, knowledge transfer may be an important consideration in the further implementation of sustainability principles. These issues are further discussed in this proposal and outlined in the form of research questions for the final dissertation. The data for the dissertation is proposed to be a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data which will be in the form of a literature review of secondary data and a questionnaire dispersed to 30 employees in 3 project-based organizations. Results will be combined to arrive at an appropriate conclusion and recommendations will be made accordingly. Introduction: Project management is one of the most vital disciplines within business management and is crucial to economic prosperity for both the public and private sectors. While there is ample emphasis upon project management within various industries, it is often seen that many projects fail due to a lack of emphasis upon critical success factors. As there are numerous factors that affect a project’s success, it is often difficult for managers to choose those that are most vital in improving the success of a project (Schieg, 2009). As the business environment is highly competitive and complicated, success factors for a project are likely to be relative to the industry the project is aimed at and the objectives that the individual project is trying to achieve. While efficiency, cost, and time management are all vital resources within a project or any business process, managers are always aiming to reduce the cost and the time allocated to each project while also aiming to increase efficiency, productivity, and turnover (Shrivastava Berger, 2010). Hence, it is generically considered that projects which are completed within budget and on time are successful. However, with increasing research it has become evident that there are numerous other factors which affect the success and outcome of a project such as the involvement and decision power of leaders and managers, the skills of employees, the organizational culture practiced during the project, the level of teamwork shown by the team, and many others (Eid, 2009 ). Accordingly, the contemporary business environment has recently explored a new concept, sustainability, which is becoming highly popular amongst society and may also be considered as a vital factor to success for businesses in the future or may already be considered so in the present (Gitsham Peters, 2010). With the quest to improve the environment and ensure businesses implement environmentally-friendly processes, society is becoming highly conscious of businesses performing unethically and harming the environment. Thus, this increases the pressure upon business operating in the contemporary environment to adopt sustainable processes which are environment-friendly (Talbot Venkateraman, 2011). Literature Search: Sustainability is a highly interesting and important concept in the contemporary business environment because there has often been heavy debate regarding the necessity of its adoption by businesses. While some businesses may easily be able to adopt appropriate sustainability processes, it is more difficult for other businesses to implement such processes specifically in the industrial sector. Thus, while aiming to implement sustainability may raise a business’s costs substantially, choosing the correct manner in which to implement sustainable practices may also substantially reduce a business’s operating costs and other costs (Morelli, 2011). Moreover, the current business environment demands businesses to be socially responsible and ensure that they perform ethically ( Lindsey,2011). Thus, a business implementing and including sustainability as a criterion in its project specifications is likely to gain a good reputation in the corporate world, media, and society which may in turn benefit the business in the form of increased sales, higher consumer confidence, and positive press releases (Zainul-Abideen, 2008). Recently, it has been seen that organizations are increasing their emphasis upon sustainability and consider it to an extent of 25.9% in their project management specifications. While this does show a positive trend, it also shows that business may not be implementing sustainability in their project specifications because of adopting a socially responsible approach, but is more aimed towards adopting a â€Å"less unethical† approach. This is to ensure that they can escape the blame when questioned regarding the manner in which they run their business (Badiru, 2010). However, there is no doubt that there is an increasing emphasis upon principles of sustainability and awareness of social pressure upon businesses. Companies such as Zara, Toyota, Nike, and many others have changed their production processes in order to make sure that they uphold sustainability as a principle and thus, these companies have increased their credibility in the consumer market (Artiach et al, 2010). However, in order to increase the emphasis upon sustainability it is essential to indulge in knowledge transfer between industries and businesses to properly disperse information regarding the importance and applicability of sustainability principles. Such information dispersion and knowledge transfer may be organized by large governmental or business organizations to facilitate open communication between businesses in order to find viable solutions (Badiru, 2010). However, the problem of the perception of sustainability as a further constraint upon projects in the essence of time, cost, and scope also is widespread. Accordingly, this dissertation proposes to discuss the critical success factors affecting businesses today, how sustainability affects businesses today, the importance of sustainability and the reasons why it is considered interesting, corporate social responsibility as a determinant of project success and gaining contracts, knowledge transfer as a determinant of the application of sustainable principles, and whether sustainability is viewed as a fourth constraint in project management (Barnard et al, 2011). Objectives: Discuss the Critical Success Factors affecting businesses in the contemporary business environment Determine the importance of sustainability as an emerging critical success factor in project management Illustrate the examples of businesses who have adopted sustainable practices successfully Discuss the benefits of credibility when adopting socially responsible business practices Discussing the importance of knowledge transfer in implementing sustainability principles Analyzing the extent to which sustainability is considered a fourth constraint in project management Research Questions: Main Research Question: To what extent is sustainability considered a critical success factor in project management in the contemporary business environment? Subsidiary Research Questions: How does the implementation of sustainability affect the project outcome How does sustainability affect a business’s credibility and image of being socially responsibleIs this beneficial for the business What is the importance of knowledge transfer in the implementation of sustainability To what extent is sustainability considered a fourth constraint in project management besides those of time, cost, and scope Research Design: Data Collection: The study is designed to be an exploratory study which will investigate the concept of sustainability in businesses today. The study will make use of both quantitative and qualitative data in order to further explore the research questions outlined above. The study will also rely upon both primary and secondary data in order to thoroughly explore the topic in question. The mixture of both types of data will be appropriate for this dissertation in order to validate the opinions and information presented in the literature review and as the topic of sustainability as a success factor of project management is an evolving topic, it is also essential to get first-hand and recent information regarding its current importance in the business environment. Data will initially be collected via the internet, journals, articles, magazines, and other databases in order to obtain relevant literature regarding the concept of sustainability. The literature will then be analyzed and duly criticized in order to determine popular opinion regarding the concept of sustainability and arriving at conclusions regarding the research questions mentioned via secondary data. Primary data will then be collected via an industrial questionnaire dispersed to three project-based organizations regarding their opinions and practices of sustainability as a criterion for success in project management. The questionnaire will be dispersed to approximately 30 respondents working in the three respective organizations and this sample size has been chosen for researcher convenience, access, and appropriateness in attaining sufficient information. The questionnaire will be quantitative in nature in order to avoid irrelevant responses and to limit the discussion towards the points made in the literature review. The results of the questionnaire would then be used to validate or conquer the findings in the literature review. Data Analysis: The qualitative secondary data collected will be analyzed through content analysis in order to extract the most relevant and important points from the arguments presented in the literature review. The quantitative survey results will be analyzed through the use of the statistical software, SPSS. The results of the quantitative survey will then be analyzed against the results of the literature review in order to arrive at appropriate conclusions for the research questions mentioned above. Recommendations will then be given accordingly for issues like knowledge transfer and eradicating the perception of sustainability as a fourth project management constraint. Limitations/Ethical Risks: One of the limitations of this study is gaining access to 30 randomly selected individuals in three different project based companies. Permission must be obtained and the individuals must be randomly chosen in order to avoid biasness. Moreover, there may be issues of confidentiality or their unwillingness to respond to questions regarding their own personal sustainability practices and principles. There is also the risk of people answering dishonestly only to maintain their image or respondents not paying particular attention to the survey because of lack of interest or boredom. The questionnaire may be prone to researcher bias and the data obtained in the literature review may be outdated and not applicable in all countries. Thus, appropriate care must be applied to ensure contemporary data is collected and data is relevant to the topic in question. One of the major ethical risks of this project is ensuring that confidentiality is maintained while conducting the survey of project-based companies and ensuring that no information is dispersed openly which may negatively affect their reputation. Timescale: Obtaining Permission from Companies Beginning Literature Search Organizing and Analyzing Secondary Data Writing Literature Review Conducting Survey Formulating Results of Survey Analyzing Results Writing Complete First Draft Proofreading Dissertation Submission References Artiach, T., Lee, D., Nelson, D., Walker, J. (2010). â€Å"The determinants of corporate sustainability performance.† Accounting Finance, 50(1) pp.31-51. Badiru, A.B. (2010) â€Å"The many languages of sustainability†. Industrial Engineer, Vol. 42(11) pp. 30-34. Barnard, L.T., Ackles, B. and Haner, J.L. (2011) Making Sense of Sustainability Project Management. Explorus Group Inc. Eid, M. (2009) Sustainable Development Project Management. Lambert Academic Publishing Cologne. Gitsham, M., Peters, K. (2010). Thoughts on Sustainability-Principles into Practice. Lindsey, T. C. (2011). â€Å"Sustainable principles: common values for achieving sustainability.†Journal of Cleaner Production. Vol. 19(5) pp. 561-565. Morelli, J. (2011). â€Å"Environmental Sustainability: A Definition for Environmental Professionals†. Journal of Environmental Sustainability. Vol.119-27. Schieg, M. (2009). â€Å"The model of corporate social responsibility in project management†. Business: Theory Practice. Vol.10 (4) pp. 315–321. Shrivastava, P., Berger, S. (2010). â€Å"Sustainability principles: a review and directions.†Organization Management Journal. Vol. 7(4) pp.246-261. Talbot, J. and Venkataraman, R. (2011), â€Å"Integration Of Sustainability Principles Into Project Baselines Using A Comprehensive Indicator Set†. Journal of International Business Economics Research. Vol.10 (9) pp. 29-40. Zainul-Abidin, N. (2008) â€Å"Achieving Sustainability through Value Management: A passing opportunity?† International Journal of Construction Managem pp. 79-91. How to cite Sustainability as a Key Critical Success Factor, Essay examples

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Marketing Strategy for Business Model - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theMarketing Strategy for Business Model and Culture. Answer: Introduction With the rise of internet usage there have been more Long-distance purchases by customers because the geography cool barriers have been removed. One of the initial businesses which took advantage of this is Zappos.com (Wedreambusiness.org, 2017). What are the competitive advantages of Zappos? And what are the resources and capabilities that contribute to its competitive advantages? There have been based on ten core values which build the business model and culture of samples. These core values are the basis of the activities of the business and therefore the competitive advantage can be seen in terms of high level of services which bring automatic marketing for the business. The competitive advantages of this business are: Capital raising for providing best to the clients, Core values of the business, Its corporate culture, Quick and free delivery, 24 x 7 call centre for client support, Relationship building by the customer service agents, Contended employees with a great working environment (Harvard Business Review, 2017). The business has its toll free number written on the top of the website and people are always invited to interact with the business. There is an open this to talk with 24 hours of support, which generally lacks in the competitors or any other typical brand. The business model of Zappos is customer focused and it also makes use of social media to interact with the clients and respond to their issues. The customer service agents do not have any prescription and they are free to make decisions so that they can wow clients. So it can be said that the working environment corporate culture and ability of customer servicing agent to develop relation with the customers have brought a competitive advantage to Zappos (The Balance, 2017). Do you think that the success of Zappos is sustainable? Why or why not? Please provide reasons to justify your response. Yes, in my belief the success of Zappos is sustainable because this is an organisation which is integrated into culture and the workers are also emotionally attached to it therefore the business cannot fall quickly and easily. This is the strategy that has been designed for the success of the company where people try to connect, replicate and consider each others emotions which is mutual connector. The values of Zappos have been created in such a manner that they bring positive culture and there is an emotional connection among the staff members, management and clients. In order to sustain growth and profitability in the future, what key strategic actions should Zappos take? (Note: strategic actions could be related to business processes, employee management, marketing activities, and partnership management.) The strategy that has to be taken by Zappos would be with respect to the business processes because lots of customers were confused on Zappos uniting with Amazon. It was a big decision because the business cherished each employee and there had to be a layoff of 8% of highly valued workers. So the processes have to be for boosting transparency and reorganizing operations. Even though the intentions are good but the holacracy cannot be applied on 1500 workers, with an ease (Digital Spark Marketing, 2017). For sustaining in the competitive world and for sustaining in globalization, it would need to keep its focus on its human resources which can help in meeting these challenges. Therefore, Zappos has to continue recruiting right workers which promote the business for values and also our innovative in resolving issues so that company can grow in sustainable and ethical way. Conclusion The distinctive features and structure of Zapposisbased on the Devotion of businesstowardsits clients anditsemployees. The strategy ofZapposis toassureclients withgreat experience when they shoponthe online store. References Digital Spark Marketing. (2017).10 Examples of How Zappos Marketing Strategy Makes a Difference. [online] Available at: https://digitalsparkmarketing.com/zappos-marketing-strategy/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017]. Harvard Business Review. (2017).Zappos and the Connection Between Structure and Strategy. [online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2015/06/zappos-and-the-connection-between-structure-and-strategy [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017]. The Balance. (2017).How Zappos Uses Technology and Operations to be Wildly Successful. [online] Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/zappos-uses-technology-and-operations-to-be-successful-2533530 [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017]. Wedreambusiness.org. (2017).Zappos - We Dream Business. [online] Available at: https://wedreambusiness.org/Zappos.html [Accessed 10 Oct. 2017].