Nescafe and Its Enterprise Type

Nescafe, one of the top ten most valuable brands in the world, has over 50% instant coffee market share of the world, followed by General Food, Maxwell House and Brooke Bond. It’s so successful that some people in some of the Asian country such as China think that instant coffee is the whole world of coffee in 1990s. Such impressive influences come from Nescafe’s insight on the market situation and its own capability, fast response and feasible strategies. On this analysis, we will try to define instant coffee’s market as a standard cycle market. Giving its characteristic, we will see what strategy Nescafe created to maintain the sustainable growth and continue generating rents. We will give example on what Nescafe did in China to analyze the entry barrier, convergence, oligopolistic scale orchestration, etc. We consider instant coffee market as the standard cycle based on the following concerns: 1. Convergence: Both Nescafe and Maxwell were the earliest two instant coffee providers in China. They entered the market in late 1970s. For a decade from 1980 to 1990, coffee could be only found in Hotel and high-end restaurants, but not in stores or supermarkets. Those 10 years seems a conflict with the convergence of standard cycle which normally took around 4 years. However, because the demand on coffee was so low at that moment, I would not consider those 10 years as part of the convergence of standard cycle. Instead, I would say the convergence of instant coffee market started from 1990. At that moment, Chinese people was getting rich thanks to the reform and opening-up policy. Nevertheless, the price of a cup of Nescafe coffee is around 30 times of that of apples. In 1992, Nescafe started its production in China and making Nescafe cheaper and more accessible. Nescafe did exceptionally well in 1990s when it made â€Å"Nestle† a symbol of coffee. However, it didn’t take much long that the price of Nescafe dropped rapidly to the same as several apples. This time line fitted the standard cycle convergence. And today, we can see that a small bag of Nescafe costs less than an apple in the super markets. 2. Alignment As I said above, Nescafe played really well in the China market. It knew the market and its own capability, and adopted the right strategies. We will see how it did such a nice job in those 3 points separately: 3. Markets: China’s instant coffee was a brand new market back to 1990. There were no more than 5 companies providing instant coffee there. All of them were foreign companies and no one had its own factories in China. Foreign companies required approval from Chinese government to build factories there. In 1990s, Chinese instant coffee market was booming regarding to people’s acceptance on coffee an d large population base. As TV got more and more popular, brand loyalty were easier to build through advertisement and people tend to be sticky to the brand with the first taste. . 2 Capabilities: As the biggest instant coffee provider, Nescafe has the capital and reputation advantage to set up a factory in China. Its over 100 year management and marketing experience should help them to open emerging market easily. Its exceptionally and traditionally well-arranged and warm advertisement would touch the soul of the Chinese people. The entry barrier to set up an instant coffee factory was quite high. It not only required huge investment but also a minimum production which may exceed the market demand in the early stage of the market. 3. 3 Strategies: Nescafe set up its production line in 1992, and made effort to build up a strong sales network, management team which were not easy to duplicated by competitors. Meanwhile, they differentiate themselves as the high quality coffee provider at the very beginning, focusing on quality control and manufacturing process, keeping promoting that core value, so that they set up an reputation line that is hardly exceeded by its competitors. For a standard cycle market, an easy exit level is also very important. However, it’s not easy to achieve in the instant coffee market because it require a huge investment on property, plant and equipments. Once the market turns to competitive market as what it looks like today, the sunken investment would be huge and companies may have to keep producing and struggle to survive. 3. Segmentation of Cost Leadership and Differentiate We took Nescafe, Maxwell, Brooke Bond and some other local brand such as Super Coffeemix as example. Nescafe, Maxwell and Brooke Bond control over 70% of the instant coffee in China, and they are the oligopolistic players in the market. They differentiate themselves from quality, tastes, innovation and customer experiences. The rest 30% market share are controlled by many of the local small coffee producers who are competing on prices. Cost Leadership| Differentiate| Super CoffeeMix $5 / 100g| Nescafe $10 / 100g| Most other local brand| Brooke Bond $ 8. 2 / 100g| |   |   | Maxwell $ 7. 8 / 100g| From the above table, we can see that almost all of the Chinese local brand are in the circle of cost leadership because they are usually lack of systematic quality control, avoid excessive marketing investment, don’t need to concern social responsibility. Those brands took over 30% – 40% of the market share in Tier 2 cities in China. On the contrary, Nescafe, Brooke Bond, and Maxwell differentiated themselves with quality, various favors, and providers of coffee-along products such as sugar, milk power etc. They try to build some connection between their coffee and a sweet, relaxed and high quality life. An advertisement from Nescafe shows a lady sitting beside a round table, under a fantastic weather and enjoying her afternoon tea time with some dimsum. After tasting the Nescafe, she closed her eyes, seemed very pleased and satisfied, and appreciated â€Å"It tastes so good†. This advertisement happened in the 1990s and was so popular that making Nescafe as a symbol of sweet life. 4. Scale Orchestration’s four sections 5. 4 Scale: Nestle fully takes advantage of its scale. Nestle brought its Nescafe to China in 1978, and established its first factory in China in 1990. In 2010, Nestle accumulatively makes over 8. 3 billion RMB (around 1. 3 billion USD)Foreign Direct Investment in China , hires over 14,000 employees, runs 22 factories and sold out over 1. 5 million pieces of Nescafe products every day. It takes over 25% of the instant coffee in China, a market values over 5. billion RMB ( around 0. 8 billion USD) and grows over 15% per year. 5. 5 Learning: Nestle has a very well arranged and systematic employee training program. High-performing employees are invited to Headquarter in Swiss education center to have further management trainings. From 2000, Nestle China started the first two-year â€Å"Nestle (China) Management Development Plan† aiming to promote 500 local employees to management level in 2010 to enforce the localization strategy. Besides, Nestle also provides advanced technology and solutions to farmers and helps them to plant the high quality coffee bean in China. 5. Product: Nescafe has much more diversified products now than before. It has Nescafe 3+1, Nescafe Cappuccino, Nescafe Classic, Nescafe Decaf. It also has over 10 different favors, include powder bag and beverage, different package either to help making coffee easier or to be elegant to send as gift. Beyond the rich aroma and delicious tastes from the coffee, Nescafe try to provide further connection on efficiency, relaxation, stimulation, health and graveness through its products. 5. 7 Process: After over 20 year business running in China, Nescafe found its way to continue stable and sustainable growth in China. It has its Labeling Standards which is the instruction to define logo, color, letter font, paragraph distance, and Package Design Manual which makes sure package style and materials are globally standardized. Besides, Nescafe also cut down its global media partners to 5 major advertisement agents. This strategy not only helps Nescafe to have precise cost control, but also guarantee its advertisement to be in a more consistent format and to provide the same mainstream idea in a certain period. All those four section make a generic structure which helps Nescafe to be successful in a standard cycle. . Can Nescafe turn into a long-cycle market player? The critical element in the long-cycle market is the strong isolating mechanisms. The key player in the market set up the monopoly power by lifting the entry barriers, without spending too much investment to create economic scale. Can Nescafe try to set up some strong isolating mechanisms to take over the market? It’s possible but ve ry hard. 6. 8 Brand Lock-in As the earliest instant coffee producer who established a well-known brand name in China. Try to set up brand lock-in is the easiest way for Nescafe to create isolating mechanism. By heavy investment on media advisement, Nescafe is having loyalty from a majority of consumers who works in office and has to work late. 6. 9 Resource barriers Yunnan Province in China is the best place to cultivate coffee bean because of its mild wet weather. Nescafe convinced the local farmers to plant coffee bean from 1990s. Through last 20 years, Nescafe provided training to those farmers, increased the beans’ quality and production. If Nescafe is able to collect the best quality beans from Yunnan, it will set up resource barriers to prevent competitors from competing on quality. . Does the instant coffee market tend to turn into fast-cycle? Capital investment is not a critical entry barrier for instant coffee market any more. If tracking the instant coffee products in the market, we will see new products (new package, new favor or new cafe component, etc) are launched much faster than before. It’s not only because the taste of consumers are keeping changing quickl y, but also because instant coffee producers are investing more on R&D and creating more selling ideas in order to maintain a sustainable profit. Regarding instant coffee is kind of commodity which is hard to differentiate, economics of scale would not help to keep the sustainability because price drops even faster. Besides, weak brand loyalty, rapid globalization even fading the product value. Nevertheless, it’s very difficult to minimize the exit barriers. Giving the competitive instant coffee market, there shouldn’t be any more new player joining it. In sum, Nescafe position itself quite well in the market, response quickly to market change, adopt suitable strategy to keep its sustainable growth. It’s a good example to analyze by using the tools we learned from course.

Factory Act Essay

In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context, ‘adolescent’ means a person who has completed sixteen years but has not completed eighteen years of age,’adult’ means a person who has completed eighteen years of age, ‘child’ means a person who has not completed sixteen years of age,’day’ means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at mid-night, ‘explosive substance’ includes any materials for making any explosive substance; ‘factory’ means any premises including the precincts thereof whereon ten or more workers are working or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months and in any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on with or without the aid of power, but does not include a mine subject to the operation of the Mines Act. Power to apply the provisions of this Act to certain places. – (1) The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply to any place wherein a manufacturing process is being carried on or is ordinarily carried on whether with or without the use of power whenever five or more workers are working therein or have worked therein on any day of the twelve months immediately preceding. (2) A notification under sub-section (1) may be made in respect of any one such place or in respect of any class of such places or generally in respect of all such places. 3) Notwithstanding anything contained in clause (f) of Section 2, a place to which all or any of the provisions of this Act are, for the time being, applicable in pursuance of a declaration under sub-section (l), shall, to the extent to which such provisions are so made applicable but not otherwise, be deemed to be a factory. Section 4. Power to declare departm ents to be separate factories. The Government may, by order in writing, direct that the different departments or branches of a specified factory be treated as separate factories for all or any of the purposes of this Act. Section 5. Power to exempt. – The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, exempt any factory or any class or description of factories from all or any of the provisions of this Act for such period as it may think fit in the public interest: Provided that no such exemption shall be made for a period exceeding six months at a time. Section 6. Notice to Inspector before commencement of work. – (1) The occupier shall, at least fifteen days before he begins to occupy or use any premises as a factory send to the Chief Inspector a written notice containing the name and situation of the factory,the name and address of the occupier, the address to which communications relating to the factory may be sent,the nature of the manufacturing process – (2) In respect of all factories which come within the scope of this Act for the first time, the occupier shall send a written notice to the Chief Inspector containing particulars specified in sub-section (1) within thirty days from the date of the commencement of this Act.. 3) Before a factory engaged in a manufacturing process, which is ordinarily carried on for less than one hundred and eighty working days in the year, resumes working, the occupier shall send a written notice to the Chief Inspector containing the particulars specified in sub-section (1) within thirty days before the date of the commencement of work. Whenever another person is appointed as Manager, the occupier shall send to the Chief Inspector a written notice of the change, within seven days from the date on which such person assumes charge. (5) During any period for which no person has been designated as Manager of the factory or during which the person so designated does not manage the factory, any person found acting as Manager or if no such person is found, the occupier himself shall be deemed to be the Manager of the factory for the purposes of this Act. Section 7. Seasonal Factory. – The Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, declare any factory in which manufacturing processes are ordinarily carried on for not more than one hundred and eighty working days in the year and cannot be carried on except during particular seasons or at times dependent on the irregular action of natural forces, to be a seasonal factory for the purposes of this Act. Section 8. Approval of plans and fees for licensing and registration. – (1) The Government may require that previous permission in writing be obtained in the prescribed manner from the Chief Inspector for the construction or extension of any factory or class or description of factories, require registration and licensing of factories or any class or description of factories and payment of fees for such registration and licensing or for the renewal of licences, in the prescribed manner. If, in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (1) an application for permission accompanied by the plans and specifications is sent to the Chief Inspector and no order is communicated to the applicant within two months from the date of its receipt by the Chief Inspector, the permission applied for in the said application shall be deemed to have been granted. (3) Where the Chief Inspector refuses to grant permission to the said construction or extension of a factory or to registration and licensing of a factory the applicant may, within sixty days of the date of such refusal, appeal to the Government.

How Does Internet Marketing Communication Differ?

1) How does internet marketing communication differ from traditional marketing communication? Internet marketing differs significantly from conventional marketing communications because of the digital medium used for communications. The internet and other digital media such as digital television and mobile phones enable new forms of interaction and new models for information exchange. A useful summary of the difference between theses new media and traditional media has been developed by McDonalds and Wilson they describe the 6 I’s of the e-marketing mix.The 6 I’s are useful since they highlight factors that apply to practical aspects of the internet marketing such as personalization direct response and marketing research but also strategic issues of industry restructuring and integrated channels communications. (Imran RT, 2010) * Interactivity (from push to pull) * Intelligence (market research) * Individualization (mass customization & personalization) * Integration (i nbound & outbound communications) * Industry restructuring (intermediation, disintermediation) * Independence of location (global ubiquity)Interactive marketing promotes a two way communication as compared to traditional marketing, which is usually ruled by one way communication. The difference between interactive marketing and traditional marketing are Push and pull marketing strategy. Traditional marketing strategies were based on a â€Å"push† methodology where managers were literally pushing the products onto the customers. (www. ctsocialmediaconsultant. com). Difference between internet marketing, particularly the Internet, is predominantly a ‘pull’ technology, the customer having initiated the visit to the web site.This may lead to subsequent push activities, such as sending e-mails to people who have registered their interest on the site, but the initial communication is a pull event. (www2. accaglobal. com) Interactivity is a significant feature of the ne w media, allowing a long-term dialogue to develop between the customer and the supplier. In the context of the web site, this is likely to be through e-mails, providing the customer with information and special offers for their areas of specific interest.To initiate this dialogue the web site must capture information such as e-mail address, name, age, gender and areas of interest. Example of AEC company site only collects such information for people who wish to view downloadable study material. This is too restrictive and it will probably exclude all the potential CPD customers. AEC needs to consider ways of making it easier and worthwhile for visitors to the site to register their details. There is no evidence of AEC contemplating the potential use of interactive digital TV or mobile phones to establish long-term dialogues with their customers. www2. accaglobal. com) Intelligence has also been a key feature of the internet marketing, allowing the relatively cheap collection of mark eting research data about customers’ requirements. This is routinely available from web logs and these logs need to be viewed and analyzed using appropriate software. This type of analysis is rarely available in the traditional marketing. For example, AEC does not know how often their training course catalogue is accessed and which pages are looked at. It only knows which training courses are eventually bought.With the internet marketing the company is able to see which services and products are accessed and also to measure how many of these are turned into actual sales. This conversion rate may be an important source of information. For example, why are certain web pages often visited but few sales result is it a problem with the web page? Is it a problem with the product? An understanding of visit patterns allows the organization to focus on particular products and services. This analysis should already be available to AEC but there is no evidence that it uses it or is even aware of it. www2. accaglobal. com) Internet marketing also permits the marketing to be individualized, geared to a particular market segment, company or individual person. In the context of AEC this individualization could be achieved in at least two ways to reflect clear market segmentation. AEC has recently won a contract to supply professional accountancy training to a global accounting company. All students working for this company will now be trained by AEC in one of its worldwide centers. At present this company and its students will be served hrough a generic web site. However, the flexibility of the new media means that a site could be developed specifically for this requirement. The whole site would be geared, and branded, towards the requirements of the global 21 accounting company. Information that is irrelevant to that customer, such as CPD, would not appear on the site. This individualized approach should strengthen the relationship with the customer. Similarly, indiv iduals may have their own access customized as a result of the profile that they have entered.So, for example, if they have already stated that they are currently sitting the professional stage of an examination scheme then only information relevant to that stage will be presented to them when they log in. This is an example of the principle of mass customization that was only available in a limited form in the traditional media. AEC does not exploit this at present, but uses a generic web site that looks and feels the same, whoever the user is. (www2. accaglobal. com) Finally, internet marketing provides independence of location allowing the company to move into geographical areas that would have been unreachable before.The Internet effectively provides a worldwide market that is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week. It is difficult to think of any traditional marketing which would have permitted this global reach so cheaply. Furthermore, the web site might also omit the actu al physical location of the company because there is no requirement for information to be physically sent to an address. It should also be impossible for the potential customer to gauge the size of the supplying company. AEC has exploited this to some extent as it serves a world-wide market from no clear geographical centre.However, the absence of on-line course booking means that certain physical contact details have to be provided and these might undermine the global perspective. (www2. accaglobal. com) Online marketing integrates creative and technical aspects of the internet. One can put his presence online with interactivity having proper attention to their services and products. Online marketing is not just ‘having a website' or ‘building a website' or ‘promoting a website'. Online marketing is different from off-line marketing, following characteristics differentiate them:One-to-one versus one-to-many One-to-one versus one-to-many approach, the targeted user is typically browsing the Internet on their own, and the marketing messages reach them personally. This can be very clearly seen in search marketing, where the users find advertisements targeted to specific keywords that the users asked for (www. homeimprovementsmarketing. com). In Traditional marketing, the medium allows for only one way communication. The same marketing content is used for suppliers as well as customers mostly.On the other hand when the medium is internet, the model allows for many to many marketing communications. When internet is used as a medium, the customers and companies can interact with the medium directly as well as the other customers and companies. The customers can further add to the medium and be a part of the marketing. The communication using such a model is not just from sender to receiver but in all possible directions. Traditional push communications are one-to-many, from one company to many customers, often the same message to different segment and often poorly targeted.With digital media one-to-same reaching a niche or micro-segment becomes more practical e-marketers can afford to tailor and target their message to different segment through providing different site content or e-mail for different audiences through mass customization and personalization. Potentially digital media provide a one-to-many communication from company to customer rather than one-to-many communication from company to customer that is traditional in marketing using the mass media, such as newspapers or television. (Chaffey, Johnston page 351) Customers can compare onlineInternet marketing allows businesses as well as the customers to co create a highly effective network worldwide, and dramatically increase the client trafficking. Compared traditional marketing communication, the Internet marketing makes it easier for buyers to compare two items side-by-side (online-business-journey. com). Before making a purchase, today’s customers can get complete the detailed of product information, the products information are very details stated on the web as compared to the retail store, the salesperson will not remember all the details about the products.It is easy for the customers to have the information on the internet. They do not need to go to the store just for searching for the product details. Inventory is the level of stocks, this is for the customers who just want to view the product, and they will not buy instantly. For the order status which means â€Å"active orders† are orders which you paid for, whether still in processing or previously sent out (support. chinavasion. com). This facility cannot be offered in offline marketing because in offline marketing the buyer would have to go to the shop and buy the things physically.Online marketing saves unnecessary transport expenses and saves time too. (www. dwsmg. com) Get the feedback of your target market in a snap Another communication of internet marketing is that you can get the feedback of your target market in a snap. They can comment and ask questions about your post real quick. That way, you can communicate with your customers faster and the sooner that you convince them to purchase the product or service that you are promoting, the better. What is amazing about internet marketing is that it can be very interactive.When you air a commercial, you need to conduct a survey to find out what your audience has to say about it. Online, it is so much simpler because you can skip the survey procedure and still get an honest feedback anyway. Never underestimate the marketing power of word of mouth. Traditionally, it was said to be even more effective than actually launching an advertisement. That is because people would rather hear a recommendation from a friend or someone who has used the product rather than an advertiser. www. techie-buzz. com) Demographics targeting versus behavioral targeting Off-line marketers typically segment their mar kets according to age group, sex, geography, and other general factors. Online marketers have the luxury of targeting by activity. This is a deeper form of targeting, since the advertiser knows that the target audience is people who do a certain activity instead of just expecting that a certain group of people will like their new product or service (www. homeimprovementsmarketing. com).The  internal  characteristics  of  the  internet  marketing  makes  it  very  different  from traditional marketing , for an example  the  information can be transferred easily, it can be addressed directly, constant availability, integration, flexibility, individuality, interactivity, all these factors that are inherent for internet marketing can be used by companies to shape customer relationships When the traditional marketing tools are used the flow of information is not easy and the customer as well as the companies have to follow some proper channels.Consistency, valid ity and access to information are necessary in marketing which the traditional marketing channel often lacks (Sundas48, 2011) Since exposure, response and overall efficiency of Internet media is easy to track compared to traditional â€Å"off-line† media, through the use of web analytics for instance, Internet marketing can offer a greater sense of accountability for advertisers. Marketers and their clients are becoming aware of the need to measure the collaborative effects of marketing References Chaffey, Johnston, 2006.Internet marketing strategy, implementation and pratice 3th edition, Prentice Hall Difference Between Online and Offline Marketing, (2008), Available from: http://www. dwsmg. com/difference-between-online-and-offline-marketing. html [Accessed on 27 June 2011] Is  Online Marketing More  Effective  for  Organizations  Today  (page 22) by Sundas48, (2011) Available from: http://www. scribd. com/doc/54220673/18/Communication [Accessed on 27 June 2011] Professional Level – Essentials Module, Paper P3, (2008) Business Analysis Available from: http://www2. ccaglobal. com/pubs/students/acca/exams/p3/past_papers/p3_2008_jun_a. pdf (page 21) [Accessed on 27 June 2011] How does internet marketing communication differ from traditional marketing communication? By Imran, (2011), Available from: http://revolutionary-technologies. com/blog/web-marketing/how-does-internet-marketing-communication-differ-from-traditional-marketing-communication/ [Accessed on 23 June 2011] Internet Marketing, (2008), Available from: http://homeimprovementsmarketing. com/Internet-Marketing. tm [Accessed on 27 June 2011] Advantages And Disadvantages Of Shopping Online, (2011), Available from: http://online-business-journey. com/blog/internet/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-shopping-online/ [Accessed on 23June 2011] The Advantages of Internet Marketing Over Traditional Marketing by Guest, (2011), Available from: http://techie-buzz. com/discussions/internet- marketing-vs-tv-radio. html [Accessed on 21 June 2011] How is Interactive marketing Different from Traditional marketing? 2011), Available from: http://www. ctsocialmediaconsultant. com/ct-social-media-marketing/how-is-interactive-marketing-different-from-traditional-marketing [Accessed on 24 June 2011] What Does My Order Status Mean, (2010), Available from: http://support. chinavasion. com/index. php? _m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=127[Accessed on 19 June 2011] Is  Online Marketing More  Effective  for  Organizations  Today  (page 22) by Sundas48, (2011) http://www. scribd. com/doc/54220673/18/Communication

Required reaction paper combining two related internet stories Essay

Required reaction paper combining two related internet stories - Essay Example The news article presented many important highlights in history that all students must realize. First, Jews were very powerful economically and politically, they can be considered shakers of society. Second, Germans tried to be on a defensive stance during pre World War I because they were greatly suffering from a hyperinflation. The news report about Judea’s declaration of war on Germany emphasized one thing – that for many years, the Jews were already collaborating with one another to drive Jews in Germany back to Israel. Freedman’s speech about the Jews collaboration sent shivers to my spine because it seems that I missed out a very important fact about history. Judea’s declaration of war on Germany is not to be taken lightly as a simple event. Historians and political analysts should prevent such things from happening again because countries that retaliate can be uncontrollable. With the recent events happening in the Middle East today, world leaders s hould carefully plan their action because the last thing we need is another World War. The second document that I read was Freedman’s speech about the Jews role in two World Wars. It was shocking to hear the transcripts of his speech because people often think of the Jews as the underdog. Freedman’s speech revealed that Jews controlled almost any sector in society- banking, communications, media among many others.

Benefits of outsourcing outweigh disadvantages Essay

Benefits of outsourcing outweigh disadvantages - Essay Example There is an increase in the proportion and the type of work being sent. The phenomenon of globalization has made outsourcing inevitable for organizations all over the world (Wee et al 2010). There are several motives that work behind the decision of the company to outsource its work. But, with the advantages accrued by the company as a result of outsourcing their activities, there are several disadvantages as well associated with the process of outsourcing. Therefore, it is essential to identify whether the benefits of outsourcing and offshore outsourcing outweigh the disadvantages of outsourcing due to which every third organization in the world is engaged in the process of outsourcing as a means of improving their performance (Pounder et al 2011). The essay discusses and analyses the presence of evidences that show benefits of outsourcing outweighing the disadvantages of the process so as to gain useful insights on significance of outsourcing for today’s organizations. ... The primary non core functions have also been outsourced including marketing, logistics, manufacturing, information technology, etc. (Dhar and Balakrishnan 2006) In order to make the outsourcing work, setting up of a solid upfront effort is necessary so that it can identified that right functions are outsourced, thus ensuring the best returns. Making outsourcing a core competency is a real challenge for a business because it is necessary to achieve the potential benefits of the outsourcing process (Liou and Chuang 2010). Benefits of outsourcing project There are several direct and indirect benefits of outsourcing that are required to be discussed in order to understand and argue for the benefits outweighing the risks associated with the concerned business opportunity. The direct benefits of outsourcing includes focus on core competencies, reduction in management head counts and costs, improvement in accuracy and flexibility, access to superior technology and global networks, improved quality and reduction in capital investment. The indirect benefits include development of resources and contacts, conversion of sluggish personal areas into the success and dynamic areas, etc. (Kolmogorovs 2006) The motives that work behind the decision of taking the route for outsourcing for improvement of efficiency and performance are dominant over the risks associated and disadvantages with the process. The first and foremost motive of the company for taking the decision of outsourcing is reduction of cost. The cost reduction improves the short term performance of the firm and the cost of outsourcing can be balanced with the resources that could have been additionally acquired for doing the work in-house (Pouder et al 2011). Outsourcing also leads to

The Oil Industry and How It Affects Our Economy Essay

The Oil Industry and How It Affects Our Economy - Essay Example The policies and decisions made by various institutions can and in fact, changes the nation's economic performance. One of the most significant players in the economy of the United States as well as the whole world is the oil industry. As the nation and the world as a whole, are becoming more and more industrialized, we also became more dependent on oil to fuel our technologically more advanced equipments. Nowadays, the importance of the oil industry can never be overstated. Insufficiency in this resource will surely facilitate the spillover of negative externalities in the entire economy. This paper will examine the oil industry and its great role in the US economy. The first section will give a brief history of the oil industry followed by its influences in the whole economy. The paper will then examine the historical oil prices and the cause of the recent oil price hikes and their implications in the economy. Currently, it is estimated that the economy of the United States consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day. This huge consumption of oil is to support the country's highly industrialized economy especially in the production of different goods. However, the United States is not self-sufficient in oil production as 60% of its total requirement is sourced from foreign exporters. In other words, only 8.71 million barrels of the 21 million daily demand for oil is absorbed by the domestic oil industry (Some Factors 2005). From here, we can conclude that the US economy is strongly tied to its oil industry. Therefore, the movements in oil prices also have direct effects in the production and the volume of goods produced in the country. Figure 1 shows the behavior of oil prices in the world market from 1861 to 2004. Values are shown in current (green) and constant (orange) prices. Since constant prices are already deflated to illustrate consistency with the base year 1861, their values are lower than the current prices. We can see that sharp increases in prices are brought about by various events in the world economy. For example, the highest historical price of nearly $100/barrel was experienced during the 1960s as a response to the Pennsylvanian oil boom. Another is associated with the Iranian revolution in the 1980s. We see a significant drop in current oil prices started during the 1980s which is also followed by the downward trend in constant prices. However, oil prices started to mount in the late 1990s following the Asian financial crisis (Oil Prices 2005). Presently, the price of oil in the domestic market continues to skyrocket. The current price of a barrel of oil is estimated to be at 61.83. This huge oil price hike can be attributed to a lot of factors in the economy (Energy Prices 2005). First, it is an impact of the high price of crude which reached as high as $70 per barrel. This is consequent to the tight supply of crude in oil market and the high demand for it from Americans. International demand for oil is also high to support the growing economies of prospective economic giants like China. It is estimated that crude oil imports in China leaped by 30% in 2003 (Some Factors 2005). The refinery capacity of the United States has also an impact on the high prices. Currently, the country's refinery

Leadership and Team Dynamics in the MSCC Case Study - 30

Leadership and Team Dynamics in the MSCC - Case Study Example With respect to the key responsibilities that were associated with each role, Jim Kovecki was primarily responsible for systems maintenance and operations. Conversely, Leon Lassiter was primarily responsible for marketing outreach and conducting himself as a representative of the organization as a means to boost visibility, promote the services that the organization offered, and seek to better hone and organize marketing dynamics to better serve the needs of the organization. Lastly, Jeff Hedges was the lead director of research. Although these roles are straightforward enough, the problem that emerged was that nearly as soon as the project began, the key roles and responsibilities of the individuals that have thus far been enumerated upon seemed to experience a sudden shift. Due to the fact that Lassiter was the one that was spearheading the effort to purchase and implement the new systems, the other shareholders showed little if any interest in fulfilling their job responsibilities in order to assist the transition; interested instead in seeking to busy themselves on other tasks, or outright decline to participate in what they termed as â€Å"Lassiter’s project†. In much the same way, Lassiter was left to spearhead an information technology change over that he had little if any experience in. This served as both a disservice to the firm as well as a disservice to his own responsibilities that he was charged with fulfilling.

Discourse Community Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Discourse Community Analysis - Essay Example A very good example of an exclusive language can be found in the military. Whereas the officers use â€Å"good English† for their commands and among themselves, the recruits and lower cadre officers at the â€Å"club house† use pidgin which has the potential of expression informality and high level of intimacy of role relations. (Alabi, T., n.d.) This is the usual set-up of communication in the military. The men in the military speak a different language at work than at home. If civilian men are difficult to understand by nature, military men are even more difficult to understand. This is because the military has its own language. The men communicate with words and sometimes with their actions. Each branch of the military also has its own â€Å"lingo†. For example, the word â€Å"camouflage† uniform is called â€Å"cammies† for the Marines and the Navy but â€Å"fatigues† for the Army. Each division the military has its own nickname. A jarhead refers to a Marine. They say this is because the head of a marine looks like a jar. A squid is someone from the Navy. The connection is very obvious, I believe. Top Gun refers to an Air Force member. Finally, those in the army are called dogs. By their terms, one can already see how exclusive and proud military men are with regards to their branch of service. Of course there are also some words used by all branches of the military like CO which means commanding officer. Brass refers to officers because of the many awards (made of metal) pinned on their uniforms. These pins distinguish them from the members in the lower ranks. AO means area of operation. This is any place you’re supposed to work at. Bird doesn’t mean an animal that flies but a plane. Mess hall or chow hall is their word for dining room. Ultimately, a john wayne isn’t a person or an actor but a can opener. Indeed, language in the military is something an outsider has to be ready for. Otherwise, an outsider may act

Why does Warren Buffett rely heavily on Net Working Capital analysis Essay - 2

Why does Warren Buffett rely heavily on Net Working Capital analysis as his principal method of valuing businesses Do you agree - Essay Example When current assets are twice the size of current liabilities, net working capital is enough for most businesses to avoid its problems. If the value of current assets is less than one and a half size of current liabilities, then the business would be short of working capital that will result in the difficulty to meet its immediate debts. Businesses having difficulty in controlling their cash flow and working capital are said to have liquidity problems. Liquid assets are those assets that can be easily changed in to cash such as stock, debtors and short term investments. Buffett looks and analyses a business mainly with ‘owner earnings’ and ‘return on equity’ measures both in turn give an overall picture of cash flow available in a business and its operational efficiency. According to Buffet’s analysis method, it is very obvious that increased working capital can be viewed as cash out flow because money that are owed by debtors to the business or occupied in stocks cannot be utilized for meeting any other payments and hence no returns can be expected. Here, even though the working capital shows increases, the business can be viewed as inefficient as it failed to collect debtors on time. From assessing a business through mere working capital analysis, Buffett finds an advanced method of analyzing exact net working capital or cash flow available to the shareholders through ‘owner earning’ analysis. Capital expenditure, that is the money needed to spend on purchasing or upgrading plant or equipments, is deducted from net income and hence it forms as an Economic Value Added (EVA) analysis. By adding depreciation and amortization back also it gives an accurate cash flow available to shareholders. This analysis method looks at the ability of a firm to generate cash for its residual owners. Even though, the decisive

Child minders Essay Example for Free

Child minders Essay My competitors are likely to be; Child minders offering full day service provide the main source of competition, with over 70,000 registered in the UK today. Many parents are attracted by the individual care a child minder is often able to give their child and the service is regarded as cheaper and more flexible than the day nursery. Family members remain the most popular choice for childcare, with well over half working parents opting for this informal option, largely because they cannot afford other care, or they cannot find a suitable service. Playgroups and cri ches offering occasional or seasonal care are both popular choices for slightly older children. However, parents working full time are still more likely to opt for the day nursery. On the yellow pages Web site there are 33 competitors listed, but most of them are in the same position as you, trying to start up. This is shown as in last years yellow pages there is only one competitor listed. A company called leapfrog though is a national chain; there are 14 of their nurseries spread across the midlands. There are roughly 39 in England. Training There are various childcare courses available and you should have gained a relevant qualification before you start running a nursery, so sally wont be able to start straight away. Training can be very flexible to suit you, based on full or part time courses at different levels. Local further education colleges will have lists of courses that will be appropriate for you which include N. V. Q. s, G. N. V. Q. s, H. N. D. s and H. N. C. s amongst other options. Qualifications for those working in early years education, childcare and play work fall within the occupational and vocationally related categories. You could get a NVQ in Early years care and education. Location In East Anglia there has been a 44% decrease in failing business. However this information is not all that reliable as it may say that in 2002 there has been 24 business failures, it does not say how many businesses started. If 25 businesses started and 24 failed, the figure is not at all impressive and it shows that lots of businesses failed. However if their were 100 businesses that started and 24 failed, than the figure shows that under a 1/4 of businesses failed, which is impressive. Peterborough is located 80 miles (128 kilometers) north of London and 40 miles (64 kilometers) northwest of Cambridge. The city benefits from frequent high-speed train services on the main East Coast rail line. Adjacent roads such as the A1 (M), A14 and A47 provide swift access to the national road network. There are rapid connections with major airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, East Midlands and Birmingham. Peterborough is within easy reach of major East Coast seaports such as Felixstowe, Harwich and Hull so exports and imports will be easily done. Peterboroughs GDP (gross domestic product) per head of population (the total rate of output divided by the resident population) is the highest in the East of England with a figure of i 13,673. The figure i received from research for the total of Englands GDP per working person is 572. 68 to 2 decimal places. However this seems unrealistic considering Peterboroughs is over 13,000. After a little more desk research i found the average weekly wage to be  444. 3, thus making the average yearly wage roughly 23,103. 6. Knowing that GDP is different to wages i will now try and find out the average yearly wage for peterborough so i have some results to compare, by doing this i will find if their is a lot of money being earned in the peterborough area compare to England. Still i cannot find the answers so i have nothing to compare. The theft rate in Peterborough is very high compared to Huntingdon. 28. 6% of 1000 vehicles are broken into in Peterborough; in Huntingdon it is only 9%. The population and households are very similar. Finance There are many different sources of finance that sally could use to finance her business. One of these is a bank loan. The advantage to this is you get a large amount of money and you dont have to wait for it. The disadvantage is that you have to pay more back than you borrowed. Investment is another source of finance, this is when you have people give you money to put into your business, but they get a percentage of the profit. The advantage of this is that you receive a large amount of money

The Products Of Herbal Essences Marketing Essay

The Products Of Herbal Essences Marketing Essay Herbal Essences is a brand of hair product founded in 1971 by Clairol. In 2002, Procter and Gamble acquired Herbal Essences from Clairol, Inc. Herbal Essences is a global brand of hair-care products that distribute various different Shampoo, Conditioner, Hair Coloring, Mousse, Hairspray, and Gel products (Procter Gamble, 2012, p. 3). Procter and Gamble entered as a hair colorant and renovated the product of Herbal Essences (Matusow, 2008). In this section we will analyze the target market strategies, which Procter and Gamble used to help their product Herbal Essences grow more than 40 percent in sales globally (Procter Gamble, 2007, p. 12). According to McGreog (2008), since Procter and Gamble acquired Herbal Essences their main marketing objective was to change their product and to revive their failing brand within the shampoo industry. Hence, the company wanted to market towards a more youthful audience. The brand was originally focused on women who wanted natural hair care products. It dealt with ingredients such as herbal and organic aspect of the product. Procter and Gamble wanted to reposition their hair products by creating a fun and youthful appeal while having the natural ingredients. Procter and Gamble did this so they do not lose their brand loyalists. Herbal Essences target market consists of Generation Y female users ranging from the age of 14-30 (McGregor, 2008). Herbal Essences target markets are individuals who are going to school, entering college, and young moms. Consumers of Herbal Essencess products share more than a common hair-care product, they share common lifestyles. In order to understand the appeal of their products, Herbal Essences continues to research their cultural and social environment. They do this by learning more about the consumers psychographics and behavioral characteristics. The goal in doing so is to sell more hair products by understanding the changing wants and the needs of the market segment. The needs of this market segment According to MediaPost (2008), in recent efforts to better understand and attract the youthful audience towards Herbal Essences, Procter Gamble and the Beauty Business Chief, Susan Arnold had an idea to re-invent their products by completely re-branding Herbal Essences. In order to rebrand themselves they conducted their own research such as consumer surveys, market research and observing buying patterns of younger consumers. She took on the task of finding a way to build up the failing brand with a small group of people from research and development, marketing, and design. The small team worked together with branding agency Libby Perszyk Kathman (LPK) to target the market of Generation Y females (MediaPost, 2008). As Lukovitz (2007) states in her article Herbal Essence Snags 2007 Rebrand 100 Global Award the team instantly started on 18 months of extensive consumer research. During the time the team emerged in May 2006 with a new target market audience tailored towards the spontaneous, optimistic, altruistic, experiential Generation Y (Lukovitz, 2007). Herbal Essences changed the whole product from scratch which they referred to as the from-scratch strategy which included a new logo, adding several catchy new product names, and adding new packaging. Herbal Essences research discovered that women like to buy hair care products within the same brand. The packaging emphasizes the shape, the new shampoo and conditioner bottles where designed to fit together on the shelf, encouraging the youthful audience to buy the product as a whole and driving up sales (Lukovitz, 2007). In order for Herbal Essences to communicate their product to their new target market, they have used an innovative way to reflect their product upon the youthful generation. Herbal Essences uses this technique consistently throughout their product packaging and promotions. For example, the names of their products such as Hello Hydration, Drama Clean, and Tousle Me Softly (Herbal Essences, 2012). The name of these products reflects the tone and personality of the youthful audience which effectively appeals to their target market. Their target market likes to be aware of the latest trends in hairstyles and looks that could be obtained by using their products. Their target market wants a brand that focuses on their needs and is funky as them; a product which has an emotional connection, and makes them feel like the product is a part of their lifestyle. This market strategy also play a role into targeting the older part of the demographic, towards young mothers around the age of 30 who may look for hair care products for their daughters. They would be prone to buy the product since it gives a youthful and a modern vibe unlike other hair care product competitors. Herbal Essences indirectly cleverly uses the youthful appeal towards the older demographics that could also purchase their product, because they are tempted to feel younger (Lukovitz, 2007). Herbal Essences revolutionized the way companies target their market. It moved from a failing brand into a successful brand. The strategies they applied into targeting their market changes the way companies and their products speak to their consumers, appears to their customers, and how they might even position their products on the shelf to compete with their competitors (McGregor, 2008). Herbal Essences hair-care products stand out because it has been designed and formulated specifically for their target market needs. With the products of Herbal Essences, their target market can match their unique personality with their products.