Strategic Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Strategic Management - Essay Example It will discuss upon the micro environment, macro environment, and the future strategic implications of the organization. Hollister Co. Hollister Co., generally known as promoted as HCo or Hollister, is a lifestyle brand based in America and has been originated by Abercrombie & Fitch Co. Hollister Co. has presented a concept, which is actually made to catch the attention of the young segment of consumers aged between 14 and18. It offers reasonable, rather lower, price point as compared to the parent brand. The major promotion of the brand is done by the inspiration of casual wear and image of SoCal. The company provides the goods both through online platforms and the company’s own stores (Hollister California, 2012). Goods are available in-store and through the company's online store. The company is acknowledged to be the owner of the United States’ second most ideal and preferred brand of amongst the teen’s segment as indicated in the list of actual West Coast c ompanies issued by Piper Jaffray for the year 2008. Initially, the company opened up its first store in Columbus, Ohio at the Easton Town Centre in July 2000. The drastic success of HCO made it noticeable for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. that the Abercrombie & Fitch brand was superseded by the HCo brand. The A&F brand was properly made to stand out in competition from HCo. Brand through the use of materials of higher quality and there were strict introductions of construction in the A&F facility for goods and clothing. This made the cost of merchandise go higher with the store mainly centring its resources and attention on the clothing for the consumer segment aged between 11 and17 years. Hollister Co produces and sells accessories and apparel for women and men. The products of the company includes knits, logo tees, sweaters, shirts, pants, jeans, outerwear, shorts, tanks, winter wear, and sleepwear; and bracelets, necklaces, hats, totes, caps, belts, scarves, and flip flops. The brand a lso offers to its consumers a wide variety of perfumes, colognes, gloss products and lip shine, lip balms, and body care products, along with the gift cards (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2012). Along with many other countries, the company operates in Canada, UK, and US and owns more than 1,039 stores all across the world with over 80,100 employees. Macro Analysis An organization can be judged for its competitiveness, strengths and other factors on the basis of its macro environment. The factors contained in the organization’s macro environment are those elements which influence the organization in an indirect manner but do not give it the ability to control them. These factors include the PESTEL analysis of the industry which stands for political, economic, social and technological, environmental and legal factors. They are described as below: Political Factors The political factors comprise of the government decisions which have an indirect or direct impact on the organizationâ⠂¬â„¢s activities. In this context, A&F operates in many countries which have an economy that is free-market oriented with regulations and rules to safeguard the intelligent rights and patents from being copied. These patens assist the organizations to protect their rights on any property that they own. However, other political implications that A&F is required to follow include the rules and regulations such as rights of workers, employees, and shareholders. Since, the

Corporate Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Corporate Financial Management - Essay Example Vodafone Group is a British international telecommunications corporation with the headquarters situated in London. The corporation also has its enlisted administrative centre in Newbury, Berkshire.In addition,Vodafone is the second largest mobile telecommunications corporation in the world,calculated by both 2011 earnings and subscribers,and as at December 2011,it had 439 million users.Also, Vodafone operates and owns networks in more than thirty nations and contains partner networks in more than forty extra nations. Its Vodafone Global Enterprise offers Information Technology and telecommunications services to corporate consumers in more than sixty five countries. Moreover, Vodafone has a 45% stake at Verizon Wireless. Verizon Wireless is the leading mobile telecommunications corporation in the United States of America calculated by users. Vodafone is also listed in the London Stock Exchange and is a part of the FTSE 100 index. As of July 2012, Vodacom had a market capitalization of almost 89.1 billion pounds. This was the third leading of any organization listed on the London Stock Exchange. Vodafone also contains a secondary listing on NASDAQ. Additionally, the name Vodafone is derived from voice data fone, selected by the corporation to illustrate the offering of voice and data services using mobile phones. Vodafone has a vision of being the leading mobile communication company in the world and a significant element of this is to make sure that consumers admire and trust the company. The company attains this by adapting a responsible model to the way it carries out its business activities. This augments its standing and develops customer loyalty. The company’s business strategy and corporate responsibility strategy are also interconnected. Vodafone holds the view that long-term commercial benefits emerge from doing business in a sustainable manner. Vodafone adopts a two-fold approach in doing business. One is to offer product extension. This entails introducing new services, dimensions, and features in saturated areas. These are regions like Europe and USA which contain complicated consumers who expect and want novel functions from their mobile phones. Establishing new ways of delivering services and products helps to preserve existing users and appeal to new ones. For instance, 3G technology has enhanced the quality and capacity of transferring voice and data. The second is looking for openings in emerging sectors (Vodafone Group 2012, p. 54). These include a number of the globe’s more remote regions, including some regions in Africa, where a large number of individuals cannot have access to a mobile phone. This paper will analyse the sources of finances, gearing of Vodafone during the last five years. The paper will realize this by providing a critical evaluation of the gearing and policies of the company with regard to its corporate objectives, relevant theories, and industrial sector practices. The foremost objective of Vodafone as a business unit is the maximization of profit. The organization also has a mission statement which makes sure that this foremost objective is attained in the most suitable manner possible. The mission statement is to be the leading communication company in a progressively more connected globe. Correspondingly, the mission statement is passed on to all shareholders of the organization, particularly to the company’s workers, largely because it is the workers who make the most significant contribution in accomplishing the objectives of the company. Vodafone is also dedicated to offering markets with less developed infrastructure the necessary technology to establish communication which will be of significance both socially and economically. Finally, it is committed to accomplishing its goals by providing superior and innovative services. Vodafone provides both basic telecommunication services, for example, text messaging and mobile phone calls, and

History of sony ericsson as a company

History of sony ericsson as a company EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sony Ericsson is a joint venture of Sony and Ericsson which take place in October 1st, 2001. They starts work together because they wants to become the communication entertainment brand, by inspiring people to do more than just communicate, and enabling everyone to create and participate in entertainment experiences. Experiences that blur the lines between communication and entertainment.    Sony Ericssons main head office is in London. In this report we cover topics like main objective behind this joint venture, main strategies behind this joint venture, what motivates them to make this joint venture, why this joint venture was not as much successful, what problems they faced in the start of this joint venture and how they could make this successful by considering strategies which we describe. INTRODUCTION Sony Ericsson got in to alliance on 1st October 2001 and the main objective of this alliance was to be the worlds leading position in mobile phones. SONY In 1946 Sony Corporation were founded by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita. G-TYPE recorder (Tape player or recorder) was the first hardware device created by Ibuka and Morita in 1950.   From Western Electric they earned licensing rights to transistor. Sony released first pocket transistor radio in 1957. There engineers completed cathode-ray tube in October 15, 1967 that helps them in video innovation. They introduced Trinitron television for picture quality and for the penetration in the global market they design this in 1968. Its Japanese multinational company, and its one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, products for the consumer and professional markets. Basically it is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, game, communications and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony is uniquely positioned to be a leading personal broadband entertainment company in the world. ERICSSON Ericsson was founded in 1876 by Lars Magnus. He started making phones with the potential of improvements in technology. Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership, like they are providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries. Ericsson is the only company in the world offering systems for all major mobile communication standards, actively promoting standardization and open systems. REASONS FOR JOINT VENTURE The main reason for the venture was to integrate Sonys consumer electronics expertise with Ericssons technological knowledge in the communications sector. Ericsson was the buying chips from single source that was Philips. A fire erupted causing a huge loose at Philips, due to which Philips was unable to provide the chips to Ericsson. Ericsson faced a huge loss due to this incident. There were rumors that Ericsson might sale its handset division but it found a way to join hands with Sony which could help it to recover. The Vision of the Company is: â€Å"To become the communication entertainment brand, by inspiring people to do more than just communicate, and enabling everyone to create and participate in entertainment experiences. Experiences that blur the lines between communication and entertainment.† HISTORY OF SONY ERICSSON AS A COMPANY Joint Venture of Sony Ericsson starts from October 1st, 2001. The basic ambition behind this joint venture is to provide their expertise for the establishment of Sony Ericsson products in the mobile phone manufacturing industry. Sony was the marginal player in the mobile phone market with the share of less than one percent, but Ericsson was at 3rd position and was successful in mobile phone manufacturing industry. Due to fire at the Philips factory who were the single source supplier of Ericsson, this incident creates a huge impact at the performance of Ericsson. Company couldnt fulfill the dead lines of orders completion and due to this Ericssons market share fell down, because they were relining on only one supplier. MOTIVATION BEHIND THIS JOINT VENTURE Joint venture often taken place because of Transaction Cost Economics, because in this cost of sole ownership of an organization is greater than the joint ownership of an organization. This is also the main reason of this joint venture because Sony wanted some edge in mobile phone industry and Ericsson wanted to save its mobile phone manufacturing business. Resource-based view is another factor that motivates Sony and Ericsson to make a joint venture. According to this point of view firm make alliance because of tangible and intangible valuable resources this creates a unique competitive edge in the industry that couldnt be imitable by any other competitor; this could also help for the improvement of performance. Like Sony wanted technical knowhow of communication technology from Ericsson and Ericssons wanted new technology of Sony that will help them in the market competition, thats why they starts work together and make combination of both company technologies. Another motivational factor is organizational learning or knowledge because this also motivates Sony and Ericsson for making this alliance. With the help of this companys could easily acquire each others skills and capabilities that could also help organizations to make a new and innovative product with low cost that is also Sony Ericssons objective of alliance. Strategic Management is also the motivational factor of this alliance, which were used by both Sony and Ericsson companies. Both companies make this alliance because they wanted to make a competitive edge in the mobile phone manufacturing industry and also to maximize profits. Thats why they design symmetrical strategy for the attainment of final goal. Sony were interested in this joint venture because they wanted to entre in mobile phone manufacturing industry and Ericsson entered in this joint venture because they were worlds number three mobile phone maker and they were facing huge loss due to fire at Philips plant who was the sole supplier of Ericsson, so they wanted to become a successful in mobile phone manufacturing industry. Sony knows that Ericsson have access knowledge about technology in communication sector and this could help them in entrance of this industry. Sony Ericsson after making this joint venture stopped making their separate mobile products and starts working together. Sony form alliance with LM Ericsson. Before formal announcement of this joint venture, many news papers published that this joint venture will cover the wide range of areas such as development, manufacturing and marketing of mobile phones. They sets target of expansion of Sony Ericsson products to the major markets of Europe, Japan, other parts of Asia and United States. OBJECTIVE The main objective of this joint venture is â€Å"to develop an alliance that would allow Ericsson to reduce spending on the costly development of next generation mobile phones at a time when many European telecom companies see their inventories piling up as the worlds cell phone market is growing much more slowly.† STRATEGY Sony Ericssons strategy was to release new models capable of digital photography as well as other multimedia capabilities such as downloading and viewing video clips and personal information management capabilities. When they start as a Sony Ericsson company they released many models which were new and innovative mobiles, main features of those mobiles were digital photography, downloading facilities etc. There key innovations are cheap camera phones, cross platform technology, operating system experimentation and there milestone handsets are Sony Ericsson T610 in 2003, Sony Ericsson P900 in 2003, Sony Ericsson W800i in 2005, Sony Ericsson K800i Cyber-shot in 2007, Sony Ericsson W910i in 2007. Up till 2008 Sony Ericssons numbers of employees are approximately 9,400 worldwide and their employees on contract bases are 2,500. Since October 2009, president of company is Bert Nordberg and CEO and President is Sir Howard Stringer. Chairman of the board is Sony Corporation. PROBLEMS THE JV HAS ENCOUNTERED SINCE THE FORMATION The joint venture faces losses in the start, their targeted date of making profit were shifted from 2002 to 2003. They couldnt fight the main competitors of mobile phone manufacturing industry and came at fifth position in the market. The main problem behind this loss was there misrepresentation of their product in the market. Its necessary that companies go for innovations and provide satisfied product to customers but its also important that we should also know that customers always want something new and different. So to provide them new and different mobiles company should always go for best Research and Development tools and techniques. Because if your R D department is not up-to-date, it means that you are not providing products to customers which they really want. The second main problem which they were facing that they could not catered different markets effectively, because after making joint venture they starts working without get to know that what really customer needs and wants are. So due to this lack of information their products starts facing losses and then they had to remove their product line from the markets. Like in 2002 they stop manufacturing Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) mobile phones for the market of United States and starts focusing on GSM as a dominant technology, due to this change in US and Germany number of jobs cut in research and development department. The third problem they were facing was they invest a lot without get to know that what market situations now-a-days are. Like in 2003 mobile phone prices starts declining but still Sony Ericsson were making expensive mobiles, due to this they couldnt make as much profits as they were expected. They are facing problems because they are focusing at cost-cutting programs and job losses. In June 2008, they were having 12,000 employees and after launched this cost-cutting program it had slashed its global workforce by around 5,000 people. R D is an important department for any organization and it play an important role for mobile phone manufacturing companies, but Sony Ericsson take this as a cost and closed R D departments which were working globally like Chadwick House, Birchwood (Warrington) in UK; Miami, Seattle, San Diego and RTP (Raleigh, NC) in the USA; the Chennai Unit (Tamil Nadu) in India; Hassleholm and Kista in Sweden and operations in the Netherland, UIQ centers in London and Budapest were also closed. Due to this change they couldnt manufacture innovative products for customers and this is the main reason behind the failure of this joint venture. WHY JOINT VENTURE IS NOT SUCCESSFUL? Joint ventures often failed because company not build customer base products, due to which customers switched to other competitive products that provides them more reliable and innovative products. This is also the main reason of failure of joint venture of Sony Ericsson. They were providing innovative products but marketing strategy was not as much effective that they could attract customers. They were not providing the advanced versions of mobiles as much early as other competitors of mobile phone manufacturing were providing. There R D was slow as compared to other mobile phone manufacturers. They were not focusing at proactive approach, they were also not productive reactive. So due to this they were facing problems.  Ã‚   Joint venture always successful if company set a target, because it shows that in which direction they are moving. Sony Ericsson also faces the problem of not meeting the set date profit, due to which they face loss. So its necessary that target should already be explained and company works together for the achievement of target. This joint venture is also not as much successful because Sony wants results as early as possible and Ericssons were not making profits as per expectations, so due to this they starts cut number of jobs and also remove Research and Development departments which were working globally, due to this they couldnt make innovative products according to customer needs. And when any technical business dont have R D department that helps organization in the development then how they could move in the industry successfully. Sony Ericsson s joint venture was not as much successful because they were not working for the attainment of goals which were designed after the joint venture, both were worried for their individual goals like Sony was worried because they wanted market share in mobile phone manufacturing industry and Ericsson was worried because they wanted their industry reputation back. So thats why they were facing problems. STRATEGIESUSED TO ADDRESS THE JV PROBLEMS According to our analysis Sony Ericsson must follow these strategies that will help them to gain a long term market share and it will also help them to make a successful joint venture in future: First step they should have to take place that they conduct the depth analysis of different markets according to different countries, that will help them to get to know that what particular region related customers are expected from them and what they could provide them according to customer expectations. Sony Ericsson must make a connection to customers that will help them to get market share in the mobile phone manufacturing industry. They should have to conduct regular meetings to their customers, with the help of this they could get to know that what their customers really think about their business, what type of products they really want and how they could provide them products according to their perceptions that satisfies them. By listening process they could find that what potential needs are of customers and how they could provide them effective solutions. By using feedback technique they could also remain in connection to their potential customers, this could be more effective if it could be done periodically. There must be a coordination among all business units this will help them to bring a product that will satisfy needs of customers and that will be unique. They must have a strong marketing campaign that will create a positive impact on overall business, because good representation of product attracts customer. They should also have to use social marketing outlets like Facebook, Google etc for the promotion of their products; this will enhance its public exposure.

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

Good afternoon. Today I have been asked to speak about graduation past, present and future. My first graduation occurred when I finished kindergarten. This is often where we learn the most basic of principles. This is what I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Don't take things that are not yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. Wash your hands before you eat. Don't forget to flush. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life. Learn some and think some, and draw, paint, sing, dance, play and work a little bit everyday. Take a nap in the afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of the wonder of God's creation. Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The golden rule and love, and basic sanitation, ecology, and politics and sane living. Think of what a better world it would be if we all decided to take a nap at 3:00 every afternoon and then laid down with our bl...

Givin a Million Dollars, but Can Not Spend It on Yourself

If I was given a million dollars that could not be spent on myself, my main goal would be to have fun. I am sure there are tons of completely decent charities and organizations that could put a large cash donation to great use, but just giving away all that money to charity sounds completely BORING! I can think of some great ways to spend one million dollars, while having fun and helping people at the same time. This sounds like a great idea to me! The first obstacle I would face is to find a way to have fun, but to not officially spend the money on myself.Then I would need to find a worthwhile candidate who would be willing to share a $250,000 gift with me. I’m hoping this person would take me to Italy and the French Riviera. This has to be why people have friends. I would write a check for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Nathaniel Pardon, my best friend! Try to imagine your best friend in the world has just received a $250,000 sum of cash. Vacation time! We would b ounce around Europe, stay in drastically expensive hotels, and see the sites. Another part of our fun in Europe would be to host a street skateboarding competition at the local skate park.The winner would get a $100,000 grand prize, donated by me. The grand prize is enough money to draw all the professional skateboarders into the competiton. I would make some very impressive new friends. At the end of a three day competition a winner would be chosen and paid in cash. No corporate sponsors would be needed. What a lovely thought! All of this would be for the progression of the sport I love. This competition would help many people, skaters and friends alike; but most especially the winner. With $650,000 left, I would return back to the U. S. to my family.There are some serious issues in my family that a lot of money could easily correct. My mother and little sister recently moved to Louisiana due to the recession in Detroit. In order to get my family back together, I would buy my mothe r a nice house in Metro Detroit, close to where my family lives. She’s a shopper, so I would also give her $50,000 for spending money. It seems extravagant, but she has put up with a lot of trouble from me, so it is the least I could do. With a house and tremendous amount of money to handle all financial issues, my mother and sister would be anxious to move back.Even though it might seem that this money is being spent to secure my happiness, it is not. My little sister misses her family in Michigan a great deal. This would be for her, above anyone else. Once my little sister is home again and things are great, all I would wish to do is help other families in the same way. With the remaining money, I would start an organization I would call â€Å"Reconnecting Families in Need† (R. F. I. N. ). An organization of my creation, designed to help reunite family members with their loved ones and do what is necessary to keep them together and secure. I feel this is a much neede d program.After all, what in this world is more important than family? Out of the million dollars, $250,000 would be used to fund Reconnecting Families in Need. A lot of families would be helped. There are still plenty of other places and people I would like to help. In order to keep up my helping spree, I would use the remainder of the one million dollars and invest it in a non-profit investment banking firm. The firm would be run by Wall Street professionals who want to make a difference. Money made through the firm would be used to further the mission of R. F. I. N. and its affiliates.Hopefully, this would allow the R. F. I. N. to last a very long time. My money would then be lending a hand to thousands of families. If I was given a million dollars that could not be spent on myself, I would be forced to learn the value of helping others. Without the option to blow the million dollars on myself, I would focus on doing what I could to aid people in need. I would find personal uses for this money, but as I have learned, I would probably find more happiness in the pleasure of others. There are families out there who need support, and given the opportunity, I would love to be the one to help them.

Finnegan’s Garden Essay

The shared costs of each service line can be allocated in several different ways. You can allocate based on FTE’s, direct-labor costs, direct labor plus direct materials or by square footage usage. If you were to allocate the shared costs for Finnegan’s Gardens by FTE you would allocate $24,778 to design, $89,203 to installation, $56,991 to maintenance and $24,778 to administration. To calculate the allocation based on FTE’s, I divided the FTE number given for each service line and divided it by the total number of FTE’s. I then multiplied the result by the total shared costs of $195,750. If you chose to allocate based on direct labor, you would allocate $43,843 to design, $119,360 to installation and $76,390 to maintenance. To allocate the costs based on direct labor, I calculated the direct labor rate per hour for each service line. I divided this number by the total direct labor hours and multiplied that result by the total of the shared costs. If you add in the direct materials to the direct labor, you would allocate $42,231 to design, $94,736 to installation and $58,782 to maintenance. I used the same method to allocate the direct labor plus direct materials as I used to allocate the costs based on direct labor. The last method I used for allocating the shared costs was based on the square footage. To allocate the shared costs based on square footage, you would allocate $$113,661 to design, $20,522 to installation, $20,522 to maintenance and $41,044 to administration. When you look at the Earnings Statement by Service Line, it appears that maintenance has the largest profit margin. This can be attributed to the fact that Finnegan’s design and installation customers often use them for their maintenance services too. I would have to agree with the earnings statement. The maintenance service line produces decent revenue that more than covers their expenses. Even if you add in the shared costs, it will still have the largest profit margin. I think Finnegan’s should expand the maintenance service line. I believe that expanding this service line by 10% would be in the best interest of the company. Even though this expansion would require Finnegan to purchase an additional vehicle and rent additional nursery space, the expense of these wo items is not more than 10% increase in the revenue. I believe that in order for the company to make more money, it would need to spend a little more money to do so. I believe that expanding the maintenance service line would also be easier to achieve than expanding the other two service lines. Even though the majority of the maintenance business comes from the design and installation service lines, I believe finding customers to sign up for maintenance of their lawns would be easier than trying to find customers who want to redo their landscape.