Business Strategy

Business Strategy

[Chuva]

[Name of the Institution]

Business Strategy

Introduction

Organizations and businesses are complex structures. They have their own designs, set of processes and their own nature of tasks. Around the world, there are myriad organizations that are unique in their design and methodologies. Every business has some vision and the mission which it strives to fulfill. Retail business also works according to some visions and missions. The strategic management is very important in retail businesses which matches the philosophy of its founders. This is the case with the two most important retail businesses in the world: Walmart and the Nordstrom. Both companies are different in their visions and missions. Vision is the founder’s intent and desire for the future, while mission signifies the path that is chosen by the workers in that business. Thus, the vision of Walmart retailers to improve lives for those who are less privileged in the society. The mission of the Walmart company states, “save money, live better”. On the other hand, the Nordstrom company is fashion-oriented and keeping up with the latest trends. It is the retail business which deals with more expenses and extravagance in society. The vision of Nordstrom company is the reflection of the elite class, better services, quality, and high value. The mission statement of Nordstrom clearly states the desire to be relevant for people in their lives and to develop permanent relationships. If one looks at the mission of both companies, one can easily assess the difference in their prices and values. Walmart is more dedicated to the saving side and being a low-cost provider. Whereas, the Nordstrom company is more about the best quality of its products, and cares less for the price factors. The very first impression of the Walmart company is more cooperative and appealing. However, the philosophy of Nordstrom appears more fascinating for the elites in society. The customer service is always better when there is high quality or affordable prices. In this view, both companies do fairly well in their markets.

Discussion

When one quickly glances through their products and their prices. One gets a fair idea about the practical side of their philosophy. Walmart wants to become the ultimate destination for the customers in everything they want to shop. The customers of Walmart includes all sorts of people. The image of Walmart is quite positive in people as Walmart stores offer many affordable prices to its million customers. The selected price point of Walmart has the potential to effect several stakeholders in the process. First, it becomes more economical for the customers of Walmart as they will buy more. This price point will be more problematic to the competitors such as Amazon which will perceive it as a threat to their potential buyers. The price points of Walmart also effect its workforce which is 2.2 million and often faces issues in their employment and salaries. Strong protests are the feature in Walmart employment ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"taNWP36p","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Walmart Workers Strike Across America,\\uc0\\u8221{} 2012)","plainCitation":"(“Walmart Workers Strike Across America,” 2012)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":248,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/AFAX6H6N"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/AFAX6H6N"],"itemData":{"id":248,"type":"webpage","title":"Walmart Workers Strike Across America","container-title":"The Daily Beast","abstract":"First multi-store strike of its kind.","URL":"https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/11/23/walmart-workers-strike-across-america","language":"en","issued":{"date-parts":[["2012",11,23]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,19]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Walmart Workers Strike Across America,” 2012). This price positioning changes the customer experience as they are more facilitated in their purchasing experience. The every day low prices are the competitive strategy of Walmart ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"Yr0eOMzn","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ferguson, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Ferguson, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":260,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/5NK4A6QU"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/5NK4A6QU"],"itemData":{"id":260,"type":"post-weblog","title":"Walmart’s Generic Competitive Strategy and Intensive Growth Strategies","container-title":"Panmore Institute","abstract":"Walmart Inc. (Wal-Mart Stores Inc.) generic strategy for competitive advantage (Porter’s) & intensive growth strategies (Ansoff’s) are analyzed in this retail business case study.","URL":"http://panmore.com/walmart-generic-competitive-strategy-intensive-growth-strategies","language":"en-US","author":[{"family":"Ferguson","given":"Edward"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018",8,22]]},"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,19]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ferguson, 2018) which is really helpful in terms or earning profits and business. The Walmart is mainly matchless in its e-commerce strategy but needs to be cautious of Amazon that is willing to lower its price sooner.

Conversely, the customers of the top-fashion firm Nordstrom are not diverse. The Nordstrom stores are limited as well which cater only those belonging to high class. They provide high-quality fashion and the people feel so good about their customer service ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"UmsmcofO","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Nordstrom Again Ranks As Consumers\\uc0\\u8217{} Favorite Premium Fashion Retailer, According to New Market Force Study | Market Force Information, Inc.,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Nordstrom Again Ranks As Consumers’ Favorite Premium Fashion Retailer, According to New Market Force Study | Market Force Information, Inc.,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":256,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/PYJC3VZN"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/PYJC3VZN"],"itemData":{"id":256,"type":"webpage","title":"Nordstrom Again Ranks As Consumers’ Favorite Premium Fashion Retailer, According to New Market Force Study | Market Force Information, Inc.","URL":"https://www.marketforce.com/2018-customer-survey-on-premium-apparel-retailer","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,19]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Nordstrom Again Ranks As Consumers’ Favorite Premium Fashion Retailer, According to New Market Force Study | Market Force Information, Inc.,” n.d.). The price point of Nordstrom is important for the customers, but the quality is even more important. They use different competitive strategies for marketing their products such as advertising and fashion weeks. If they increase the prices, it will generate more revenue for the firm and the workers since it has already been rated as one of the best places to work in the US ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"wsecrFur","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Work, n.d.)","plainCitation":"(Work, n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":254,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/J6ZLSGLC"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/J6ZLSGLC"],"itemData":{"id":254,"type":"webpage","title":"Nordstrom, Inc.","container-title":"Great Place To Work United States","abstract":"Yes! 74% of employees at Nordstrom, Inc. say it’s a great place to work. Learn about their Certification, employee experience & more.","URL":"https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/1000395","language":"en-gb","author":[{"family":"Work","given":"Great Place","dropping-particle":"to"}],"accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,19]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Work, n.d.). Everything is promising for this top-fashion brand, but the threats from other competitors are also on the horizon. This can be illustrated in the story as ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"JwrC8elz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Neiman Marcus Plants Its Flag in New York\\uc0\\u8217{}s Luxury Battlefield,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Neiman Marcus Plants Its Flag in New York’s Luxury Battlefield,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":258,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/QSANM6XX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/QSANM6XX"],"itemData":{"id":258,"type":"webpage","title":"Neiman Marcus Plants Its Flag in New York's Luxury Battlefield","container-title":"Fortune","abstract":"Neiman Marcus, the Dallas-based high-end department store chain, is planting its flag in the competitive world of New York retail.","URL":"http://fortune.com/longform/neiman-marcus-new-york/","language":"en","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,19]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Neiman Marcus Plants Its Flag in New York’s Luxury Battlefield,” n.d.) where the Nieman is stepping into new cities. This calls for a new strategy to challenge the traditional ways in their e-stores and the brick-and-mortar stores as the market is more competitive today. Perhaps, they need a brick and click business model for more productivity and efficiency as e-commerce is soon going to overtake traditional business strategies.

In the end, growth opportunities for every store are different. Wallmart is already having many customers and several employees. What it needs to maintain is its low-cost products and more variety. Walmart needs to be wary of Amazon as well as they are planning to offer even lower prices. This is the challenge but can be dealt with easily if Walmart handles with workers' cooperation and efforts. Nordstrom is also enjoying good satisfaction level from customers and employee and it needs to maintain the same level. However, the Nordstrom can promote its business even more by catering the middle-class fashion needs. This would be an innovative strategy by the business management to increase its market share, customers and sales. Hence, the growth of each company depends upon the strict adherence to their policies and the vision ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"pe2TosT2","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Moore, Ellsworth, & Kaufman, 2011)","plainCitation":"(Moore, Ellsworth, & Kaufman, 2011)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":250,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/8DMM6TRX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/8DMM6TRX"],"itemData":{"id":250,"type":"article-journal","title":"Visions and missions: Are they useful? A quick assessment","container-title":"Performance Improvement","page":"15-24","volume":"50","issue":"6","source":"Wiley Online Library","abstract":"Where is an organization heading and why is it going there are vital questions and yet they are largely ignored or assumed. When they are considered, rarely does the process recognize the answers to these questions as forms of objectives. We explore the “ideal vision” that all organizations should share and the process for constructing and aligning the organizational mission to meaningfully guide performance and measurably add value to our shared society in concert with advancement of organizational self-interest. We conclude with an eight-point inspection for useful visions and missions.","DOI":"10.1002/pfi.20222","ISSN":"1930-8272","title-short":"Visions and missions","language":"en","author":[{"family":"Moore","given":"Stephanie L."},{"family":"Ellsworth","given":"James B."},{"family":"Kaufman","given":"Roger"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2011"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Moore, Ellsworth, & Kaufman, 2011). So, it is mandatory to practice it always.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, it is concluded from the above discussion that both companies have different business philosophies. The strategic management of Walmart and the Nordstrom works according to their own mission statements. They are different in objectives and customers. Walmart can grow even more if they focus more on a healthy working environment for labor and adding more quality to the products. Whereas, the Nordstrom can think about providing the best services to those who are not elite in the society. Both firms will benefit from this pragmatic approach in the business strategy.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Ferguson, E. (2018, August 22). Walmart’s Generic Competitive Strategy and Intensive Growth Strategies. Retrieved June 19, 2019, from Panmore Institute website: http://panmore.com/walmart-generic-competitive-strategy-intensive-growth-strategies

Moore, S. L., Ellsworth, J. B., & Kaufman, R. (2011). Visions and missions: Are they useful? A quick assessment. Performance Improvement, 50(6), 15–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.20222

Neiman Marcus Plants Its Flag in New York’s Luxury Battlefield. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2019, from Fortune website: http://fortune.com/longform/neiman-marcus-new-york/

Nordstrom Again Ranks As Consumers’ Favorite Premium Fashion Retailer, According to New Market Force Study | Market Force Information, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2019, from https://www.marketforce.com/2018-customer-survey-on-premium-apparel-retailer

Walmart Workers Strike Across America. (2012, November 23). Retrieved June 19, 2019, from The Daily Beast website: https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2012/11/23/walmart-workers-strike-across-america

Work, G. P. to. (n.d.). Nordstrom, Inc. Retrieved June 19, 2019, from Great Place To Work United States website: https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/1000395

Business Strategy

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Institutional Affiliation(s)

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Business Strategy

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is when a firm hires a party outside the company for services and creating goods. Traditionally these tasks are performed in-house by the company’s own employees and staff but the practice of outsourcing is mostly undertaken for purpose of cost-cutting, increased efficiency, and faster and better services. Using outsourcing strategy may also lead to efficient turnaround times, greater competitiveness within an industry and decreased overall operational costs.

Nestle and Nielson Holdings are the 2 leading companies that entered into outsourcing agreements with firms with specialized services.

Nestle and OmPrompt EDI services

Nestle is world’s leading beverage and food company. It has produced a great range of products i.e. bottled water, baby foods, cereals, chocolates, culinary, coffee, canned & frozen food, healthcare nutrition, dairy, ice cream, pet care, weight management services. Since Nestle is a global brand and produces wide range of products, dealing with all the processes could be complicated for the company. Outsourcing helps the company deal with those complications in aspects like unnecessary task and cost reduction.

Nestle outsources IT system because being a food company, they have less potential in IT field as compared to the company which directly deals with IT systems. Information technology provides an improved and efficient infrastructure for the management and visibility of information across the supply chain within the company. CITATION Wes18 \l 1033 (Phillips, 2018)

Moreover, it helps reduce the complexity of supply chain information. As a result, it brings about correct and precise forecasting demand and an improved communication between buyer and supplier. OmPrompt EDI provide services that automate the management of orders, proof of purchase and delivery documentation and improves supply chain efficiency as a result. They provide services for connecting communities between retailers, suppliers, distribution center and logistics services. Nestle has installed OmPrompt’s Intelligent Message Management service to enable order receiving from smaller merchants in the same format and accuracy as they do from the large supermarkets. RFID is another IT system that reduces the number of tasks and employees, improves product security, track the problem, and saves cost and energy. It also provides a quicker flow of supply chain and reduces the risk of holding many stocks.  CITATION ter17 \l 1033 (Jones, 2017)

Nestlé’s outsourcing contract with OmPrompt is short term and renewed after every 2 years to avoid any threat towards company’s competitive capabilities.

Nielson Holding and TCS

Nielsen is a leading global company for information and data analysis. Nielsen has been providing information and analytics regarding scientific innovations and are constantly working on developing new ways to answer the questions regarding media, retail and consumer goods industries. Nielson helps companies and retailers understand the buying trends and behaviors in terms of products, categories and brands. For example, measuring how much Lays vs Pringles are sold in stores, or how much Close up versus Colgate toothpaste is sold. It is done by analyzing huge amounts of data that calculates what is being sold. It is a big company that deals with a huge amount of information, operations, management, supply chain and work force. CITATION Kie18 \l 1033 (Roberts, 2018)

Partnership between Neilson and TCS (Tata consultancy services) aims to streamline and simplify Nielsen’s business practices as well as help the company work towards innovative services and customer satisfaction. There are a number of services that TCS provides for Nielson i.e. integrated solutions of business process outsourcing, IT support for infrastructure and application development. The outsourcing contract between two companies recently extended for five years until 2025. The two companies worked out a mutual agreement and it is reported to be the one of the smoothest outsourcing agreement at an Indian corporate firm. CITATION Var19 \l 1033 (Sood, 2019)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Jones, t. (2017). Nestle's outsourcing Strategies Marketing Essay. Love-Pet, 90-101.

Phillips, W. (2018). Analyze Nestle's Business Strategies. UK Essays, 1-12.

Roberts, K. (2018). TCS Cited as a Leader in Global IT Infrastructure Outsourcing. Tata Contsultnacy Services, 356-370.

Sood, V. (2019). TCS wins record $2.25 billion Nielsen outsourcing contract. Live Mint, 290-321.

Business Strategy

Business Strategy

[Author’s name]

Business Strategy

The perspective of business strategy is established as the major indicator by the researchers to determine its effectiveness in the overall form of business. The main focus of this research work is to determine how the appropriate business strategy can be helpful for the business entities to achieve their objectives of performance and business enhancement ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"wk3imrzf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gonz\\uc0\\u225{}lez-Rodr\\uc0\\u237{}guez, Jim\\uc0\\u233{}nez-Caballero, Mart\\uc0\\u237{}n-Samper, K\\uc0\\u246{}seoglu, & Okumus, 2018)","plainCitation":"(González-Rodríguez, Jiménez-Caballero, Martín-Samper, Köseoglu, & Okumus, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1089,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/4CRF2LJ2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/4CRF2LJ2"],"itemData":{"id":1089,"type":"article-journal","title":"Revisiting the link between business strategy and performance: Evidence from hotels","container-title":"International Journal of Hospitality Management","page":"21-31","volume":"72","author":[{"family":"González-Rodríguez","given":"Maria Rosario"},{"family":"Jiménez-Caballero","given":"José Luis"},{"family":"Martín-Samper","given":"Rosario Carmen"},{"family":"Köseoglu","given":"Mehmet Ali"},{"family":"Okumus","given":"Fevzi"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (González-Rodríguez, Jiménez-Caballero, Martín-Samper, Köseoglu, & Okumus, 2018). The perspective of business strategy can observe in many different practical forms that help to achieve the desired outcomes of business enhancement.

The main aim of this research article is to critically identify the prevailing connection between business strategy and the overall domain of the performance. It is worthy to mention that the particular context of the hotel industry is considered as the example by the researchers to evaluate the impact of suitable business strategy on the business performance level. Growth strategy is one major form of the overall domain of the business strategy that helps to achieve the desired level of performance ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"O1BflKhY","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Akter, Wamba, Gunasekaran, Dubey, & Childe, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Akter, Wamba, Gunasekaran, Dubey, & Childe, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1090,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/XEN4LG24"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/XEN4LG24"],"itemData":{"id":1090,"type":"article-journal","title":"How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment?","container-title":"International Journal of Production Economics","page":"113-131","volume":"182","author":[{"family":"Akter","given":"Shahriar"},{"family":"Wamba","given":"Samuel Fosso"},{"family":"Gunasekaran","given":"Angappa"},{"family":"Dubey","given":"Rameshwar"},{"family":"Childe","given":"Stephen J."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Akter, Wamba, Gunasekaran, Dubey, & Childe, 2016). This particular article reveals that proper application of the business strategy in the form of the growth that helps employees to achieve a higher level of their performance. The outcomes of this study indicate that the approaches of the firm’s assets and strategies directly linked with the required form of performance. It is crucial to overview the implications of the business strategy in the context of different industries ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"zffv5hdz","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Love & Roper, 2015)","plainCitation":"(Love & Roper, 2015)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":1092,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/W2HCY8D2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/7Hi3kAOD/items/W2HCY8D2"],"itemData":{"id":1092,"type":"article-journal","title":"SME innovation, exporting and growth: A review of existing evidence","container-title":"International small business journal","page":"28-48","volume":"33","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Love","given":"James H."},{"family":"Roper","given":"Stephen"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2015"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Love & Roper, 2015). Proper consideration of the business strategies in the business setting can be helpful to enhance the performance of the workers in any form of organization. This certain argument is valid because growth strategy is the basic requirement in case of any form of organization or industry.

In the nutshell, it is established that managerial implications play a critical role when it comes to the achievement of desired outcomes of strategic management. There is a need for proper alignment between all the shareholders to achieve the required outcomes of business strategy and the overall performance.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Akter, S., Wamba, S. F., Gunasekaran, A., Dubey, R., & Childe, S. J. (2016). How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment? International Journal of Production Economics, 182, 113–131.

González-Rodríguez, M. R., Jiménez-Caballero, J. L., Martín-Samper, R. C., Köseoglu, M. A., & Okumus, F. (2018). Revisiting the link between business strategy and performance: Evidence from hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 72, 21–31.

Love, J. H., & Roper, S. (2015). SME innovation, exporting and growth: A review of existing evidence. International Small Business Journal, 33(1), 28–48.

Business Strategy Analysis Final Paper

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Verizon’s Business Strategy Analysis: Final Paper

Introduction

Verizon Wireless Telecommunication Company is currently covering almost ninety-eight percent of the total population of the US. It offers services related to the mobile phone through varied types of devices. Verizon Wireless is a subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is involved in providing wireless services, mobile telephony, broadband and Wi-Fi, etc. Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation merged to form Verizon and bell Atlantic and Vodafone merged to create Verizon Wireless. In 2014, Verizon Communications purchased all the remaining shares of the company to become the sole owner.

Problem Statement

“How can Verizon create a compelling sustainable consumer value proposition?” The company is facing competition from new companies that offer services and products at relatively low prices while maintain acceptable quality of products and services. Verizon must have to revise its prices to align them with the current prices of the market. The company is relatively low on diversity, whereas diversity relates to the proficiency and universality of the company. Verizon boasts of its reliability and quality, yet the demands of industry are gradually shifting toward increased customer focus and finding alternatives to the current strategies and products. Verizon holds the leading position in its industry and to maintain this position, the company has to revise its strategies and include alternatives to the current strategies.

Environmental Analysis

External Environmental Analysis

General Environment

The businesses are driven by several forces including international, demographic, political, legal, technological, macroeconomic, and socio-cultural. Businesses in the US are subjected to follow the regulations set by the legislative authorities. The technology is shaping the ways businesses are run. People have changed wants and desires in respect of the services and products offered by the firms. The overall economic growth as well as the international affairs affect the businesses to great extent. Average purchase power has an influence on the market share that different businesses are receiving. Certain social and cultural factors impact businesses to thrive or fail in the industry. In today’s world, it is evident that the success rate of each business is determined to a large extent by the general environment they are operating in. The profitability of a technology company can never be the same in Africa as it is in the US, based on the standard of living and income per capita.

Industry Environment

The industry in which Verizon operates is a highly competent industry wherein various companies compete to get maximum market share through the implementation of technology, resources, and investment. The industry is enriched with highly complex operational networks, technological advancements, and highly capable electronic devices. Routers, mobile phones, data chips, telephones, etc. have developed to the highest level of complexity and efficiency. Then the global telecommunications industry has also its impacts on regional networks by creating issues of security, coverage, and convenience. The US telecommunications industry is regulated by law and each company has to follow the laws strictly. The competitors in this industry include Verizon, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, CenturyLink, and Sprint. The other companies in the country are not of the same size and business volume as the aforementioned. Services offered by the telecommunications companies include wireless communications, local service, long-distance service, cable television, voice mail, call forwarding, caller identification, call waiting, and internet services.

Customers of Verizon are willing to pay for its services and products even at higher prices relatively out of their confidence in company’s standards. Suppliers are ready to agree on the company’s preferred terms and conditions due to its market position. The competitors include wireless services providers as well as cable TV providers. The competitors have strived much to provide high quality services at relatively cheaper prices. The company is not under any type of threats posed by new entrants because the market is heavily occupied by the few industry giants and that each new entrant will have to invest enormous amounts of money and resources as well as introduce technology to gain respective market share and repute. Substitutes of the existing products are not feasible in respect of most of the industry products such as mobile phones as it requires tremendous amount of effort, investment, and research to meet the challenge posed by these electronic devices (Barry). However, replacing of TV by the internet service provided for viewing channels is feasible and profitable. The major challenge faced by the company is insufficient diversification, increased prices for services, and high costs of the infrastructure.

Internal Environmental Analysis

Resources

Verizon’s resources are the strengths that the company possesses to its disposal. The economies of scale are high because the company optimizes its performance and services while it continues to provide services and products to the targeted segment of customers. An extensive infrastructure of telecommunications of the wireless network of Verizon offers a great optimization to the company’s operational efficiency and increases the profitability as well. Verizon’s strong brand image and elevated status of its brand enables the company to survive as the leading company in the industry. Its high quality products characterized by high prices precisely target the high income groups of the country. The data collected for users can be used as the big data by research firms to yield useful results. Economic changes created on the face of a community are also part of the success.

Capabilities

Verizon has capabilities to become the industry leader beyond doubt and sustain its position. It has already developed to at least all parts of data. The consumer base of Verizon is large and, hence, the network externalities can be strengthened. The company has the opportunity to increase its products’ values by increasing the market share and customer base. Verizon, based on its coverage, can easily operate in the new dimensions of the industry. It can diversify to create new product lines as well as new products. The company has all the strengths to grow and develop in the industry and it needs only to focus in the desired dimensions.

Core Competence

Verizon’s core competence is its brand image that creates customers’ confidence and loyalty and makes them use the company’s products in spite of the relatively higher prices. The company can further enhance the strength of its brand by tailoring its services and products to the customers’ changing needs and wants.

Strategic Analysis

Business Level Strategy

The company’s business level strategy of Verizon is to stay ahead of its competitors and provide its customers with highest level of product experiences. Verizon’s customers comprise almost the total population of the country, and the challenge is to satisfy their needs and come up to their expectations (Phillips and Moutinho). The company, however, seems to lack in cost leadership and differentiation, besides having sufficient focus on its operations and customers. The competitive advantage of Verizon over its rivals is its technological advancement over them.

Corporate Level Strategy

Verizon’s multiple business lines include wireless mobile phones, wireless broadband and Wi-Fi, and wireless home phones. It has further introduced a new business line named FiOS, which refers to the fiber optic services and TV networks. The corporate level strategy of Verizon has its influences on its major departments including finance, human resources, marketing, etc. Verizon has made several valuable decisions to expand its business that have impacted its various departments.

Acquisition Strategy

Verizon has purchased certain companies during the course of its history. These acquisitions have helped the company expand its business and grow in multi dimensions. Acquisition of wireless phone companies including West Virginia Wireless, SureWest Communications, and Rural Cellular Corporation has enhanced company’s assets and expansion (Kumar). The company’s strategy in this regard is based on systematic acquisition of other ventures after having done analysis of plausibility of prospects.

International Strategy

Verizon has established its international presence by establishing its business in many countries. The company is successfully delivering modern digital services to people in these countries. Verizon employs the strategy of direct investment for entering the foreign markets.

Cooperative Strategy

Verizon has entered into certain alliances with other companies to expand its scope of services and provide the users with an enhanced experience of services. For instance, Verizon made an alliance with Google to make the YouTube Channel available to the users of Verizon and improve their viewing experience.

Entrepreneurial Issue

The current entrepreneurial issue of Verizon is to compete with competitive prices offered by other companies in the industry. The competitors have entered the industry by continuously improving their quality and keeping the prices relatively lower. Customer retention can become a problem for the company in the future if the company continues to charge higher prices with the same quality. Another important issue is that the company is not diversifying its products and services as the industry trends demand.

Recommendations

Strategy Alternative 1

Verizon must devise ways to gain competitive advantage by cost control and eventually offering services to customers at competitive prices. The processes need to be revised and technology has to be upgraded.

Strategy Alternative 2

The company needs to diversify its services and products to cater to the varying needs of customers. Verizon can merge with certain IT or software production companies to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors.

Works Cited

Barry, MacKenzie. Verizon Wireless Communications: A Financial Analysis. 2018.

Kumar, B. Rajesh. “Acquisitions by Verizon.” Wealth Creation in the World’s Largest Mergers and Acquisitions, Springer, 2019, pp. 45–56.

Phillips, Paul, and Luiz Moutinho. “Strategic Analysis.” Contemporary Issues in Strategic Management, Routledge, 2018, pp. 46–79.

Business Strategy Analysis Interim Report

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Instructor Name

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Date

Business Strategy Analysis: Verizon

Strategic Problem of Verizon

Verizon aka Verizon Wireless is a telecommunications company based in the US and it offers wireless services and products to its customers. The parent company of Verizon Wireless is Verizon Communications. Verizon Wireless is the largest service provider in the telecommunications industry in the US. Verizon has been indulged currently in the development of 5th generation wireless technology.

Verizon faces certain issues due to the changing trends of its industry, growing competition in the market, and increasing demands of consumers. The most significant of these issues is price competition among the competitors, because companies like Sprint and T-Mobile are offering their services and products at lower prices (Narayanan and Heilprin). Further, un-subscription of services by the existing users is another challenge or threat that the company must have to address.

Analysis of the Wireless Telecommunication Industry (5 Forces)

The wireless telecommunication industry demonstrates intense competition among various companies. Each company has to perform at its peak to stay ahead of others in the competition. Companies respond to the changes in marketplace by introducing new offers and revising their strategic plans (Lee et al.). For instance, Verizon introduced unlimited access to data and T-Mobile developed its uncarrier campaign – each of which has had important impact on the industry. Potential for new entrants in the industry is little because of the size of this industry. A new entrant must have to be a large corporate with sufficient resources, huge capital, and most advanced technological forefronts. The suppliers in this industry have to provide services on terms stated by the industry giants. Apple, Verizon, and similar large companies negotiate with suppliers having a competitive edge. Companies in this industry have won strong consumers’ loyalty based on their promise of quality. In spite of charging high prices, they have succeeded in retaining their customers to great extent. Substitutes of products are not easily conceivable, because each product consists of multiple technologies and devices, and thinking of developing substitutes would not be plausible.

Analysis of Verizon

Verizon is the leader of telecommunication industry in the US, and provides wireless services to the customers.

Internal and External Environment

The company’s stability and growth owes to the internal and external environments. The company can progress increasingly by improving the internal environment and responding appropriately to the external environment. The company has a strong brand image that is helpful in creating a distinguished competitive advantage for the company to operate in the high-competition market. Verizon needs to maintain this image to continue harvesting benefits from the reputation. The strategy is generic and growth is intensive. However, the need for changing the strategy and approach as per the changing trends of the market is undeniable. The company is making great profits due to its established business and reputation. It is, however, difficult to maintain the position and remain ahead of others. High economies of scale provide a strong basis for the company to thrive in the competition based on its capability to produce quality goods and offer competent services. The company has developed its systems and processes to align with the production of high quality products and services. Relatively high-quality products are the hallmark of the company. The target customers are those individuals who can pay relatively higher prices. The company focuses on acquiring customers who prefer quality over price. The external environment tends to globalize, diversify, and expand in alignment with the emerging technologies and opportunities (Rosenberg et al.). The information in this era is widespread, and networking has developed on the global level. Verizon can expand the outreach of its products by capitalizing on the technological trend. The company can diversify its business by entering into new fields of technology and developing new innovative products. The company can further increase the opportunities of growing business by increasing the consumer base as well as share of the market.

The strategic problems the company faces internally include its inability to some extent to compete based on pricing strategy due to increased cost of operations and infrastructure. The company is also low in diversification, and it has to focus on developing diverse range of services or products for the consumers. The pricing must be aligned with the trending prices in the market, because other companies are working hard to provide high quality services with lower prices.

Resources

Verizon being the largest wireless service provider of the country, and it possesses vast resources to carry out the business processes. The huge customer base is the most significant resource of the company and the related customer data can be used to estimate upcoming trends of consumers. The extensive supplier base makes up another valuable resource the company can negotiate to whom on its own preferred terms. The company has sound technologies and software to use in the development of new competent offers.

Capabilities

The company is capable to revise its strategy and focus on retaining existing customers besides acquiring the new ones. Verizon can make better use of its brand status to diversify its products and services and tailor them as per the customers’ preferences.

Competitive Advantages

The main competitive advantage of the company over the others is that it has built a strong reputation and customers’ confidence in the company’s services and products. The suppliers negotiate with the company by acknowledging its superiority in the agreement. The high-earning segment of customers will adhere to the company’s products in anyway.

Strategic Solution to Verizon’s Problem

The solution is to focus on diversity of services and products and provide services with distinction, with efforts directed to keep the prices competitive in respect of the market prices.

Works Cited

Lee, Jay J., et al. Wireless Network Cloud Computing Resource Management. Google Patents, 2016.

Narayanan, V. G., and Joel L. Heilprin. AT&T Versus Verizon: A Financial Comparison. 2017.

Rosenberg, Greg A., et al. Autocomplete for Integrating Diverse Methods of Electronic Communication. Google Patents, 2019.

BUSINESS STRATEGY AND ANALYSIS

Strategic Marketing

Name of Student

Name of Institution

STRATEGIC MARKETING

Introduction

The advertising business is characterized by the presence of a large number of companies that have to target almost the same customers and with the same kinds of products. This makes it very hard for any one company to become a properly defined leader. All these aspects make the market a complex thing to understand. The first and foremost consideration for any company to assess some opportunity is the strategic direction of itself CITATION Nic14 \l 1033 (Bogdan, 2014). This requires an internal analysis of the company keeping in view the opportunities under consideration. The next stage is the external environment analysis of the company. This will provide the company with the information of the happenings in the external environment and then to reassess the own strategies accordingly. The next stage s the analysis of the various opportunities available to the company. This is done keeping in view the various resources and expertise at the end of the company. The company has assessed the opportunities one by one and stated the possible positives and negatives of each. There is an overview of the digital marketing industry as an option. We have assessed that the company needs to have a clear strategy on the digital marketing front. The detailed analysis has brought us to the conclusion that the strategic alliance option is the best option for the company.

Agenda: The market opportunity in ChinaThere is a great potential for the company in the Chinese market. The company personnel had a large number of meetings with the prospective clients who have shown their surprise as to why the company has not entered the market so far. There are certain competitors to the company who have already started catering the needs of the customers in that huge market. Some experts say that it is the opportunity for all the companies in the near future.

The board has to deal with two issues immediately. First is the decision regarding the entry in the Chinese market in the current financial term? If the answer to this question is in Yes, then what will be the form used to enter the said market.

Entering the foreign market is a decision that has to be taken on the strategic management level. This is because the decision will have a long term impact on the organization in terms of the resources required to implement the decision. In this regard, the first aspect that is required to be assessed is the purpose of entering a particular market. The company can decide to compete with the global players working in china or with the local agencies working in the country. If the resources are put in the decision of entering the market, how will the company develop the presence in the particular market? How will the company make sure that it achieves the success in the said market?

Strategic assessment of the company

The results of the company from the last year have been just adequate. The corruption scandal made us loose some of the clients. These clients will never come back despite the efforts made by the company. The major strategic objective of the company is the focus on the clients. This client based strategy helps the company is making more and more satisfied customers and the business is spreading.

The strategic direction of the company should be growth and continuous improvement as in this kind of industry, there are continuous changes in the internal and external environments which compel the company to change itself. If the company does not change itself, then it will be taken over by some other larger competitors. The company has to learn how to successfully manage the acquisition because the biggest issue so far for the company is that it has badly managed the acquisitions and this aspect has caused the company to lose money as well as the reputation of the company has also affected.

The market research team working in the company is one of the best in the world. The company lacks on the sustainability aspects and this will affect the overall business reputation of the company. This will affect the ability of the company to attract business partners who focus the sustainability options as well as the profit earning motive. The advertising under taken by the company should be safe and healthy for the community as a whole. There should be enough consideration of the use of recycled materials in making these advertisements and they should also promote the renewable resources of energy through the advertisements. The advertising should be undertaken by using the technology that does not harm the environment. All the processes that are related to the product advertising should include the use of renewable energy and resources. All the departments of the company should play their part in this regard.

The company has to form a committee to oversee all the matters related to sustainability. This will be formed by taking employees from inside of the company who are willing to work for this aspect. It is also important that the company communicates the efforts made inside the company to the external stakeholders as well. This will require that the company employs a person who will work in the marketing communication department and is an expert in handling the sustainability issues related to the business. This will help the company in connecting the internal and external environments to each other on this issue.

The solution to the issue should be assessed on the departmental basis. Each department will be asked to employ a sustainability coordinator for the analysis of the situation at different points in time. This will allow the assessment of whether the goals have been achieved over time or not.

Assessment of the External environment

The span of rapid economic growth in China has also helped the advertising market to develop fast. If this pace is continued, the country will become the second largest market in terms of advertising after the US within a short period of time. The teams from our own company have produced the same input on the economic prospects of the Chinese markets.

A major study has been completed by the research and development department of the company that continued for three months. The results of this study have shown a considerable increase in the average advertising spending in China. These expenditures will then continue to increase at a constant rate over a period of time. The exact figure that the country is expected to achieve in the next year is US $ 45 billion in the current year CITATION Zen18 \l 1033 (Zenith Media, 2018).

The company has continued to forecast the various aspects of media and advertising market with the help of the data provided by the 1000 manufacturing companies among which some were from inside of China and some were from outside. This report truly represents the scale of the opportunity available for the company in China.

If the value of the business is assessed, the various businesses will increase the spending on the television advertising by 16%. The most increase has been shown in the spending on the internet advertising showing an increase of almost 30%. This increase can be attributed to the following factors:

Increase in the incomes:

There has been an increase of almost 170% in the per capita incomes of the people CITATION Joh081 \l 1033 (sinclair, 2008). This rise took the income of the people from $ 800 to $ 2400 over a period of 9 years. This huge increase in the income also affected the retail sales that were increased three times over the same period. This increase in the consumer spending is likely to continue and it will also affect the spending made on the advertising by the various businesses.

The distribution networks of the retailers:

In the past the major contributors to the consumption were the largest cities of any country. However, the trends have changed over a period of time and the extension in the retail distributions has resulted in the goods reaching the far flung areas with the same ease as in the largest cities. This opens the gates of some new opportunities for the advertisers. They should now expand their advertising efforts to the smaller cities and try to add new customers to their campaigns. This will require that the company finds new markets in the smaller cities of the country to enhance its customer base. This is also true because the large cities have already been saturated in terms of the market potential and this is the right time to enter some different markets and that too in some smaller cities of the country.

Media inflation:

The cost of advertising has increased over a period of time and this will require that the company also increases the budget allocated for the advertising and media expenses. The best medium for the advertisers is still the television which helps the company in reaching the largest number of people with a relatively lower cost CITATION Hon16 \l 1033 (Li, 2016). The big TV channels have enormous potential for the businesses but the demand for the airtime is very high when these channels are considered and the supply is subject to certain restrictions by the government.

The report forwarded by the market research team has concluded that the market in China is not a simple one. There are some segments that are still emerging, some others are very complex in nature and still others have fragments within the markets. The advertising company will have to consider all these differences that exist in the market and adhere to them while making any policy CITATION Eur18 \l 1033 (European Publishers Council, 2018). This aspect of fragmentation will provide some huge opportunities to the advertisers to pursue.

The company should see itself as the market leader in the sustainability aspect. It should rename one of the parts of the business as green agency and use it to prove that the company is taking the matter seriously. The first step will be an assessment of the current practices and policies undertaken by the company. This will include all the working partners of the company and the company will make sure that all of them adhere to the policies and procedures or otherwise leave the company.

Managerial Evaluation of the Growth Opportunities

The decision options:

Action alternative A: The Company is receiving the feedback form the various clients that the company has been very slow in reacting to the Chinese market. This reaction should have come in the form of some strategies made particularly for the Chinese market. The company has to become a leader in the market rather than to be a follower. The company needs to step into the Chinese market if it wants to be considered as a global player CITATION And15 \l 1033 (Carnelley, 2015). This is because of the huge potential of the Chinese market and the availability of almost all the leading brands of the world therein.

The company can opt for opening an office in the district of Shanghai so that the business is able to attract the other businesses as clients. The lease plan option should be taken up by the company with a specific option available to get out of the agreement after three years if the things do not go very well. All the services related to advertising whether they are aimed at the businesses or to the consumers must be made available by the business CITATION Omn10 \l 1033 (Omnicom Group, 2010).

The staff requirement for the new office should be fulfilled by finding the relevant employees from the local population. A Chinese national in the London office should be given the responsibility to find out the local MD for the business working in China CITATION NDe17 \l 1033 (Delener, 2017).

The analysis of the competitors has shown that there is an expense of 2 million pounds if the company opts to enter the Chinese market in the proposed way. If we consider the components of the costs, we will see that the company will have to take up some new premises, then alter the premises according to the requirements of the company CITATION McK16 \l 1033 (McKinsey and company, 2016). The company will have to find out the relevant staff in China and train them according to the needs of the company. The advertising and promotion of the company so that the potential customers can know about the services offered will also need a good portion of the total expenses. The risk and return analysis of this option will have to be carried out

The company wide information should be communicated about this option. This is because the current position of the company does not allow to spend the huge amount required The group operates in a number of different countries and there is much work required before the company can introduce one strategy across the whole group CITATION PwC18 \l 1033 (PwC, 2018). In order to accumulate the funds, the company can consider selling the promoco business. There should be no discrimination on any basis while making the decisions.

The company can also review the human resources at the New York office and assess whether redesigning it will benefit the company or not in terms of cost savings.

Action plan B:

The second option that the company can pursue to enter Chinese market is that the company should avoid direct competition with the global as well as the local Chinese advertisers. This will demand from the company that it sets up the new office in some of the smaller areas of the country. This will require that the company brings the desired changes in the behavior of the consumers in the consumers of the target areas. The company should plan the expansion to the other city within the time of 18 months. A team of young, motivated and high performing people should be selected from all the offices of the company and they should be given the responsibilities of setting up the company in China. The company perception against the competitors will also affect the option that is most feasible for the company.

The cost associated with this option will be 600000 pounds. There will be lower resources required overall for the company to opt for this side. However, there will be some key players missing from the other offices as they will come and play their part in the Chinese market development. The company can quit away in this case easily if the things are not getting in the right direction because there was a minimum 3 years lease agreement in the first option considered.

Action plan C

The company can assign the duty of making a strategic alliance with one of the Chinese firms working in London to the Chinese employee. This will allow the company to match the strategy and the culture with each other so that it can succeed in the Chinese market. The strategic partner should have the proper knowledge of the segments that the company is already working in. This will help the company to boost its business through taking up this option.

This option will cost the company around 450000 pounds and this will not require much resources as there will be two companies involved in the deal. Consequently the risks of this option will also be lower. The only problem that might show up is the case where a wrong partner is chosen for the strategic alliance. This will be the only risk associate with this option. However, the person who has been designated for this task has a very good track record and is regarded well by all the employees CITATION McK16 \l 1033 (McKinsey and company, 2016).

The company is currently not competing effectively with the competitors over the issues of sustainability. This will create certain problems for the company while working in an alliance with some other company. The reason for this may be that the other company may have very strong principles in action when it talks about sustainability. The sustainability coordinator that has been employed by the company will communicate with the aligning company along with Xao.

Action option D:

This option shows that the company should ignore the situation at the current stage. The reason is that China may present many good opportunities but it also poses certain risks along with them. The company should wait patiently and collect much more information before opting to enter in a new market. The company will ignore the other issues regarding sustainability if it decides to opt for the option D because this does not desire any action on the part of the company.

With respect to targeting the generation Y people, the company should not opt for this option unless some other company which has already opted for the same has been thoroughly studied. This study will be carried out by a team that is from the inside of the organization and this will be least costly option.

Overview of the Digital media industry

The current percentage of the total advertisement spending on the digital aspects is not very high but it is going up every passing day. This aspect also initiated many acquisitions by the companies so that the leadership can be attained. There are certain benefits to the general public if there is a sufficient proportion of advertising done through the digital aspects.

This option is based on results and is targeted very effectively on the customers. This aspect can include many options like searches, games etc. The most modern aspect includes the linking of the devices to the television that takes the experience to the next level.

The major leaders in the market have been the companies like Google but the media related companies are also coming up very fast. The revenues of the digital companies have risen at a high speed. This will mean that there is enough opportunity and potential in the said market. The current scenario is such that the companies are following the mass marketing strategy. This means that one product is considered suitable for all and information flowing from the side of the company only CITATION Tay09 \l 1033 (Taylor, 2009). The modern digital marketing is led by the customers. The customers will decide about the information that has to be received by them and even the medium in which they want to receive the information through. The consumer behavior has been very much altered by the digital media.

The company under consideration needs to identify the people who are capable of being successful in the digital marketing aspects. The culture of the company is also an important component of the strategy. The company is not advised to be investing directly into the IT aspects of the business analytics. The company has to make sure that it makes proper segments of the market before it decides to take on the digital marketing options.

The strategy followed by the company regarding the digital marketing is not very clear. The company has also not invested enough in this aspect to be a market leader. The matter that has to be addressed by the company is that whether it wants to and it can compete directly with the bigger names present in the digital marketing CITATION Cog16 \l 1033 (Cognizant, 2016). If the company decides to start the digital marketing aspect, it will have to decide the best mode to do it.

Conclusion

The company has to assess the various options to be considered to enter China. The major options available to the company vary in the impacts on the company as a whole. The company has to see the positive and negative aspects of all the options available. In my opinion the best option for the company will be to form a strategic alliance with some other company which already has some strong footing In the country. This will help the company in many ways. There will be less expenses on the part of the company and lesser risks will be involved. The other company will share the resources that are already held by it. This will allow the company under consideration to establish itself in the country. The company that is already working in China will have a better understanding of the overall environment of the country. This will help the WRSX Company to learn from it the important aspects of the country environment. The lesser risks will also allow the company to start off from the bigger cities of the company and gradually go towards the smaller towns. Once the company can settle in the country over a period of five years, it can then reassess the situation regarding what it has gained from the venture. If the company has had enough knowledge of the overall scenario of the country, it can now assess the possibility of opening some independent office in the country in some other city. In all the aspects, the company must consider the strategic goals of growth as well as sustainability. This will keep the company on track for long term sustainable growth and development of long term competitive advantage over a longer period of time.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Accenture, 2015. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/Accenture/next-gen/pulse-of-media/pdf/Accenture-Future-Of-Advertising-POV.pdf. [Online] Available at: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/Accenture/next-gen/pulse-of-media/pdf/Accenture-Future-Of-Advertising-POV.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

Bogdan, N., 2014. Global advertising market:The dynamics of the last decade. Studies and Scientific Researches. Economics Edition, Volume 20, pp. 196-202.

Carnelley, A., 2015. http://tse.pearsoncmg.com/fos2-1/pdf/TSE_Board_Meeting_2_External%20Environment_Report_v2.pdf. [Online] Available at: http://tse.pearsoncmg.com/fos2-1/pdf/TSE_Board_Meeting_2_External%20Environment_Report_v2.pdf

Cognizant, 2016. https://www.cognizant.com/whitepapers/peering-into-the-future-of-digital-advertising-codex1018.pdf. [Online] Available at: https://www.cognizant.com/whitepapers/peering-into-the-future-of-digital-advertising-codex1018.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

Delener, N., 2017. Changing business environments: gamechangers,opportunities and risks. s.l.:Global business and technology association.

European Publishers Council, 2018. http://epceurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/EPC_ExecSum_press.pdf. [Online] Available at: http://epceurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/EPC_ExecSum_press.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

Li, H. M., 2016. Advertising in China. All china Review, pp. 62-64.

McKinsey and company, 2015. http://www.bluesumac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The_state_of_global_media_spending_Dec2015.pdf. [Online] Available at: http://www.bluesumac.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/The_state_of_global_media_spending_Dec2015.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

McKinsey and company, 2016. https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Media%20and%20Entertainment/Our%20Insights/Global%20Media%20Report%202016/GMO%20Report_2016_Industry%20overview_v3.ashx. [Online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Media%20and%20Entertainment/Our%20Insights/Global%20Media%20Report%202016/GMO%20Report_2016_Industry%20overview_v3.ashx[Accessed 1 may 2019].

Omnicom Group, 2010. http://economics-files.pomona.edu/jlikens/seniorseminars/vector2010/pdf/omc.pdf. [Online] Available at: http://economics-files.pomona.edu/jlikens/seniorseminars/vector2010/pdf/omc.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

PwC, 2018. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/entertainment-media/outlook/perspectives-from-the-global-entertainment-and-media-outlook-2018-2022.pdf. [Online] Available at: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/entertainment-media/outlook/perspectives-from-the-global-entertainment-and-media-outlook-2018-2022.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

sinclair, J., 2008. Globalization and the advertising industry in China. Chinese journal of Communication, 1(1), pp. 77-90.

Taylor, C. R., 2009. The Six Principles of Digital Advertising. International Journal of Advertising, pp. 411-418.

Zenith Media, 2018. https://www.zenithmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Adspend-forecasts-March-2018-executive-summary.pdf. [Online] Available at: https://www.zenithmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Adspend-forecasts-March-2018-executive-summary.pdf[Accessed 1 May 2019].

Business Strategy Report

Business Strategy Report

Amazon

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Executive Summary

The report aims to provide the reader an in-depth analysis of the internal and external environments of the Amazon Australia. The report is based on the reliable sources and findings that will help the reader to understand what the report aims to discuss. The key sources, competencies, and the way in which these sources and competencies can combine to form strategic capabilities are discussed separately for the case of Amazon Australia. The report completely describes the macro-environmental trends for the Amazon Australia in a broader term and helps the reader to develop a sense of understanding regarding the strategy used by the Amazon Australia. Analysis of the industry environment has been done which is based on Michael Porter's Five Forces. The report aims to provide the recommended strategic direction for the Amazon Australia along with a conclusion.

Introduction

The report has been written with the sole purpose to research thoroughly on the Amazon Australia. The report has been divided into different sections, and each section has its research work. An analysis of the internal environment has been completely done, and a critical analysis of the internal environment of the organisation has been done. The report further expands to discuss the key competitive advantage of the organisation. There is another section in which the analysis of the macro environment has been done. Michal Porter’s Five Forces are used in this section to analyse the industry environment. At the end of the report business level recommendations are given, and there is a conclusion part as well.

Analysis of Internal Environment

On Dec 4, 2017, Amazon Australia was seen to go live. The company had boasted more than 2,000 third-party sellers within 24 hours. Right after a month, the number of third-party sellers had increased to over 5,000. One thing to be taken into consideration is the capability of Amazon Australia to have an average of 55 new sellers joining every day.

Resources

In the current times, it has been estimated that more than 14,000 sellers have their products listed for sale. However, the undeniable fact is that the Australian customers are seen to be in their way to lose interest in online shopping.The site was incredibly on its peak in December 2017 when it attracted 14.3 million visitors, but unfortunately, it dropped 10 million in April 2018. When it comes to the comparison with the other market shareholders like eBay Australia, it seems to be like, the company is on its way to dominating the market by having more than 75.7 million that month.

Moreover, regardless of having about eight products listed for sale, it has been observed that only 4,359 has received at least a single feedback review since that website has been launched. In a bid to attract an increasing number of merchants and buyers, in late February, the marketplace has introduced the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). There are a number of offers from this service such as it provides the traders with an east for shipping their products in the fulfilment centre of the company in Melbourne and pay Amazon for storing, picking, packing, and delivering the orders of customers directly along with handling the returns. Meanwhile, it helps the buyers as they can avail fast, and free delivery on the Amazon-fulfillment orders over AUD$490.

Studies and research have shown that the 19 per cent of top sellers of Amazon Australia uses FBA, with an average of a minimum of five products listed. Amazon has made itself capable enough to have more than 100 million Prime members internationally. This service of Amazon Australia includes free expedited shipping and exclusive discounts on millions of items. Moreover, the organisation has provided its customer to enjoy unlimited streaming and video.

Competencies, Strategic Capabilities, and Competitive Advantage

Amazon Australia is a globally recognised organisation which aims to focus on artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and e-commerce. Amazon.com, Inc. is considered to be one of the "Big Four" of technology along with Facebook, Apple, and Google. When it comes to the Amazon Australia, there are certain unhidden competitive advantages of the organisation over others. The operation part of Amazon is undoubtedly the major competitive advantage for the company. When it comes to an e-commerce company, the most important aspect comes to the account is the system of making payment (Hill et al., 2015). Amazon Australia is seen to have the fastest system of making payment for the customers along with the consumers as well. The method of payment provided by the Amazon Australia is considered to the one that is essential for any e-commerce organisation to make itself dominant in the marketplace.

Previously, there were some businesses in the marketplace of Australia that were not seen to end well. The reason for that was the unavailability of the service when the customers would need them. Amazon Australia has seen to overcome these issues as it has introduced the 24-hour service in the marketplace which allows the customers to avail the service whenever they want. Amazon Australia aims to build a strong relationship not only with its consumers but customers as well by providing them with an easy approach to order or have the company’s service even at midnight. One of the reasons for Amazon Australia for becoming famous in the short span of time is its 24-hour availability as well.

Another competency that an organisation need is the data management which in other words is the practice to organise and maintain the data process for meeting ongoing information lifecycle needs (Rothaermel, 2017). When it comes to the data-managing, there are only a few organisations in the marketplace that are acquiring this as a core competence. Among such organisations, Amazon Australia has made itself a dominant one as it acquires this capability as the core competence. The outcomes of this have resulted in making Amazon Australia better than its competitors in the marketplace.

Amazon Australia is notable for providing the fastest delivery within the time frame.Such capability of Amazon Australia can undoubtedly be considered as one of its core competency. The discussed competencies are the ones that are somehow common among the top organisations which are based on the e-commerce business. Apart from these competencies, Amazon Australia also offers the cloud-service for a number of companies. The cloud-service offered by the Amazon Australia allows the companies to build their applications on the top of its technology infrastructure.

Key Competitive Advantage

After identifying the resources, competencies, and strategic capabilities of Amazon Australia, it will not be a difficult task to come up with the key competitive advantage of the company.Amazon Australia is set to have a wide range of competencies, and strategic capabilities which makes it one of the most recognised brands in Australia. However, one thing that must be taken into consideration is the fact that Amazon Australia isn’t totally based on Australia. The customers and consumers of the company are the people from different states and cities. The reason for Amazon Australia being so well-known is the brand name. Amazon is the main root of Amazon Australia which has helped the Australian Amazon to make its name in the marketplace (Grant, 2016).

There is no doubt that Amazon Australia has its competitive advantage over other e-commerce organisation due to its globally recognised brand name. Not only in Australia, but the brand name of Amazon is well-known over hundreds of countries including Asians as well. One example that perfectly matches is the Amazon India which is same as Amazon Australia. Both of these organisations look forward to making their names in Australia and India respectively. Amazon Australia as compared to the other e-commerce business running in Australia has an upper hand due to its previous image (Johnson et al., 2018).

Macro-environment of Amazon Australia

Social Factors

There are a vast number of people who do not believe that there is a negative impact of Amazon on the health of the public. Researches and studies have shown that in Australia there is an increase in the number of children and adults for having obesity. The Australian government is seen to be under pressure for improving the lifestyle by introducing bills and changing the way in which fast food chains manage nutritional information.

As Amazon Australia is on its way to introduce more ways than ever for receiving the products without leaving your couch, the company is seen to be under fire (Kennedy, 2016). The company is on its way to being successful in Australia when it comes to the expansion into the grocery whose outcome is enabling customers for receiving groceries to their doorsteps within a few hours. The outcome of this is resulting in a negative impact on the well-being of the consumers as they don't have venture outside for food anymore. However, the fact of the matter is this is what the customers actually look forward to.

Customers nowadays ask access to thousands of products and buy them the same day. When it comes to the Amazon Australia, the company is undoubtedly powerful in such a scenario. The categories of Amazon are ever-expanding, and their shipping is typically topnotch. The great thing about Amazon Australia is that it has made it quite easier than ever for buying a product. There is no doubt that the online shopping is popular just because of the ease, accessibility, and the affordance for buying while sitting and relaxing at your place. It is actually not required to mention that the free and quick shipping service of Amazon is something that has made the organisation quite popular among the Australians. Young generation prefers online shopping, but it must be taken into consideration that the elderly people who find difficult to drive or walk, Amazon Australia has helped them as well.

Technological Factors

Amazon Australia is a technological company which leads to the fact that there are higher chances for the technological factors to greatly impact the profits of the organisation. The company is seen to rely heavily on the varying degrees of technology for distributing their products to the customers (Grant, 2016). Amazon Australia aims to experiment with the new and creative ways for customers to receive their packages. In the future, it has been expected that the company will be making its deliveries through drone which isn’t easy as it sounds. Amazon Australia will have to comply with the government regulations for allowing the use of drones (Kennedy, 2016). The main issues are that in what way the drones will be able to deliver these packages to the customer.

The implementation to this technological rise is quite far off. However, it shows that Amazon Australia is trying its best to consider new methods of shipping which clearly displays its creativity and technological knowledge. One thing that must be taken into consideration while even thinking of this technological advancement is the fact that the outcomes of this may result in ripping jobs away from a great number of people. The reason for that is quite simple that in such scenario, drones will be carrying the hard work and not the people.

Moreover, it has been expected that the Amazon Australia will be increasing its staff in the upcoming year with a sole intention to discover and manage new technological advancement for keeping the customers happy along with improving the logistics behind the scenes. Looking at the current condition of the Amazon Australia it can be simply concluded that the company is using digital technology for building its relationships. The company emails the customers as a reminder for buying the products that were left behind by them.

The most popular aspect of service of Amazon Australia is that it tends to offer 24-hour live chat support. The service of live chat helps the customers to directly interact with the customer support representatives whenever there is any query. It helps the customers to avail the option to have the refund, product exchange or any other reason to talk with the representatives directly. Such services help the customers to sit at home and sort their problems without going anywhere (Rothaermel, 2017).

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Competitive Rivalry

There is no doubt that when it comes to the e-commerce business, the rivalry is very high. The reason is quite simple that anumber of players in the recent years are on their way to grow. Australian is one of the developed countries, and the big companies are looking forward to their expansion in Australia as it can be a good source of income for them. One of the biggest competitors for Amazon Australia is eBay Australia which has given Amazon Australia a tough time throughout the past years. However, one thing to be taken into consideration is the fact not only the Giants are giving a tough time to Amazon Australia, but there are a number of small-scale retailers, brands, and online stores as well who are seen fighting Amazon Australia for the market share. In recent times, it has been observed that online retailers in Australia are targeting particular products such as apparels, electronics, and auto parts. The outcomes of this are resulting in an intense rival competitor for Amazon Australia.

The threat of New Entrants

Although creating an online retail store is not so difficult, but to reach the level of Amazon Australia undoubtedly demands a lot of efforts, time, and investment. There has been a number of changes in the retail industry because of the expansion and growth of digital technology. A number of new brands have entered the retail segment. In Australia, the emerging brands can enter the market, but they can never be as giant as the Amazon has made itself within the short span of time because of its brand name. For any new entrant to beat the level of Amazon, there will be required many factors like brand reputation and time (Johnson et al., 2018). Therefore, it can be concluded that the threat of new entrants for Amazon Australia is low.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Amazon Australia is undoubtedly an established player of the current times, so it always has the upper hand in the supply chain over the suppliers. When it comes to the suppliers, the number is quite large, but all of them have to follow certain guidelines along with rules and regulations that are laid out by Amazon Australia. In simple words, it can be concluded that the bargaining power of suppliers when it comes to the Amazon Australia is quite low (Hill et al., 2015).

Bargaining Power of Buyers

When it comes to the customer side, there is no doubt that the main goal of Amazon Australia is to pay a lot of stress on product quality and customer satisfaction. The aim of the company is to ensure that the products are received on time and any returns are catered properly. The reason for that is to build a strong customer relationship.Moreover, the buyers have many options to go to because of the increasing trend of online retailing. In simple words, it has been concluded that the buyers tends to have quite a strong bargaining power against Amazon Australia because of the number of competitors it has.

Threat of Substitute

The online stores, branded outlets, and the brands that Amazon Australia sells are considered to be itssubstitution. The matter of fact is that Amazon Australia does not sell anything which can be considered as unique and different from the rest of its competitors. The outcomes of this result in making the Amazon Australia face a very high threat of substitution.The issue that comes up in such business is that any single bad experience can drive a customer away from online retailers. Meanwhile, a large number of people believe in visiting a retailer rather than shopping online. The outcomes of this result in creating a high threat of substitution for Amazon Australia.

Recommendations

Cost Leadership

For any organisation to become dominant in the marketplace is offering the best price for the product. Amazon Australia regardless of being one of the most known companies in Australia is seen to be behind while cooperating this business level strategy.Although, there are a vast number of products offered by the Amazon Australia which are of quite less cost. Still, some of the products which are higher in demand are costly. Amazon Australia needs to take down the price and earn less profit which will result in increasing the sales of the company by attracting a number of customers to buy from a place which offers cheap products.

The cost leadership strategy for Amazon Australia will include the cost that is used in making the goods, cost for transport and the cost to for the delivery. In the above discussed, competencies of the Amazon Australia, one of the most highlighted one was the quick delivery. Amazon not only needs to lessen the costs of its services and products but also pay attention to the shipping charges as it one of the essential things to be taken into consideration by an e-commerce business.

Differentiation

Another major business-level strategy that is highly in need to incorporated by the Amazon Australia is the differentiation. It is the matter of fact that when a product is not the least expensive on the market, it becomes a need for the businesses for finding a way to differentiate themselves from the competitors in the marketplace. Same is the case with Amazon Australia as it needs to make itself differentiate from the other e-commerce business in Australia.

There is a high need for the Amazon Australia to spend time in identifying the benefits and features of the service and the products that make it worth more money (Wheelen et al., 2017). The main issue as discussed above with Amazon Australia is that the company belongs to the business of e-commerce, and there are several competitors of Amazon Australia that are dealing in the same business line. So, there is no doubt that the services and the products offered by the Amazon Australia are exactly the same services and products that are being offered by other e-commerce businesses too. The outcomes of this result in making a free choice for the customers to go for the e-commerce website of their choice. Due to this issue, there is a high need for the Amazon Australia to find a way to differentiate itself from the other e-commerce businesses within the marketplace.

Focused Low Cost

There isn’t a big difference between cost leadership and focused low-cost strategy.There is a high need for the Amazon Australia to put more focus on low cost of its products and services. As discussed above, there are multiple competitors for the Amazon Australia that are on their way to take the marketplace the company (Hill et al., 2015). In order to be dominant in the marketplace, Amazon Australia must beat the competitors when it comes to the products and services. The improvement in the products and services is for sure necessary, but cutting down the costs is something that can help the Amazon Australia to make itself dominant in the marketplace.

The competitors of Amazon Australia such as eBay Australia is seen to be offering some products that are of quite less cost as compared to the ones that are offered by the Amazon. Amazon Australia is in a high need to beat the prices of its competitors. One thing that must be taken into consideration is the fact that what Amazon Australia needs is beating the competitors pricing, and not the general consumer pricing.

Focused Differentiation

The golden rule for the Amazon Australia to follow is to take the differentiation one step further. By taking one step further, it will ultimately become the focused differentiation.In Australia, there is no doubt that a vast number of immigrants are living. The fact of the matter is that not all the organisations try to reach to the small market niche. There is a whole new level advantage for the Amazon Australia to reach that small market niche because this is where from a company tends to become the dominant one.

There will be a set of benefits for the Amazon Australia after reaching and serving the market niche (Wheelen et al., 2017). The fact of the matter is that in the market niches, there isn’t any such competition which removes the problem that Amazon Australia has to face due to an increase in the competition in the marketplace of e-commerce business. The less competition will allow Amazon Australia to become the top seller and beat its competitors within the short span of time. Another important factor is brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is something which is not achievable in common cases, but it can be achieved by niche marketing. Although, the brand of Amazon is globally recognised, for a specific country like Australia serving the market niche will be quite helpful.

Niche marketing is undoubtedly about selling to a segmented market. There will be an increasing benefit of niche marketing for the Amazon Australia as it can help the company to redefine its business which can ultimately lead the company in new services and product directions. Amazon Australia will end up creating new opportunities by selling support or similar products. There will need a whole set of new ideas, innovations, and products after concentrating fully in the niche marketing.

Another important factor is that in niche marketing, there will not be any single chance for the Amazon Australia to throw its money away. The outcomes of the niche marketing will allow the Amazon Australia to save on its marketing dollars. The reason for that is quite simple, in niche marketing, there isn't a higher need to advertise yourself. It will allow the Amazon Australia to reach a larger percentage of people who more generally like to purchase the products or use the services. There is no doubt that niche marketing is not a good option for small companies, but as Amazon Australia is a bigger company, so it will be a perfect business-level strategy for the company to incorporate.

Conclusion

Amazon Australia has made itself a dominant one as it acquires a number of competencies. The outcome of this has resulted in making Amazon Australia better than its competitors in the marketplace. The categories of Amazon are ever-expanding, and their shipping is typically topnotch. The great thing about Amazon Australia is that it has made it quite easier than ever for buying a product. The matter of fact is that Amazon Australia does not sell anything which can be considered as unique and different from the rest of its competitors. The outcomes of this result in making the Amazon Australia face a very high threat of substitution. There is a high need for the Amazon Australia to meet up with the issues that are essential to be taken into consideration.

References

Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.

Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2015. Strategic management theory.Cengage Learning,.

Johnson, G, Whittington, R, Scholes, K, Angwin, D &Regner, P 2018, Fundamentals of Strategy, 4th edn, Pearson Education, Harlow (UK). ISBN: 9781292209067

Kennedy, A.M., 2016. Macro-social marketing. Journal of Macromarketing, 36(3), pp.354-365.

Lasserre, P., 2017. Global strategic management.Macmillan International Higher Education.

Morschett, D., Schramm-Klein, H. and Zentes, J., 2015. Strategic international management (pp. 978-3658078836).Springer.

Rothaermel, F.T., 2017. Strategic Management/Rothaermel FT–.

Sarooghi, H., Libaers, D. and Burkemper, A., 2015. Examining the relationship between creativity and innovation: A meta-analysis of organizational, cultural, and environmental factors. Journal of business venturing, 30(5), pp.714-731.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy.pearson.

Business2business

RUNNING HEAD: MARKET SEGMENTS

MARKET SEGMENTS

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Market Segmentation

Introduction

Whether a start-up business is on a smaller level or larger, there is always a need to consider micro and macro segmentations. These segmentations are considered to be the variables to segment organizational markets. The matter of fact is that organizational markets can be segmented on multiple factors. Such factors are categorized into micro and macro segmentations. In my case, I would not choose only one from these rather I prefer both; macro segmentation and micro-segmentation for marketing segmentation. There are certain factors that must be taken into consideration in market segmentation. However, macro segmentation is employed first and then there comes micro-segmentation to be employed during segmenting markets (De, 2018).

Macro Segmentation

When it comes to segment organizational market, an organization tends to use macro segmentation variables such as the organization’s location, its size, and its industry.

Geographical Segmentation

Studies and researches show regional variations when it comes to purchasing needs and practices. Taking an example of any particular company, there will be seen a purchase manager encompass the authority form taking decision-related to purchases. On the other hand, if the same purchase manager was in Japan, he would have to build consensus among different stakeholders before making any sort of decision-related to purchases.

Organizational Size

There is a high chance that a large organization can be seen buying the same product as a smaller organization. However, it must be taken into consideration that the large organization would buy products differently. The matter of fact is that the large organization intends to buy in larger lots and can be having a formal buying process. There is a high chance for an organization to design a unique marketing mix for serving all major clients. Moreover, there can be a need for having dedicated salespeople for serving all clients.

The Industry

Whether the industry to which an organization is a part of may serve globally or it is on a state level, the industry tends to determine what the organization would buy (De, 2018). All industries pertain to have a unique requirement of products. Apart from this, the industry would be in a need of a specific level of quality in products that it buys. Hence, if an organization sells some technological products like computers to clients in different industries, the organization may not be able to sell in the same way in other industries. Therefore, there is a high need for the company to have an in-depth analysis of the requirements of the targeted industry before starting to introduce its products in that industry.

Micro-Segmentation

All organizations tend to buy in a different manner than others in the same industry. Along with this, there is a high need for the seller to develop a detailed understanding of the ways in which the company tends to buy (Hutt et al., 2014). It is of quite an important that salespeople spend the specific time to understand the roles that are played by different functions in the process of buying. Moreover, there is a high need for understanding the philosophy of buyers in terms of its view on price, emphasis on quality, and intent to develop a healthy relationship with the seller.

Decision Making Process

There is no doubt that the size of DMU is dependant on the product type which is being bought. Apart from this, there is another dependency of DMU which is on whether the product has been bought earlier. It has been observed, in certain cases when the size of DMU is large, it results in the buying process to be no longer. The reason for that is quite simple as in such cases the suppliers will be evaluated on all the important parameters (Ciuna et al., 2017).

In the case of quality engineers, they will be ensuring that suppliers have the capacity to meet quality standards. Along with this, the role of product developers will be to ensure that the components tend to serve the foundation for which they are designed. Due to this reason, there is a high need for a seller to be willing for expanding resources and time with a sole purpose to deal with a large DMU. One thing that must be taken into consideration is the fact that the buying process is short at times when the DMU size is small, and when the products are brought earlier.

Buy Class

Categorizing organizational purchases into a new task, modified rebuy, and straight rebuy is quite helpful. It does not matter whether a certain purchase is a new task, modified rebuy, or straight buy, it will always be affecting how long the buying process tends to take. The matter of fact is that when a seller categorizes a purchase into one of the buying class, he then becomes able for estimating the resources and amount of time he will have to expend for clinching a deal. If an organization intends to buy an item the first time, it is quite obvious that the organization will be preferring those suppliers who would have the patience for educating the buyer company.

Choice Criteria

The choice criteria of any company are dependant on the way it decides competing in the marketplace. Due to this reason, a buyer will not be seen budging on quality (MANUAL, 2019). The reason for that is quite simple as it makes a premium product. There is a high need for a seller to understand what all buyers tend to achieve its target market. In a nutshell, it can be said that a seller needs to have a different marketing mix at times when buyers are having different choice criteria.

Decision-Making Unit Structure

Studies and researches have shown that in any organization, many people tend to influence the decision behind any purchase. There some organizations where there is an existence of a Decision-Making Unit or simply known as DMU. The members of DMU exert a great influence on the way in which the buying process can proceed and who can be probably selected as the supplier. It simply depends on the products that who will be the members of DMU.

Conclusion

One of the important variables is centralized versus decentralized purchasing. The reason for that is quite simple as its influence is notable on the purchase decision. The matter of fact is that organizational markets can be segmented on multiple factors, and these factors are categorized into micro and macro segmentations. There is a high chance for an organization to design a unique marketing mix for serving all major clients. There is a high need for the company to have an in-depth analysis of the requirements of the targeted industry before starting to introduce its products in that industry.

All organizations tend to buy in a different manner than others in the same industry. Along with this, there is a high need for the seller to develop a detailed understanding of the ways in which the company tends to buy. There is a high need for a seller to understand what all buyers tend to achieve its target market. The members of DMU exert a great influence on the way in which the buying process can proceed and who can be probably selected as the supplier.

References

Ciuna, M., Milazzo, L. and Salvo, F., 2017. A mass appraisal model based on market segment parameters. Buildings, 7(2), p.34.

De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes. SAGE Publications Limited.

Hutt, MD & Speh, TW 2014, Business marketing management: B2B, EMEA Edition, 1st edn, Cengage Learning. Application of concepts/theories

Leonidou, L.C., Katsikeas, C.S., Samiee, S. and Aykol, B., 2018. International marketing research: A state-of-the-art review and the way forward. In Advances in Global Marketing(pp. 3-33). Springer, Cham.

MANUAL, I., 2019. Marketing Management.

Marandu, E.E., 2015. Strategy factors associated with the export performance of manufacturing firms. In Proceedings of the 2010 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 7-11). Springer, Cham.

Businesses That Are Expanding

Business Expansion

[Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees]

[Institutional Affiliation(s)]

Discussion

The country chosen for the sake of this discussion was Japan, considering the fact that it has one of the world’s largest financial centers, Tokyo. The regional bank wants to open an office overseas to facilitate international transactions and offer numerous service to businesses expanding internationally. The foreign branch of the bank in Japan will offer a number of services such as facilitating international transactions, international cash management, letter of credit and payments, etc. The previous discussion involved an analysis of the cultural, economic, social, educational, and political and legal system of Japan. This paper seeks to dig deeper into the discussion about Japan’s suitability for the commencement of operations of a foreign bank.

Japan is one of the most flourishing economies of the world which makes it most attractive for international ventures. Due to this number of US business have their functional business contracts with Japanese enterprises. The country indulges in international trade and has international trade relations with the US, China, Australia, and many other countries. The importers and exporters in Japan need the international business related services of foreign banks. This will uncap business opportunities for the regional bank in the developing nations. Japan also plays an essential role in East Asia and after the robust economic growth in 2005, the GDP represented a constant growth in which Japan played an essential role. Numerous consumer goods that gain fame in Japan also become famous in East Asia, which promotes foreign trade. Rise in foreign trade results in more interaction among international business players and the rise in international transactions, which gives a boost to the bank services and operations. Considering the magnitude of international trade, the regional bank can also decide about the country in which the bank can further expand its operations. This will make the bank familiar with the magnitude of international business operations of Japan with the developing countries that are helpful in perusing international expansion.

Regional integration is a procedure to make bordering states enter into a contract to elevate assistance through common traditions and instructions. The assimilation of these 3 activities has several benefits; like promoting universal compensations for businesses. Local assimilation permits nations to combined and create mutual bazaars. It will generate bigger arcades by opening up boundaries, eradicating levies and import/export rates among the fellow countries. Japan has raised economic assimilation inside East along with Southeast Asia, and yonder in the extensive Asia-Pacific region. This has headed to dense financial and corporate connections in the expanse, also including profound manufacture systems besides the value chain.

The country formed several common trade agreements, for example, Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and Free Trade Agreements (FTA), mainly with states in the Pan-Pacific constituency and Southeast Asia. The country has FTAs/EPAs with fifteen nations and states, largely in Asia. FTAs/EPAs at present cover 22.3 percent of the entire worth of Japan´s occupation. Japanese innovativeness vigorously continues to advance more occupation connections and investment schemes (“Regional economic integration of Japan and Asia | Aktuelles - Germany - JETRO,” n.d.). It can be stated that Japan donates rather meaningfully to the financial growth of the Asia-Pacific zone by nurturing financial incorporation. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), of which Japan is an establishing participant, could carry the portion of FTA/EPA-covered occupation of Japan to around 40 percent, which would excavate Japan’s incorporation inside the Asia-Pacific expanse even more. At the time when TPP talks were effectively settled in beginning of 2016, the latest US governmental elections have headed to misgivings regarding its endorsement. Yet, other devices to nurture unrestricted trade in the Asia-Pacific extent might fill this kind of a void.

Japan was selected to open the regional office abroad for serving those businesses that are growing internationally owing to the increasing international trade activities in Japan and the opportunities for the foreign businesses to expand their business operations in Japan. Since Japan is one of the most prospering economies, and it welcomes international trade operations. In addition, the government of Japan also creates more business opportunities which make the business environment of the company more feasible for foreign financial institutes. Though opening an office in Tokyo, Japan is very expensive and involves high investment due to the high cost of labor and business requirements, it offers great opportunities for the businesses. Moreover, the culture of modern Japan is highly influenced by Western culture and contains a lot of characteristics of Western culture. So it is estimated that the financial risks will be worth taking for the regional bank.

The entry of foreign banks in financial sectors has implications for all the stakeholders. The impacts of opening a bank into a financial sector like Japan are as follows. It promotes competition and efficiency as the differences have been witnessed concerning the impacts on banking efficiency in (emerging market economy) EME and in industrialized countries. While we open the subsidiary there, we can enjoy higher margins in the interest rate and profitability in comparison with the banks which are domestically owned. Diversification and stability are benefits which a host country can enjoy, which in our case is Japan. The pace at which the financial markets are being globalized, foreign bank subsidiary can serve there as a basis of stability if the local market of that country is stressed. SMEs can be profited from the subsidiary of a foreign bank as the most crucial factor for the survival of SMEs is access to credit. So emerging market economies in which SMEs play a pivotal role can be promoted through foreign bank subsidiaries or in a broad sense, through the commercial banking system.

The most preferred form of presence for our bank to operate in the financial sector like Japan would be the subsidiary type. The arguments to support this type of presence in Japan are following. Japan is a country which imposes lower regulatory restrictions on the bank entry or on foreign bank branch and has higher corporate taxes. The subsidiary would have an edge over other types of the presence of foreign banks, as it seeks to penetrate the local economy owing to the establishment of retail operations. Risks attached to the economic and political activity of the host country influence the organizational form. Subsidiary type of presence is most suitable as it would adapt to the changes in the local market and politics of the host in relation to the degree of parent bank responsibility.

In the light of information gathered on Japan as the financial center for business operation of the regional bank, numerous factors highlight the suitability of Japan to be considered as the location for expansion of banking operations. The economy of the country is viable for opening the new office owing to its prospering nature, involvement in the international business and trade activities and opportunities for trade and investment. In addition, the culture and business environment also seems very suitable for foreign bank operations. The opening of the office will also help the bank to uncap business opportunities in the countries with which the Japanese businesses are involved. In addition, it will also help the expansion of operations in East Asia. It will also be beneficial for all stakeholders. However, opening a bank office in Japan will be very costly but it will open ways for the online banking sector for the bank in Japan as part of the changing global banking trends.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Regional economic integration of Japan and Asia | Aktuelles - Germany - JETRO. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2019, from https://www.jetro.go.jp/germany/topics/_392834.html

BYBS

Add Title Here, up to 12 Words, on One to Two Lines

Author Name(s), First M. Last, Omit Titles and Degrees

Institutional Affiliation(s)

Author Note

Being your best self

Introduction

The issue discussed in the previous submissions is Microsoft’s in-house sexual harassment. Most women at workplace go through a situation where they face harassment over the course of their professional life. Recently, a female employee at Microsoft reported an issue of sexual harassment within the company and a well-known newspaper, the Daily Mail UK published it on April 5, 2019. It raised awareness about the most important issue and talked about it in today’s global business market. Afterwards, a lot of female employees decided to break the silence and started sharing their stories of harassment through emails. The story was covered by one of the leading newspapers in the country and it grew into a huge corporate issue.

Discussion

In a recent past, a story was published in Quartz regarding sexual harassment and inappropriate work environment at Microsoft. Individual Employees reported stories of demeaning comments by co-workers, inappropriate wishes (one employee was ordered to sit on another’s lap), and death threats. One of the female ex-employee disclosed that women are frequently called names in the company. Managers mostly overlook such issues due to the lack of evidence. The Head of Microsoft Human resources took these stories very seriously and stated that it’s very hurtful to see women facing such behavior at workplace. She also added that anyone who had been dismissed by the management at the company regarding harassment must report directly to her regarding such cases. CITATION Nic19 \l 1033 (kolakowski, 2019)

Over the past few decades, around 250 harassment and discrimination cases were filed but the company only took the blame for one. These stats represent a highly unprofessional and unfriendly working environment at Microsoft. The recent case about years of inappropriate behavior is a big question mark on company’s vow to do better. Sadly, Microsoft is not the only leading company that faced such allegations by the employees, Google and Uber are also in the list. So far, google has worked in the most efficient and effective way to acknowledge and deal with these issues.

Corporate Governance and Ethical leadership

If we evaluate the reasons for the failure of some of the leading global companies we realize that it was due to the total disregards of Ethical leadership. Corporate governance is based on standard principles, guidelines, values and morals within an organization. Norms that the company follows to generate profit define their course of action. Keeping a balance between maintaining an accountability and perusing market opportunities is a big challenge in the business world. Ethical leadership plays a crucial role in maintaining company’s moral standards. However, sometimes their inability to manage risks and to forecast challenges prove disastrous for the organization. CITATION Tho16 \l 1033 (Clarke, 2016)

Principles of Corporate conduct

For any organization to run smoothly, it is important to follow some principles of corporate conduct. No one in the organization is above company’s code of ethics, every person must follow the legal regulations. Each member of the company is responsible for the social reputation of the company so their actions should be appropriate as per company’s code of conduct. Microsoft’s reputation suffered a great set back due to unethical behavior or some employees and their lack of action against such behavior made the situation worse.

Self-serving Bias

Employees have a tendency to make decisions based on their thoughts and opinions rather than evidence. Self-serving biases can affect a person’s ability to evaluate problems and deal with them which leading to an unhealthy workplace. In the case of Microsoft, the company had been trying to dodge any harassment claims rather than acknowledging and dealing with them. It showed their bias towards their reputation and standing in the market. CITATION Ric18 \l 1033 (Brenner, 2018)

Incentive Gaming

Human beings are opportunist by nature and companies exploit it by using the incentive gaming techniques to keep their employees motivated. They use commissions, extra allowances and bonuses in order to make sure that employees put an extra effort to reach their targets. The negative side of using these techniques is that employees start to focus their efforts on sabotaging their coworker rather than improving their own performance.

Ethics Unwrapped

There are 4 ways to act morally i.e. moral awareness, moral decision making, moral intent and moral action.

Ethics unwrapped helps understand the moral and ethical actions to be taken in a situation of crisis. How an effective leadership can prevent the situation from getting worse.

Implicit bias makes people treat others in a particular way which is a very harmful culture in a workplace. It affects their decision making and judgement of the situation. Dealing with a crisis heads on requires an ability to look at things with an unbiased view point.

Proper Moral action to be taken in this case

Dealing with harassment allegations strategically can reduce the risk of such incidents in future and also improve the work place environment. The proper moral action in this case would have been the HR dealing with complains as soon as they heard about them. They delay in action against employees made the victims feel unsafe. Instead of trying to neutralize the situation the company should have taken quick and strong action, so that female employees felt comfortable in reporting such incidents in future. The HR initially discarded the allegations with statements like “It’s just a harmless flirting”. It is about time that employers build strategies and implement mechanisms that address sexual harassment cases at workplace. They should make sure that workplace is free from any kind of toxicity, including sexual harassment.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Brenner, R. (2018). Self Serving Bias in organizations. Chaco Canyon, 187-198.

Clarke, T. (2016). Ethics, Values and corporate governance. . Open Mind, 311-320.

kolakowski, N. (2019). Microsoft sexual Harrassment Blow up Casts light on core teh issue. Dice, 40-66.

C-NET

C-NET

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

C-NET

Introduction

The United States of America is a country blessed with a vast range of talent. There are engineers, constructors, builders, software engineers, computer programmers, teachers, professors, chefs, wedding planners, actors, singers, political figures and many other people excelling in their respective fields. Many names can be seen shining and making news every now and then in their areas and bringing fame to themselves and their country. In the field of medicine, many doctors can be seen working hard and making notable contributions in the area of medical science.

Just like doctors, one of the crucial characters in the medical sciences is a nurse. Nurses play a very vital role in the life of a patient as they assist the doctors in the whole therapeutical procedure at the first place, and secondly, they provide services to the patient after the doctor has completed the major medical procedures. Our country needs competent people in every field, especially in nursing. Many institutes are working in the sector of nursing to equip the nurses with quality education and polish their skills in order to make them capable enough to handle the challenges of the modern day medical sciences (Smith, Duell & Martin, 2014).

One of the prominent institutes working in this area is the C-NET. C-NET stands for Center for Nursing Education and Testing Inc. and has been working in New Jersey since 1992. C-NET provides a wide range of services to educate, train and asses the nurses along with test development and administration services to fulfill the needs for the assessment of the nurses. C-NET currently employs 13 people for the purpose of development of tests, item analysis, customer services, application review, and other administrative services.

Discussion

Since nursing education and testing is a very popular field, there are many institutes providing these services and people are opting for them due to their quality services. Just like any other business and educational institute, C-Net has also got tough competition in the market on New Jersey. Two of the major competitors that are a big threat for C-Net are the Best Care College and Achieve Test Prep. A client can easily go for these two institutes as they both are providing high end educational and testing services for the individuals going for pursuing a career in nursing (Alligood, 2017). Both these institutes have been selected due to the excellence they have and the high quality of services provided by them in the market

The competition in the industry for nursing education and testing has increased significantly in recent years as more and more people are entering into this field and choosing nursing as a career option. The competition is based on price and non-price both. Some institutes are providing the same level of education in $37,394 whereas the other institutes can charge as low as $28706 for the same program. So, definitely, the customers will choose the institute with economic fee structure. The role of suppliers in nursing education and testing is played by the institutes that impart the education of nursing and conduct tests and assessments to check the knowledge of the nurses. Whereas the suppliers of the test and the assessment tools are the people, who design and develop the tests for these nurses.

C-NET being a reliable name in the industry of quality education in the area of nursing and patient assistance holds a substantial market share among the clients of New Jersey. Most of the clients consist of the recent graduates who have completed a nursing degree and want to specialize in the further majors of the nursing education. The chances or tendency for the clients to divert from C-NET to the other suppliers is moderate as the services and courses being offered by C-NETY are most updated in the market and till now, almost no nursing training and assessment education is providing such services currently in the market. The only reason for switching could be the price factor or the economic conjectures

As far as the question of new competitors emerging in the market is concerned, there is an excellent chance that new competitors will enter the market as the need for the nursing education is gaining more and more importance with every passing day. In addition to this, already graduated nurses are getting more inclined towards increasing their expertise and achieve the status of a registered nurse.

C-NET’s Current of Competency Based Testing

C-NET provides a variety of services and testing facilities to its clients. One of the sets of its top-rated series of tests was Clinical Judgmental Series; it used to be valued and was a best seller at a time in the past, but now most of the tests that it offered have outdated and no more sold. The Clinical Judgmental Series consisted of four-competency based tests; Care of Children, Care of Older Adults, Basic Nurse Assistant and Essentials of Medication Administration.

Care of Children, Care of Older Adults and Basic Nurse Assistant have become outdated and no longer sold but the fourth and last test, Essentials of Medical Administration, is being still but in a limited quantity as its validity is also running out. Although the tests have been outdated, they still can be updated and made the best sellers once again. These tests can be updated and brought to the standards of the recent tests by adding more value to them.

The area of Child Care has always been a significant area of interest in the circles of medical sciences. Care for Children has also garnered much importance and many nurses are specialized just in the field of childcare (James, Nelson & Ashwill, 2014). Care for older people or geriatrics is also a critical area in which many nurses are entering and choosing it as a career choice (Ramezani, Ahmadi, Mohammadi, & Kazemnejad, 2014). As these are widespread practices nowadays, much information is available for the enhancement in the knowledge. These tests can easily be updated by adding more and more current and updated methods to the course and adding questions about the current knowledge.

Medical administration or essentials of medical administration is also very commonly used practice and is not limited to any specific kind of patients or people belonging to any particular age group. C-NET can apply the same methods just like the tests for Child Care and Older People Care. Along with these strategies, it can also hire experienced educators and test developer more so that they can impart more recent knowledge about the current practices going on in the medical field and what the specialist in the field are doing and test the nursing students on their basis.

Plan to Market Competency Based Testing at C-NET

The results and collected from the recent observation of the practices and tests of C-NET show many positive aspects of the institute. They reflect the competency and the knowledge of the test developers of C-NET and how they use their skills and information to make contributions to the field of medical science. The only thing that is needed is to enhance the marketing strategies little bit so that the tests and products can catch the attention of maximum people and the profits of C-NET can grow.

It has been observed that the results of the tests designed and conducted by C-NET are mostly utilized by hospitals and healthcare providers to analyze the knowledge and skills of the graduate nurses. Having a C-NET certification or diploma is considered, and extra benefit for the nurses and they use the results to boast about their competence in the field (Curtis, Comiskey & Dempsey, 2015).

Considering the importance of competency-based tests for the candidates to get a good job and start a stable career, it becomes simpler to devise such marketing strategies which will benefit all the participants involved in the cycle, i.e., the nursing graduates, medical practitioners, hospitals, health care centers and ultimately C-NET. C-NET can highlight the benefits of these tests for all the members as mentioned above and present to them that how C-NET tests are better than the other testing services.

In the case of hospitals, C-NET can arrange for teams or representatives to visit and meet the doctors and inform them, about the qualities of the tests being conducted by C-NET. This will let more and more doctors to think and use C-NET’s services for the purpose of recruitment of their nursing staff. The same strategy can be adopted for marketing to the management of various hospitals.

On the other hand, C-NET can attract students by informing them about the reliability and validity of their tests. Various advertisement campaigns can be run like distribution of brochures among the students of different colleges and pasting posters over suitable places. An online advertisement is also a good idea to invite clients and boost sales.

Conclusion

In short, it can be concluded that C-NET is already a well-established and regularized institute for the development and conduction of nursing tests. It has become a brand in the region of New Jersey and people having nursing degrees prefer to take competency tests though C-NET. Still, there is a threat of fierce competition in the market and competitors entering into the market. To cater to this threat, C-Net should devise proper marketing strategies and bring improvements in its services to keep them updated so that it can still stand out to be the number one test service provider for the nursing students.

References

Alligood, M. R. (2017). Nursing Theorists and Their Work-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Curtis, E., Comiskey, C., & Dempsey, O. (2015). Correlational research: Importance and use in nursing and health research. Nurse researcher, 6, 20-25.

James, S. R., Nelson, K., & Ashwill, J. (2014). Nursing care of children-E-book: principles and practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Ramezani, M., Ahmadi, F., Mohammadi, E., & Kazemnejad, A. (2014). Spiritual care in nursing: a concept analysis. International nursing review, 61(2), 211-219.

Smith, S. F., Duell, D. J., & Martin, B. C. (2014). Clinical nursing skills. Pearson.

C-NET

Discussion

Name

Affiliation

Date

In the field of nursing assessment administration, there are multiple factors that affect the relationship of C-NET with clients. The first one is an effective strategy for the scheduling of tests. A strategy is an outline or idea that assimilates the chief objectives and rules, and at the similar time, establishes the intelligible order of the activities to be continued. A correctly formulated plan aids to put in order and allocate the resources of an association, based on both its qualities and internal shortages, to attain a feasible and unique state, as well as anticipate imaginable variations in the environment and the unexpected circumstances. Therefore, the strategy for carrying out the scheduled test at the right time is very important (Thaichon & Quach, 2015).

The second most important factor for the testing agency is to protect the papers from the stuff and nursing students as they may get leaked before the assessment dates and this will benefit some particular students while benefitting the others. This has to be taken into consideration by C-NET. The third most important factor is the competition because if C-NET does not provide a quality environment for assessment, the client will eventually look for the alternative testing agencies and there is a lot of competition in this area. Any mistake will encourage the client to build their relationship with any other testing agency. Therefore, this is important to consider. What needs to be done by C-NET is to establish coherent, coordinated and relevant lines of action that allow it to achieve its goals, in a quality environment, and efficiently (Palmatier, Dant, Grewal & Evans, 2006). The two vital questions in this regard are:

What would be the strategy of C-NET in case if more than 20 clients ask it to schedule the assessment on the same day?

What measures are required to ensure that the papers are not leaked before the assessment?

References

Palmatier, R., Dant, R., Grewal, D., & Evans, K. (2006). Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing: A Meta-Analysis. Journal Of Marketing, 70(4), 136-153. doi: 10.1509/jmkg.70.4.136

Thaichon, P., & Quach, T. (2015). From Marketing Communications to Brand Management: Factors Influencing Relationship Quality and Customer Retention. Journal Of Relationship Marketing, 14(3), 197-219. doi: 10.1080/15332667.2015.1069523

C-NET

Name:

Instructor:

Course:

Date:

Competency-based Testing

According to Cowin, Hengstberger-Sims, and Eagar (1), nursing competence remains a professional problem and focal point of patient-care results. The significance of nursing competence remains beyond the licensing and regulatory domain. Therefore, the manner in which competence is tested remains the cornerstone of the nursing profession. The major purpose of nursing competence test entails measuring whether the nurses attain the expected professional standards. Competent workforce remains critical in healthcare outcomes connected to the provided health care quality. The construct of competency of empirical evidence can help in offering further international competency measurement evidence. Nursing competency remains a popular term in the clinical setting, education and nursing setting. Competence entails having the expected characteristics, including knowledge, skills, values, and abilities.

Center for Nursing Education and Testing(par. 1 ) states that the C-NET company entails a testing firm that offers full-range of administrative and test development to meet the nursing evaluation requirement. Therefore, the company must develop a testing program that enhances the knowledge and the skills of its members to ensure that they add value to their customers by providing effective services and products. Fauda (par. 2-3) highlights that competency tests entail reliable ad valid measurements that measure the skills and knowledge of a given profession. The tests are established for various occupations with the aim of defining the occupation certification. In nursing, the competency is grouped into holism, trait and behavioraism theories.

Fauda (par. 4) claim that behaviorism defines the capacity to perform personal core skills and is assessed through skill demonstration. Trait theory views competency as personal traits important for the successful performance of tasks including critical thinking skills and knowledge. Holism considers competency as a group of factors such as values, thinking capacity, knowledge, attitudes, and skills. Nursing competency is considered as the incorporation of knowledge such as attitude, values, skills, and judgment. Nurses are expected to apply their individual traits, skills, and knowledge to every circumstance and adapt them to various situations.

Strategy to provide better value to its customers

Alfaro-LeFevre (212) states that nurses improve their skills and knowledge by integrating research-based evidence in their decision-making process. In a practice environment, patients obtain a successful outcome when sequencing and knowledge are implemented as nursing interventions. The evidence-based process entails a problem-solving strategy to nursing practice that integrates the most appropriate evidence from appropriately structured research, preferences, and values of a patient, and expertise of a clinician while making patient care decisions. Students must gain insight into evidence-based nursing to think critically and answer practice questions in nursing with the aim of succeeding in the sector.

The area that needs improving

Fauda (3-4) claim that nurses face various barriers when implementing the evidence-based procedure in their practice. The barriers entail structures, resources, time limits, and high demands for patient care. More so, the nurses may not recognize demonstrate effectively how evidence-based process resources and time can support their efforts in contributing to enhance patient care results and cost savings in a meaningful manner.

Therefore, Alfaro-LeFevre (123) states that the nurses must be taught how to connect money to outcomes with the aim of demonstrating a return on investment and the manner in which the evidence-based process contribute to the profits of a firm and how it could justify more investment in resources and time. The administrators and educators must encourage the nurses to view the evidence-based process as a stable approach to offer enhanced patient care. Therefore, the C-NET must implement a test program that encourages learners, nurses, and clinicians to integrate evidence-based processes in their learning process and practices.

In conclusion, the company must develop a testing program that enhances the knowledge and the skills of its members to ensure that they add value to their customers by providing effective services and products. The administrators and educators must encourage the nurses to view the evidence-based process as a stable approach to offer enhanced patient care. The C-NET must implement a test program that encourages learners, nurses, and clinicians to integrate evidence-based processes in their learning process and practices.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Alfaro-LeFevre, R. "Critical Thinking, Clinical Reasoning, and Clinical Judgment: A Practical Approach." 5th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier-Saunders. 2013. 2 March 2019.

Center for Nursing Education and Testing. "Home." 2019. 2 March 2019 <http://www.cnetnurse.com/>.

Cowin, L, et al. "Competency Measurement: Testing Convergent Validity for Two Measures." Journal of Compilation. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2008. 2 March 2019.

Fauda, M. "Nursing Competency: Definition, Structure, and Development." Yonago Acta Med, 61(1): 1–7. 2018. 2 March 2019.

C-NET

C-NET

Name of the Student

University Name

C-NET

Center for Nursing Education and Testing Inc. (C-NET) is a testing agency in New Jersey. It is providing services in health and nursing field since 1992. The company has recently employed 13 web developers to improve its operations. The main products of the company are nursing tests, assessment of tests, different nursing schools admission tests. The company is providing all its services through its website and online database. For the services improvement and to maximize the satisfaction level of its customers (7 Ways to Create a Customer Experience Strategy, 2019)). The company has to work on continuous improvement and innovations. The database and website could be improved by updating its hosting, domain, security layers, and the latest tools of the database.

For building the customer’s satisfaction, there are several techniques followed by the company. Innovation is the key to success, and boost the sale of the company. The quality of the website and database should be improved to meet the latest requirements of the customers (How to Improve the Customer Experience by 180 Degrees, 2019). The business is dependent on its customers, and it could not survive in the long run. The companies are struggling to raise the number of its loyal customers by providing quality products at reasonable prices. C-Net can also introduce its mobile application with more functions and facilities. Moreover, C-NET has to know about its potential customers and classify them accordingly to provide the best possible care.

The website and online database is the most growing business in the world. The technology innovation in health care includes like EHR (Electronic healthcare record) also provides patients data to make decisions on health care of the patient. Health information exchanges (HIE) provides more efficient and effective patient-centered care to facilitate clinicians to meet the higher standards of patient care and take decisions smoothly Artificial intelligence is also beneficial for making decisions on healthcare of patients.

References

How To Improve The Customer Experience By 180 Degrees. Forbes.com. N. p., 2019. Web. 16 Mar. 2019.

7 Ways to Create a Customer Experience Strategy. (2019). CRM Blog: Articles, Tips, and Strategies by SuperOffice. Retrieved 16 March 2019, from https://www.superoffice.com/blog/customer-experience-strategy/

C-NET

C-NET

Your Name (First M. Last):

Date:

C-NET

Part 1:

Evaluate client communication with customer via website.

Website under evaluation is cnetnurse.com. C-Net is a testing agency that provides test and administration services and exam services regarding each nursing field. It is essential for every company to have effective client communication via their website. Its website provides all the relevant information regarding each testing to its customers and has an average readability grade that can be tested easily through any web testing service, which means that it can be improved. Also, it has a search engine and contact us information page which is an important aspect of web communication, but overall all methods of communication on the website are old.

Client communication can be improved by adding live automated chat software. Contact us page can be improved through streamlining the contact forms. Social Media has become essential for communication and increasing brand awareness. Thus social links should be added on the website. Add clear action button and add reviews of the satisfied customers. This will add value to the website and attract more clients (Bayuk, 2016).

Part 2:

In order to improve business communication, effective styles and methods and communication should be used. If done wrong, it can affect the business and its name negatively.

Characteristics of effective communication styles for business

Use Courteous and conversational tone.

Always pitch your point politely and concisely.

Make sure that message is delivered accurately without any errors and mistakes.

Avoid ambiguity and deliver ideas and objectives clearly with precision in short sentences that are easy to understand.

Use purpose specific correct terminology for content.

Methods of business communications

Face to Face Communication, in form of meetings and conferences.

Email is used as a fast way of communicating, as it is an efficient and fast method that helps in keeping a record of important communication.

Teleconferencing and video conferencing are used to communicate within the office and outside the office.

Instant messaging services are also brought into offices. It is effective for communication when some employees are offsite (Shaehan, 2019).

References

Bayuk, L. (2016, March 10). 45 Tips to Improve Customer Communication on Your Website. Retrieved from https://www.purechat.com/blog/45-tips-to-improve-customer-communication-on-your-website/

Shaehan, K. (2019). Business Communication Methods. Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-communication-methods-115.html

C-NET

C-NET

Your Name (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

C-NET

The report presented to the client in the final project can prove to be really beneficial for the clients and the potential clients of the C-Net. The report is centered on the theme of healthcare service market and the role C-Net is playing in various sectors of the healthcare.

Nursing is a serious profession that is centered on helping the patients and it is really important that nurses get the quality education that is updated and high in standard. Role of C-Net is well explained in this regard. C-Net is operating in New Jersey and providing a range of services to train, educate and assess nurses, it also provides administrative and developmental services. Despite having high competition C-Net is maintaining its high ranking in terms of services and popularity in the city.

This report has taken into account all the competitive advantages of C-Net over the other competitors. For the client, it is important to know the details of the most popular services of the company, and this report has provided all the information regarding its most popular services like Child Judgmental series, Area of child care, Geriatrics and administrative services. Few of these services have become outdated but they can be improved by updating the methods and knowledge used in them.

The report has discussed the marketing strategies that can be adapted to further increase the popularity and revenue of the C-Net in the highly competitive market. Strategies for establishing the link between the C-Net with hospitals, doctors, and students are also mentioned in the report. Adoption of the stated marketing strategies will help C-Net stay ahead of its competitors and can increase its client-base. I think the client will be pleased with the results of the report and gain benefits as this report will give in-depth insights about the existing status and market value of the company.

Capacity Planning And Facility Location

Capacity Planning and Facility Location

[Adonis Jimenez]

[Name of the Institution]

Capacity Planning and Facility Location

Businesses are complex in nature. Wise capacity planning is essential before the inauguration of any business. In order to set up any business facility, the location is very important ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"jJfYgw3O","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Location Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Location Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":265,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/57UPL9GG"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/57UPL9GG"],"itemData":{"id":265,"type":"webpage","title":"Location Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia","URL":"https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/location","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,21]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Location Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia,” n.d.). First of all, the location must be selected according to the type of business. The demographics must be kept in mind to earn profits in the business. The facility must be accessible to a wide range of customers. The location has to be appealing to the aesthetic sense of all these different people as they feel compelled to visit the store. If the place is sparsely populated, then running of the business and the associated profits will be in jeopardy. So, the most significant factor in the capacity planning and the facility location is the people and the associated dividend.

The poor location of the business has such drastic consequences that are undeniable in nature. Several businesses have failed due to this poor decision-making in facility location ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"E39UcrfU","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Why Do Small Businesses Fail? - 10 Major Reasons and 50 Best Solutions,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Why Do Small Businesses Fail? - 10 Major Reasons and 50 Best Solutions,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":267,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/BXQHJI56"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/BXQHJI56"],"itemData":{"id":267,"type":"webpage","title":"Why Do Small Businesses Fail? - 10 Major Reasons and 50 Best Solutions","URL":"https://www.millforbusiness.com/why-do-small-businesses-fail/","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,21]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Why Do Small Businesses Fail? - 10 Major Reasons and 50 Best Solutions,” n.d.). A fish and chips restaurant pike street fish fry failed in the local market due to the poor choice of business and the poor selection of location such as Seattle ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"unEAnUaB","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Why Can\\uc0\\u8217{}t Terrific Fish and Chips Make it in Seattle? | Seattle Met,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Why Can’t Terrific Fish and Chips Make it in Seattle? | Seattle Met,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":269,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/7KP3CE73"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/ZD9MNZ2P/items/7KP3CE73"],"itemData":{"id":269,"type":"webpage","title":"Why Can't Terrific Fish and Chips Make it in Seattle? | Seattle Met","URL":"https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2016/2/16/why-can-t-terrific-fish-and-chips-make-it-in-seattle","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",6,21]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Why Can’t Terrific Fish and Chips Make it in Seattle? | Seattle Met,” n.d.). People in the area were mainly junk-eaters and had no inclination towards fried fish. Moreover, the other activities on the location also made it difficult to run the restaurant smoothly. Hence, when the location was poorly selected for the Pike street fish fry, it did not earn anything for the owners as people were least interested in that business venture.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Location Definition - Entrepreneur Small Business Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2019, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/location

Why Can’t Terrific Fish and Chips Make it in Seattle? | Seattle Met. (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2019, from https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2016/2/16/why-can-t-terrific-fish-and-chips-make-it-in-seattle

Capital Budgeting Techniques

Full Title of Your Paper Here

Your Name (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Response to Question 1:

Net Present Value is one of the capital budgeting methods used to estimate the potential projects that can be profitable to invest in. The analysis of Net Present Value is based on the cash flows, and it makes this method very accurate because it considers the time variables along with risks. In this method, the cash flow that is expected at certain time periods is discounted at a certain rate ("Net Present Value - NPV," 2019). The present value a cash flow is having is compared with the initial investments. The results of that difference are positive then the project gets accepted, however, it gets rejected. The positive of this method is that it uses the concept of time value of money and focuses on increasing the profitability of investors. It is calculated by subtracting the present value of costs from the present value of benefits.

Response to Question 2:

As suggested by its name, this method is used to identify the time period in which the proposal will generate cash flow which will recover the initial investment. This method emphasizes the cash flows and the project's economic life and also the investment that is made in that project CITATION Bre95 \l 1033 (Brealey, 1995). This method is helpful in selecting the project based on its earning capacity. It has simple calculations that are used to decide whether the project should be selected or rejected. However, this method ignores the impact of the time value of money and the other aspects of profitability. The acceptance benchmark for this method is that the project is desirable whose payback period is shorter and returns the initial investment as early as possible. However, returns are also evaluated in some cases.

Response to Question 3:

The internal rate of return (IRR) can be defined as the rate at which net present value of the investment is equal to zero. This is another method employed in capital budgeting to estimate the desirability of a project. In this technique, the discounted cash inflow and cash outflow are equal. It also considers the concept of the time value of money. It strives to reach an interest rate where finances that are invested in the project can be repaid out of cash inflows CITATION Kel04 \l 1033 (Kelleher, 2004). However, it is not an easy task to calculate the international rate of return. This method is an internal rate method because it only focuses on the outlay and proceeds linked with the project and outside the investment, no rate is determined. If IRR is greater than the cost than the project is accepted. Otherwise, it is rejected. The project is also profitable if IRR is higher than the weighted average cost of capital.

Response to Question 4:

The modified internal rate of return (MIRR) is another capital budgeting technique, which assumes that all the positive cash flows are invested again at the firm’s cost of capital. In addition, the initial outlay is refinanced at its financing cost. The internal rate of return assumes that cash flows from a certain project are invested again at IRR ("Modified Internal Rate Of Return - MIRR," 2019). The MIRR is focused on accurately reflecting profitability and cost of the project. To calculate MIRR, it is assumed that the positive cash flows are going to be reinvested. It is helpful because it ranks the projects of unequal size, however; it gets hard to calculate the MIRR. Furthermore, it gives a more realistic evaluation of a project. It is more precise than IRR due to the fact that it determines the true rate of return of a project.

Solutions to Problems

Response to Problem 1:

time

0

1

2

3

4

cash flow

$12000

$2360

$4390

$1520

$3300

NPV = -12000+2360*1.12+4390*1.12^2+1520*1.12^3+2200*1.12^4

NPV= -3214.06

The project should be rejected because the NPV is lesser than zero.

Response to Problem 2:

time

0

1

2

3

4

5

cash flow

$12000

$2360

$4390

$1520

$3300

$1250

IRR= cash outflow / cash inflow

IRR = 12000/2100

IRR = 5.71

IRR is approx. 7% using annuity chart

MIRR = ^ 5 the square root of 10500/12000- 1

MIRR = 3.14 %

The project should not be accepted based on the values of IRR and MIRR because it is less than the original capital cost of the project.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Brealey, R. M. (1995). Fundamentals of Corporate Finance (p. 69). New York.: McGraw-Hil.

Kelleher, J. C. (2004). Internal rate of return: A cautionary tale. The McKinsey Quarterly, 20, 2004.

Modified Internal Rate Of Return - MIRR. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/mirr.asp

Net Present Value - NPV. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/npv.asp