...(Kouvelis, 2012). The success of the firm in terms of the sales depends on the strategies laid to balance cost of production and market price and ensure efficient competition with its counterparts. The sufficient margin over the cost of production needed by a company can be achieved by providing cost incurred relative to the prices in the market or the prices set for the objective achievements are actualized. There are several techniques put forwards by companies to ensure profit generation during their operations. Some of these techniques includes target costing, benchmarking and activity-based budgeting. Target costing This is not a new idea as far as a successful companies operation is concerned. It can be defined as the method that is implemented in determining the cost at which a product having particular parameters must the produced to ensure the required return rate is achieved.. This process entails analysis of cost that take place during the development phase and ensuring the cost is kept below the threshold (Stapenhurst, 2009). Target costing is one of the responsibilities that are pursued by the managing accountants even though several companies dramatically use a different approach. Due to the fact that target costing approach originated from a competitive environment many companies adopt a different approach in order to survive. ITT Automotive Company has been using the comprehensive target costing to ensure profitability in the sales. The fundamental objective...
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...COCA-COLA BUSINESS ANALYSIS PART II Angel Hale Mgt/521 Coca-Cola Business Analysis Part II This paper will take a look at the financial health of the Coca-Cola Company in comparison to two of their competitors Pepsico & Nestle. As a potential investor, this information will help provide insight on the option to move forward, while looking at technological advantages and globalization effects on the company. At the end of this paper, you will be one step closer to deciding if the Coca-Cola company’s practices, financial & operational findings are in line with a potential investor’s requirement. It has often been said that business is about finding and exploiting advantages and the goal of any business is to maximize profits. As we look into the Coca-Cola Company as a potential investor some of the things to consider are: assets and liabilities, company track record, market position and future potential within the respective market. In general an investor wants to know how attractive current assets and future projects are in order to gauge how successful they may be. One of the first items to look into will be the financial standings for the company, not only will we review the current 2011 annual report, with regards to the balance sheet, cash flow and income statements. In order to understand how efficient the company is, we will also show the comparison between two other competitors within the same niche market: Pepsico & Nestle (see exhibits A, B & C)...
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... 1. Evaluate key elements of the selected production or service organization’s operational efficiency with its operational strategy. Determine three (3) tasks that do not align with the operational strategy. Determine the weaknesses that are evident in each task. PepsiCo, Inc. operates as a food and beverage company worldwide. Through its operations, authorized bottlers, contract manufacturers and other partners, the company makes, markets, sells, and distributes various foods and beverages, serving customers and consumers in approximately 200 countries and territories. The company also owns Frito-Lay company and Quaker Oats. It has bottling and distribution facilities in Asia, North and South Americas, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean (PepsiCo 2012). PepsiCo’s supply chain management is based on the just-in-time process which allows timely replenishment of their ingredients for processing and bottling (PepsiCo 2012). PepsiCo does not own or operate the bottling and production facilities it relies on, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Recently, due to strong competition in North America, the company made a strategic decision to focus its growth projection on the international market (PepsiCo 2011). This subjects its transportation and supply chain management system at risk to disruption resulting in an adverse impact on its business and financial operations. Some potential risks are: natural disasters (earthquakes, flooding), especially in countries with...
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...in two words: Nourishing lives. The company also has a strong international presence, selling its products in more than 100 countries. General Mills operates within three segments: US Retail, International, and Bakeries and Foodservice (General Mills, 2014). The company participates within the Cereal Production industry through its US Retail segment, which includes ready-to-eat cereal, organic cereal, granola bars and grain snacks. The cereal segment of its business is the most significant source of revenue, representing about 23% of US retail sales. Furthermore, it is estimated that US industry-specific revenue will grow at an annualized rate of 3.8% to $2.5 billion during the five years to fiscal 2013 (General Mills, 2014). Industry Analysis: Internationalization The breakfast cereal industry acquires raw materials such as corn, wheat, flour, sugar, malt extract, rice and salt from various sources and processes these ingredients into ready-to-eat cereals, hot cereals and cereal bars. It also purchases raw materials such as plastic and paperboard containers from other manufacturers for packaging purposes. The finished breakfast cereals are subsequently sold to grocery wholesalers, retailers and...
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...Pepsi – An Introduction Introduction PepsiCo, Inc., major producer of carbonated soft drinks, other beverages, and snack foods. Its beverage division, Pepsi-Cola Company, bottles and markets several popular brands of soft drinks in the United States and throughout the world. PepsiCo also owns Frito-Lay Company, the leading snack-food maker in the United States. PepsiCo is based in Purchase, New York. PepsiCo’s soft drink products include Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Mountain Dew. Other beverages include Lipton Brisk and Lipton’s Brew iced teas, All Sport athletic drink, and Aquafina bottled water. Frito-Lay products include Lay’s and Ruffles Potato Chips, Fritos and Doritos Corn Chips, Chee-tos Cheese Snacks, Tostitos Tortilla Chips, Rold Gold Pretzels, and Grandma’s Cookies. Early History PepsiCo traces its origins to 1898 when Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina, created a curative drink for dyspepsia called Pepsi-Cola. Pepsi-Cola, later referred to simply as Pepsi, was a mixture of carbonated water, cane-sugar syrup, and an extract from tropical kola nuts. To sell his product, Bradham formed the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1903. In addition to selling the drink at drugstore counters, Bradham bottled Pepsi for sale on store shelves. At this time, bottling was a new innovation in food packaging. However, due to major increases in the price of sugar, Bradham began to lose money on Pepsi, and in 1923 he filed for bankruptcy. The Craven Holding Company of Craven County...
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...Running head: INTERCLEAN BENCHMARKING PAPER INTERCLEAN BENCHMARKING PAPER Great Team University of Phoenix InterClean Benchmarking Today's organizations thrive on benchmarking to find best practices or solutions to a company's problems through outside industries or companies. This paper highlights some of those issues focusing on how other companies have implemented plans to handle those issues. The issues facing InterClean highlighted in this analysis are human resource philosophy, employee retention, mergers and acquisitions, human resources product handling and servicing. Benchmarking was conducted to evaluate how other companies had handled situations similar to those of Interclean. Outside companies evaluated for comparison come from the mortgage industry, pharmaceutical industry, oil industry, specialty eatery industry, technology industry, airlines industry, chemical industry, insurance industry, and home improvement retail industry. The companies evaluated in this paper were Guardian First Funding Group, Trinity-Chiesi Pharmaceuticals, BP Amoco, Starbucks, Google, Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines, Rohm and Haas Company, Liberty Mutual Holding Company, Pepsico, and LOWE’s. Evaluation of these companies showed several concepts used in handling the issues and how the companies used these concepts. Situational Analysis Retaining Employees Guardian First Funding Group - Guardian First Funding Group (GFFG) is a mortgage company exclusively involved...
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...CANDICE CHUA FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSIS | SECTION 1 WEDNESDAY 8 AM 1. Incentives Similarities: * Benchmarking compensation to similar roles in a peer group – sends signals about performance benchmark & types of businesses executives can enter into * Both incorporate long-term aspects into performance compensation plans * Both tie executive compensation to company performance Differences Compensation characteristics | PepsiCo | Coke | Comments | Total CEO compensation benchmark | Leading consumer product companies, selected companies covered in S&P 500 Beverage, Food and Restaurant IndicesDefinition is narrow: limits competitive space to consumer product companies, with emphasis on food and beverage | Other large companiesDefinition is broader: competes against entire universe of large companies | Has implications for businesses the companies are willing to enter into and the talent pool to recruit fromFor both shareholders and employees, Coke is more attractive. F&B may not present the best return opportunities | Emphasis on long-term compensation | Emphasis on long-term performance is much less pronounced vs Coke – principal portion is tied to both annual objectives and long-term shareholder returns | Very clear focus on long-term performance pay: majority of pay composed of long-term, at-risk pay with less emphasis placed on salary and annual incentives | Coke’s investors/employees are more likely to be focused on the long term...
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...Advertisement Analysis Assignment Youtube References (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=) 1. Stay Protected Monster TVC (xeEyrzq1oQQ) 2. Bisleri500 Superhero (K_35T5XQkIY) 2.a Bisleri500 married couple AD (IIMuvgZq1rk) 3. Bisleri Amazon TVC (UQeXbKV1Jkg) 4. Bisleri Commercial- Mountain Water (GmXFE3mZ7Do) 5. Bisleri Commercial 1.2 ltr (g_29NDIEeOc) 6. Ad film on Bisleri Mineral Water (1ZqAxPTLk8E) Targeting & Positioning: 1. Bisleri is shown as not only the thirst quencher but also shown as saving lives, both for the dragon kid & the human, this establishes the connect as Bisleri helps you stay protected under every condition. The target audience in this case is the teenage & youth. This tries to position the brand in an humorous way as the one to be relied upon for quenching thirst. 2. This campaign establishes the mini bottle of 500ml capacity among the consumers, as it is being depicted it being a matter of personal hygiene. The tagline is KISS TO DRINK. Similarly 2.a strengthens this fact. So the whole idea is to motivate & educate consumers to buy their own bottle. As it has been observed that consumers buy single bottle & share amongst each other. Here the target consumer is the people on the move as being a compact packaging it is easier to carry around. The advertisements too shows the other artists carrying their own bottle. 3. The main idea behind is to propagate the Play Safe campaign. Here it shows even if one is caught under adverse conditions...
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...Insights into the Food, Beverage, and Consumer Products Industry GMA Overview of Industry Economic Impact, Financial Performance, and Trends The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) represents the world’s leading branded food, beverage, and consumer products companies. Since 1908, GMA has been an advocate for its members on public policy issues and has championed initiatives to increase industrywide productivity and growth. GMA member companies employ more than 2.5 million workers in all 50 states and account for more than $680 billion in global annual sales. The association is led by a board of member company chief executives. For more information, visit the GMA website at www.gmabrands.com The Food Products Association (FPA) is the largest trade association serving the food and beverage industry in the United States and worldwide. FPA’s laboratory centers, scientists, and professional staff provide technical and regulatory assistance to member companies and represent the food industry on scientific and public policy issues involving food safety, food security, nutrition, consumer affairs, and international trade. For more information, visit FPA’s website at www.fpa-food.org The member firms of the PricewaterhouseCoopers network (www.pwc.com) provide industry-focused assurance, tax, and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 130,000 people in 148 countries across our network work collaboratively...
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...Business Driven Information Systems 2e CHAPTER 1 INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS McGraw-Hill/Irwin ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved 1-2 Chapter One Overview • SECTION 1.1 – INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS – Information Technology’s Role in Business – Information Technology Basics – Roles and Responsibilities in Information Technology – Measuring Information Technology’s Success • SECTION 1.2 – BUSINESS STRATEGY – Identifying Competitive Advantages – The Five Forces Model – Evaluating Business Segments – The Three Generic Strategies – Creating a Business Focus – Value Chain Analysis – Targeting Business Processes SECTION 1.1 INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS McGraw-Hill/Irwin ©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, All Rights Reserved 1-4 LEARNING OUTCOMES 1. Describe the functional areas of a business and why they must work together for the business to be successful 2. Explain information technology’s role in business and how you measure success 3. Compare management information systems (MIS) and information technology (IT) and define the relationships among people, information technology, and information 1-5 LEARNING OUTCOMES 4. Compare the responsibilities of a chief information officer (CIO), chief technology officer (CTO), chief security officer (CSO), chief privacy officer (CPO), and chief knowledge officer (CKO) 5. Explain the gap between IT and the business, along with the primary reason this gap exists 1-6 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S...
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...the financial services industry. A volatile climate has left many financial firms struggling to keep both their clients’ trust and investor’s credibility. In addition to the above, many factors including strong competition, technology, the economy, and social trends have started to have a significant impact on the financial industry. To succeed, investment companies need to offer a wide gamma of products coupled with expert advice. Therefore, Intersect Investments needs to consider carefully its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats as part of its strategic planning process. This paper will analyze benchmarking research made on companies dealing with transformational issues such as Coca-Cola, Ford Motor Co. Apple Computers and Legion Paper Co. Some of those organizations are global leaders within their respective industry. Therefore, any benchmarking analysis is relevant to the current situation at Intersect Investments. Coca-Cola Synopsis by Bruce McCormack It has become a cliché to state that tough times demand tough measures. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 redefined this cliché for most businesses on Wall Street and throughout the world. One such Wall Street business, Intersect Investment Services, tried boldly to overcome the toughness of the times without making a drastic strategic shift, but found itself barely managing to survive. After four years of such struggles, Intersect is now looking to vision change to improve its brand image...
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...in this way the company can be positioned on how they are performing within the competitive set. Through research Starbucks’ core competencies are found, and on elaborated. Those competencies are researched in the competitive set with the main competitors of Starbucks’ as well, via basic benchmarking there has been determined where Starbucks is within the market. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Core competencies 5 Key competitors 9 Competitive advantages 11 Communication within organization 12 Competency - strategy matrix 13 Conclusion and recommendations 14 Bibliography 15 Appendices 19 Appendix 1: Value chain analysis 19 Appendix 2: SWOT analysis 22 Appendix 3: Functional analysis 25 Appendix 4: VRIO analysis 26 Introduction The purpose of this paper is to analyze both Starbucks’ strategies and core competencies, and use this analysis to assess the degree of synergy between the two. First, the core competencies of Starbucks, specified to the US, are identified and presented with the use of a value chain analysis, SWOT analysis and functional analysis. Secondly, its competitive set will be presented. Key competitors will be identified using basic benchmarking, and Starbucks’ place in the competitive set is described. Next will be described how the core competencies provide a competitive advantage, using the VRIO...
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... how efficiently is that impact delivered? (In terms of management, operations, return on investment? How do our efforts leverage the firm’s core competencies or unique resources? How did we do against some measure of what impact we might have achieved had we invested our resources differently?) Evaluation can range from collecting a few key data points every month to undertaking a decade-‐long academic analysis. Which is better? It all depends on what your goals are. For example, take a PepsiCo water resources program in Ghana. When the program was in the...
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...Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR Student Works ILR Collection Spring 2013 Which Organizations are Best in Class in Managing Diversity and Inclusion, and What Does their Path of Success Look Like? Pin Zhou Cornell University Daniel Dongjin Park Cornell University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student Part of the Human Resources Management Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the ILR Collection at DigitalCommons@ILR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Works by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@ILR. For more information, please contact hlmdigital@cornell.edu. Which Organizations are Best in Class in Managing Diversity and Inclusion, and What Does their Path of Success Look Like? Abstract Question: Which organizations are best in class in managing diversity and inclusion, and what does their path of success look like? What are the criteria to measure ‘best in class’? Keywords human resources, diversity, inclusion Disciplines Human Resources Management Comments Suggested Citation Zhou, P. & Park, D. (2013). Which organizations are best in class in managing diversity and inclusion, and what does their path of success look like? Retrieved [insert date] from Cornell University, ILR School site: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/student/46/ Required Publisher Statement Copyright by the authors. This article is available...
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...ECS8_C03.qxd 10/15/07 14:23 Page 93 The Strategic Position 3 Strategic Capability LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this chapter you should be able to: ➔ Distinguish elements of strategic capability in organisations: resources, competences, core competences and dynamic capabilities. ➔ Recognise the role of continual improvement in cost efficiency as a strategic ➔ Analyse how strategic capabilities might provide sustainable competitive advantage on the basis of their value, rarity, inimitability and nonsubstitutability. ➔ Diagnose strategic capability by means of value chain analysis, activity mapping, benchmarking and SWOT analysis. ➔ Consider how managers can develop strategic capabilities of organisations. Photo: Glyn Kirk/Action Plus Sports Images capability. ECS8_C03.qxd 94 10/15/07 CHAPTER 3 3.1 14:23 Page 94 STRATEGIC CAPABILITY INTRODUCTION Chapter 2 outlined how the external environment of an organisation can create both strategic opportunities and threats. However, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda all compete in the same environment, yet Tesco is a superior performer. It is not the environment that distinguishes between them but their internal strategic capabilities. The importance of strategic capability is the focus of this chapter. There are three key concepts that underpin the discussion. The first is that organisations are not identical, but have different capabilities; they are ‘heterogeneous’...
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