...Case Study: Cemex A Digital Firm in the Making Question 1: How did digital technology transform the way Cemex ran its business? Because of the vision of the grandson Lorenzo Zambrano, Cemex moved from a very manual mode of operation to one where its processes were now done with the use of technology. With this in mind we can identify how Cemex was impacted by the use of digital technology below: (a) They were better able to manage “unforecastable demand”, relative to its competitors. a. All vehicles were connected to GPS tracking system b. As a result they achieved a reduced delivery time from 3hrs to 20 minutes c. Dispatchers were better able to monitor trucks d. They were able to anticipate delivery times and redirect trucks where necessary. (b) Reduction in Costs was realized as a result a. Trucks were able to deliver in shorter time frames and 35% less trucks were necessary to deliver the same amount of cement. b. Software package was used to anticipate power consumption requirements and also to facilitate use of machines during off peak hours resulting in lower electricity costs. (c) Increased revenue was realized a. Customers were now willing to pay premium price since Cemex was able to facilitate Just in time (JIT) delivery. This meant customers no longer had to have crews waiting for long periods pending delivery. b. All production facilities were linked via the satellite communications system and this facilitated better planning/forecasting c...
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...Solution: Window on Technology: UPS Competes Globally with Information TechnologyUPS invests heavily in information systems technology to make its business more efficient and customer-oriented. It uses an array of information technologies including bar-code scanning systems, wireless networks, large mainframe computers, handheld computers, the Internet, and many different pieces of software for tracking packages, calculating fees, maintaining customer accounts, and managing logistics.What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system?Inputs: The inputs include package information, customer signature, pickup, delivery, time-card data, current location (while en route), and billing and customer clearance documentation.Processing: The data are transmitted to a central computer and stored for retrieval. Data are also reorganized so that they can be tracked by customer account, date, driver, and other criteria.Outputs: The outputs include pickup and delivery times, location while en route, and package recipient. The outputs also include various reports, such as all packages for a specific account or a specific driver or route, as well as summary reports for management.What technologies are used?Technologies include handheld computers (DIADs), bar code scanners, telecommunications for transmitting data, pagers, cellular phone networks, Internet, and computers.How are these technologies related to UPS’s business strategy?UPS has used the same strategy for...
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...Case Study: Cemex A Digital Firm In The Making Case Study: Cemex A Digital Firm in the Making Question 1: How did digital technology transform the way Cemex ran its business? Because of the vision of the grandson Lorenzo Zambrano, Cemex moved from a very manual mode of operation to one where its processes were now done with the use of technology. With this in mind we can identify how Cemex was impacted by the use of digital technology below: (a) They were better able to manage “unforecastable demand”, relative to its competitors. a. All vehicles were connected to GPS tracking system b. As a result they achieved a reduced delivery time from 3hrs to 20 minutes c. Dispatchers were better able to monitor trucks d. They were able to anticipate delivery times and redirect trucks where necessary. (b) Reduction in Costs was realized as a result a. Trucks were able to deliver in shorter time frames and 35% less trucks were necessary to deliver the same amount of cement. b. Software package was used to anticipate power consumption requirements and also to facilitate use of machines during off peak hours resulting in lower electricity costs. (c) Increased revenue was realized a. Customers were now willing to pay premium price since Cemex was able to facilitate Just in time (JIT) delivery. This meant customers no longer had to have crews waiting for long periods pending delivery. b. All production facilities were linked via the satellite communications system and this facilitated...
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...INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT CASE STUDY IGB40402 MANAGING DIGITAL FIRM INSTRUCTION: Read the case study carefully and answer the questions. Any plagiarism will be penalized and no marks will be given. Duration: Monday 17th October 2011 – 21st October 2011 Late submission will not be entertained. CEMEX: A Digital Firm in the Making Cemex, based Monterrey, Mexico, is a 98-year old company that sells cement and ready-mix concrete products. It has 53 plants around the globe in countries including the United States, Spain, Egypt, Colombia and the Philippines, and is the world's third largest cement and concrete manufacturer. The concrete business is an asset-intensive, low efficiency business with unpredictable demand. Cemex dispatchers used to take orders for 8,000 grades of mixed concrete and forwarded them to six regional mixing plants, each with its own fleet of trucks. Customers routinely changed half of their orders, sometimes only hours before delivery, and these orders might have to be rerouted because of weather change, traffic jams of problems with building permits. Cemex's phone lines were often jammed as customer's truckers and dispatchers tried to get orders straight. Many orders were lost. Until about 15 years ago, Cemex's Information Technology Division was viewed as a support department for the sales function. Cemex did not have an adequate computing or telecommunications infrastructure. Only a few executives had personal computers and integrated systems...
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...9-701-017 REV: NOVEMBER 29, 2004 PANKAJ GHEMAWAT The Globalization of CEMEX Geographic diversification enables us to operate in multiple regions with different business cycles. For the long term, we are trying to ensure that no one market accounts for more than one third of our business. Yet we do not diversify simply to balance cyclic downturns and upswings. We do not see volatility as an occasional, random element added to the cost of doing business in an interconnected global marketplace. We plan for volatility. We prepare for it. We have learned how to profit from it. Lorenzo Zambrano, CEO of CEMEX.1 In 1990, Cementos Mexicanos was a Mexican cement company that faced trade sanctions in its major export market, the United States. By the end of 1999, CEMEX operated cement plants in 15 countries, owned production or distribution facilities in a total of 30, and traded cement in more than 60. Non-Mexican operations accounted for nearly 60% of assets, slightly over 50% of revenues and 40% of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) that year. CEMEX’s sales revenues had increased from less than $1 billion in 1989 to nearly $5 billion in 1999, and it had become the third largest cement company in the world in terms of capacity, as well as the largest international trader. Growth had been achieved without compromising profitability: in the late 1990s, its ratio of EBITDA to sales ranged between 30% and 40%—ten to fifteen percentage...
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...Nestle S.A. is one too. So is Lorenzo Zambrano of Cemex in Mexico, Massimo Bongiovanni, CEO of Coop Centrale in Italy and Toshifumi Suzuki, CEO of 7-Eleven Japan. What do these global business leaders have in common that sets them apart from the majority of top management in other organizations? They are IT Savvy BUSINESS leaders. That means they communicate an organizing vision which affords a central role to leveraging IT for value creation; they engage themselves in strategic IT decisions and insist that their top management team does as well; they construct an equal partnership between business and IT ,and they achieve superior returns for their efforts. According to research by Peter Weill and Jeanne Ross[1], firms with higher IT spending and high IT savvy can achieve 20 percent greater margins than their competitors, whereas the lowest spenders and least IT savvy firms earn 32 percent lower margins than their competitors. Naturally with this sort of performance lift, most CEO’s, in fact most business leaders across the organization, must be IT savvy – right? Unfortunately the answer is “Not yet.” As for evidence, it is visible or can be deduced in headline-grabbing events about IT project failures, rigid information systems which reduce a company’s local and/or global agility, layoffs at firms due to inefficient operations and security breaches and data losses. All of these occurrences signal deficiencies in leveraging information technology effectively. Blame...
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...Pyramid CEMEX: Innovation in Housing for the Poor CEMEX is a multinational cement manufacturing company operating out of Mexico. It is the largest cement manufacturer in Mexico, the second largest in the United States, and the third largest in the world. The company has operations on four continents and recorded global revenues of $6.54 billion in 2002 with a gross margin of 44.1 percent. THE INNOVATION. . . CEMEX leads the paradigm shift of companies profitably providing housing for the poor, the Tier 4 population, instead of governments or not-for-profit organizations. CEMEX manufactures and sells raw cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, and clinker (used to make cement) under different brand names. As the largest cement company in Mexico, CEMEX operated in a highly protected legal environment with little competition until the 1990s. It competed mainly on price and controlled 65 percent of the market share in Mexico. However, during the 1990s, the legal barriers in Mexico broke down, paving the way for international competition. CEMEX found itself operating in a highly competitive open environment. Starting in 1987, under the leadership of Mr. Lorenzo Zambrano, CEMEX experienced explosive growth, mainly through acquisitions and global expansion. Today, the company has 235 cement and ready-mix plants in Mexico, 60 in the United States, 85 in Spain, 45 in Venezuela, 4 in Indonesia, and 4 in Egypt. In the new competitive arena and under new leadership, CEMEX fundamentally...
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...ASSIGNMENT NO 1 CASE STUDY Dollar General: Heavy on organization, Light on systems Cemex: A Digital Firm In The Making Submitted to: Asif Iqbal Submitted by: Md.Abdullah al-Reza Question 1: Describe Dollar General’s business strategy. Why has the company been so successful? Answer: Dollar General is an aggressive competitor in the deep discount retail industry, the main reason for the company’s success is the business strategy, the company believes in locating Dollar General Stores within communities, targeting municipalities that are home to fewer than 20,000 residents. The company believes that filling the role of neighborhood store is a big part of its success. Dollar General accomplishes success by rapidly opening stores and running each store at the lowest operating cost possible. It takes full advantage of this strategy by developing a system for opening new stores that shapes the procedure down to a scant eight days. Dollar General views this system very important for its business success. Question 2: Describe the role of management, organization and technology in Dollar General’s business strategy? Answer: Management plays a vital role in the business strategy of Dollar General, with the opening of a new store the management starts working for hiring the construction team to perform all the work required to bring the Dollar General store on the floor. The organization outlines the proper positioning and placement of for all fixtures and...
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...B2B Brand Management Philip Kotler ´ Waldemar Pfoertsch B2B Brand Management With the Cooperation of Ines Michi With 76 Figures and 7 Tables 12 Philip Kotler S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing Kellogg School of Business Northwestern University 2001 Sheridan Rd. Evanston, IL 60208, USA p-kotler@kellogg.northwestern.edu Waldemar Pfoertsch Professor International Business Pforzheim University Tiefenbronnerstrasse 65 75175 Pforzheim, Germany waldemar.pfoertsch@pforzheim-university.de ISBN-10 3-540-25360-2 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York ISBN-13 978-3-540-25360-0 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Cataloging-in-Publication Data Library of Congress Control Number: 2006930595 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer-Verlag. Violations are liable for prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springeronline.com ° Springer Berlin ´ Heidelberg 2006 Printed in Germany The use of general descriptive names, registered...
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...Portada Management information systems managing the digital firm Part One. Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise ....1 Chapter 1. Managing the Digital Firm ....2 Opening Case: DaimlerChrysler's Agile Supply Chain ....3 1.1 Why Information Systems? ....4 Why Information Systems Matter 4 • How Much Does IT Matter? 6 • Why IT Now? Digital Convergence and the Changing Business Environment ....7 1.2 Perspectives on Information Systems ....13 What Is an Information System? ....13 Windows on Organizations: Cemex: A Digital Firm in the Making ....14 Window on Technology: UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology ....17 It Isn't Just Technology: A Business Perspective on Information Systems 18 • Dimensions of Information Systems ....20 1.3 Contemporary Approaches to Information Systems ....25 Technical Approach 26 • Behavioral Approach 26 • Approach of This Text: Sociotechnical Systems ....27 1.4 Learning to Use Information Systems: New Opportunities with Technology ....27 The Challenge of Information Systems: Key Management Issues 28 • Integrating Text with Technology: New Opportunities for Learning ....30 Make IT Your Business ....31 Summary, 31 • Key Terms, 32 • Review Questions, 32 • Discussion Questions, 33 • Application Software Exercise: Database Exercise: Adding Value to Information for Management Decision Making, 33 • Dirt Bikes USA: Preparing a Management Overview of the Company, 33 • Electronic Commerce Project: Analyzing...
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...228 Office Hours MW 4:00-5:00 pm or by appointment Qian Tang - qian.tang@phd.mccombs.utexas.edu Teaching Assistant CBA 1.308B Office TBD Office Hours Course Description Information technology (IT) has transformed all aspects of 21st century business and everyday life. New IT investments continue to be staggering. Worldwide, over $2.5 trillion is invested in IT. In the U.S., over 50% of capital expenditures are related to IT. Information systems influence business processes, organizational structures, and the ways people do business, work, and communicate. Emerging technologies have triggered new forms of organization and business process innovation; they have also impacted organizational structure, culture, politics, decision making, and society as a whole. IT is transforming how physical products are designed, how services are bundled with products, and how individuals interact with businesses and with other individuals. A silent transformation is occurring as more and more physical products use embedded IT to improve customer experience and product performance. The pervasiveness of IT is expanding global trade and changing how and where work is performed. It is vital that future managers—in every area of business—have a working knowledge of modern IT, practical experience in its use, and management perspective on how IT is used in organizations. MIS 301 will focus on three broad issues: (a) data and enterprise systems; (b) IT and competitive strategies; and...
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...Finding and Evaluating the Opportunity: Is It Real and Large Enough? E xc e r p t e d fro m Entrepreneur’s Toolkit: Tools and Techniques to Launch and Grow Your Business Harvard Business School Press Boston, Massachusetts ISBN-10: 1-4221-0527-X ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-0527-6 5276BC Copyright 2006 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America This chapter was originally published as chapter 2 of Entrepreneur’s Toolkit, copyright 2005 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu, or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163. You can purchase Harvard Business School Press books at booksellers worldwide. You can order Harvard Business School Press books and book chapters online at www.HBSPress.org, or by calling 888-500-1016 or, outside the U.S. and Canada, 617-783-7410. 2 Finding and Evaluating the Opportunity Is It Real and Large Enough? Key Topics Covered in This Chapter • five characteristics of a genuine business opportunity • • where to look for profitable opportunities the process...
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...Figure 8.1 Figure 8.2 Figure 8.3 Figure 9.1 The Breakout Strategy Cycle Companies Getting on the Fast Track Companies Staying Out Front Types of Capital and the Capital Accumulation Process The Vision Wheel State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Organization State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Culture State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Relationships State Transition for Harley-Davidson: Markets The Six Pillars of a Value Proposition Leveraging up the Apple Value Proposition Reconciling Different Value Propositions Leveraging up Samsung Electronics’ Value Proposition Components of a Business Model Aligning the Business Model and Value Proposition Business Model Needs Analysis Delivering Strategy System Balance and Strategy Delivery at CEMEX Organizational Culture and Cultural Reproduction Breakout Leadership Capabilities Chapter 1 Breakout Strategy ______________________________________________ We all want to identify the essential ingredient that makes for outstanding business success, the decisive factor that differentiates exceptional companies from those that are just plain average. Sadly, like the elixir of...
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...MBA LEARN MORE, DO MORE, BECOME MORE 90 exceptional people who will shape the future of business The IMD MBA Class of 2011 Developing your future global leaders The IMD difference Why recruit at IMD? Find truly global experienced leaders able to address your company’s challenges in today’s complex environment 90 talented pre-screened participants Besides strong academic ability, we assess the leadership potential with a focus on real management capacity in a multi-cultural and complex environment. In total we spend at least 10 manhours per candidate to make sure each one is right for the program. The admission process consists of: - an online application with 12 essays - letters of recommendations - a full day assessment center Once accepted, each candidate goes through a full background check conducted by an independent agency. International and experienced In a class of 90, you will find 40+ different nationalities and 90% of the participants will have spent at least 6 months outside their home country. With a minimum of 3 years of work experience, our participants have on average 7 years of experience prior to IMD. Trained to become truly global hand-on leaders Besides strong academic business fundamentals, our intensive one-year program is designed to constantly push our MBAs beyond their comfort zone. A diversity of hands-on projects takes them through various settings: - a 6-week startup project - a 9-week international consulting project with medium to...
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...Journal of Business Research 63 (2010) 559–569 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research Marketing to subsistence consumers: Lessons from practice Kelly L. Weidner a,⁎, José Antonio Rosa b, Madhu Viswanathan c a b c University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Managerial Studies, 601 S. Morgan Street (MC 243), Chicago, IL 60607, United States University of Wyoming, Department of Management and Marketing, Dept. 3275, 1000 E. University Ave., Laramie, WY 82071, United States University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 61 Wohlers Hall, 1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, United States article info Article history: Accepted 1 February 2009 Keywords: Subsistence marketplaces Subsistence consumers Bottom of the pyramid abstract Over 4 billion people live in what is commonly referred to as the “bottom of the pyramid” or as subsistence marketplaces. These individuals and families live in substandard housing, with limited or no access to sanitation, potable water, and health care, have low levels of literacy, and earn very low incomes. Scholars and practitioners alike suggest that the problems existing in subsistence marketplaces demand the attention and involvement of responsible businesses and that doing business with consumers in such marketplaces can be both socially responsible and profitable. This research explores the strategies and tactics currently being used across commercial and social enterprises...
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