...benefits from establishing a JIT relationship with a buyer such as Dixon. Usually, such relationships are longer term, more cooperative, and with a small set of vendors. D&S will then have a more certain, steady demand for their product. They should also have more accurate forecasts further into the future. Besides these demand benefits, D&S could improve its production and distribution efficiency. Better knowledge of the size and timing of orders would allow them to plan operations more efficiently. As they are responsible for much of the ordering, they can better coordinate their operations with the order cycles. However, D&S does have some reasons to be concerned also.. The relationship shifts supply responsibility to D&S. The guaranteed business would be at risk if D&S were to forecast or perform poorly. Further, the responsibility for placing orders in now a D&S paid employee. 2. Identify the pros and cons of a JIT relationship from a buyer’s point of view. A buyer, such as Dixon, can obtain many relationships from a JIT relationship with a supplier. Order timing becomes the responsibility of the vendor. Quality should improve and deliveries should become more reliable. Through better coordination, the supplier’s costs should improve, which may eventually be reflected in their price. Buyers often have several concerns of such an arrangement. For one, seldom does a supplier have only one customer in a market. Buyers worry that sensitive information, such as upcoming...
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...threat of new entrants in the industry would be Low. Bargaining Power of Suppliers Suppliers play a role in the industry as providers of major goods like handsets that are subsidized for the carriers for their customers. Prices in that regard remain relatively similar across the competition. Companies maintain relationships with upstream suppliers to remain successful in the industry, which does gives suppliers some power in the industry. Other costs are relatively similar across the industry for the top companies in terms of usage and customer base, as well as in-house equipment. Overall the bargaining power of suppliers in this industry would be Medium. Bargaining Power of Buyers The buyers sector of the industry is heavily dependent on price sensitivity, which is high in the industry. Buyer subscriptions and volumes have been...
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...A Problem of Price This vignette is characteristic of what happens when buyers are asleep at the wheel. Sue Jones is a newly promoted buyer that is paying close attention to details of her new job. Sue finds that the companies that have bided in this process are all within about $50 of one another. The strange thing about thus is not the fact that the bids are so close but that the winning bid is not low enough. How does she get her cost down even lower? Sue should focus on the startup costs associated with the chemicals. Based upon her discussions with other companies, sue should see a reduction of at least between $750k-$850 dollars in the overall costs that is paid to Chicago Chemical. Chicago Chemical has already been producing the chemical for the past 5 years; therefore, there isn’t any startup costs associated with their production of the chemical. Because of this Sue should be able to reopen negotiations with them. The overall cost should be about $2.1M or $210 per barrel. The other bidders have already said that the startup costs re added into their bids. Chicago Chemical has been reaping too much profit at the expense of Prestige Plastic. One method that Sue could deploy would be to take the business away from Chicago Chemical or threaten to do so. Chicago Chemical would have to react to this demand from Prestige. Chicago would not be able to offer up huge disdain to this idea because this bid process is commercial in nature and not governmental. Because of this...
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...these stores create additional revenue for the online giant. For buyers, eBay offers many choices by setting up comparisons of similar products’ prices and auction bidding function which increases the products’ value. Finally, eBay serves up third party advertising to its customers based on their product searches. 2. What potential contracting problems exist on eBay? Potential contracting problems with eBay exist within both the selling and the buying arenas. The most common problems that arise are when the products are not shipped or when buyers do not pay for items that they are contractually obligated to purchase. Naturally, fraud can exist in any big online market like eBay because it is difficult to sort through millions of transactions. Thus, eBay has set up a feedback system which allows users to rate their experiences with other students on the website. This feedback system has its own weakness because sometimes a seller or buyer could easily apply for more than one account and mislead users with fake reviews and ratings. However, eBay has made this much more difficult to do than it used to be. The auction system can be scammed in other ways too. Take deceptive sellers for example, who can disguise themselves as bidders to increase the price of their item are not satisfied with the bidding activity. Shipping is also always a potential problem. A fairly common occurrence is that buyers are not...
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...Jordan Belfort or otherwise referred to as “The Wolf of Wall Street” is an American author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker. He was the former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont. Jordan has been established as one of the most well known men of American finance. Belfort rose to his fame through his deceiving forms of stock market manipulation. At the age of twenty six Jordan was a multimillionaire making just shy of one million dollars a week from his Brokerage Firm. Belfort quickly became consumed in a life of sex, money and drugs. He was spending his money just as fast as he was making it. “I partied like a Rock Star and lived like a King” -Jordan Belfort. Drawing so much attention to himself even the FBI took notice. Federally convicted at the age of thirty six. This is the biography of a man who rose and fell as an American Entrepreneurial Icon. Jordan Ross Belfort was born July 9, 1962, in the Bronx, New York City. Former member of the middle class; raised by two accountant parents Leah and Max Belfort. He grew up as an only child in a tiny apartment in Bayside Queens NYC. Jordan was an entrepreneur at a young age. Between the years of High School graduation to the beginning of College. Belfort made twenty thousand dollars upon selling Italian ice with his best friend at the local beach. Leah Belfort's dream was for him to become a doctor. Jordan went on to graduate with a degree in biology from The American University. From then on Belfort used...
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...20 dollars spent on new cars last year. The company even turned a profit. If you think car dealers are a pain, try working with car buyers. If buyers see the stereotypical dealer as a hustler who is partial to false promises and esoteric pricing, the dealer sees the typical customer as a grouchy opportunist who will dicker for an entire afternoon, then take a quote down the street to see if a rival dealer can beat it. A service that aims to please both of these groups might seem like a dubious business model. But Autobytel, a seven-year-old online car-buying referral service, has mastered the balancing act. Generating roughly $17 billion in car sales annually – or 5 percent of total U.S. volume – Autobytel’s network embraces 8,800 dealers, 10 million customers, and four Web sites: Autobytel.com, Autosite.com, Autoweb.com, and CarSmart.com. It is nearly twice as large as its nearest rival, Microsoft’s Carpoint.com. Autobytel’s secret to success it that it makes life easier for dealers rather than trying to replace them. Customers who want an Autobytel referral must disclose their names, addresses, and payment method; in return, they get a price quote from a local dealer. To separate tire-kickers from serious buyers, Autobytel’s proprietary 26-step screening process verifies everything from area codes to the age of each potential buyer. Historically, dealers close about 12 to 15 percent of the leads they receive from Autobytel, as opposed to a 10 percent rate from other...
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...suppliers | How inportant are specific suppliers inputs | how likely are suppliers to forward intergrate | how easily can organisations in the industry switch suppliers | what is the proportion of the cost of the suppliers products relative to the total cost of the industry product or service | Is information about the suppliers product easily avaliable | how profitable are the suppliers? | | | POWER OF BUYERS -STRONG | | How concentrated are the buyers in the industry? Is distribution controlled by a few important outlets | Are there alternative channels of distribution | what impact does the product or service being purchased by the buyer have on their business? | How likely are buyers to backwards intergrate? | How easy or difficult is it for buyers to switch to alternative suppliers? | How important are industry volumes to buyers? | What is the porportion of the cost of the industry product being purchased relative to other products and services the buyers buy? | How profitable is the buyer? | How easliy can the buyer access information about the industrys products and...
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...except the name. However, if the we begin planning for a sale years before, we can make the business much more valuable to a potential buyer. For instance, as a stylist, I can train one or two assistant colorist, and teach them his secret formulas and coloring/styling techniques. My husband, who manages, can hire one or two assistants and train them. We can develop procedure manuals (or at least define what the procedures should be). She can also introduce her protégée’s to regular clients so they know who they are. After a few years, a buyer could easily take over the business and keep it going as long as he is able to keep the now well-trained staff on board. By following the above steps, we have significantly increased the value of their business. Since we have expanding a lot, and larger businesses have much more at stake, the best approach is to postpone the sale for a few years, and gradually put some key elements in place to maximize the value of the company. Basically anything that increases transparency, efficiency, revenue or profitability, or decreases risk or costs, should be considered. Keys areas to my Exit Strategy: * Build a real management team * Set up and document business processes and systems. * Clean up the company’s books. * Conduct an inventory of all physical assets * Start networking with business buyers, other business owners, business brokers, and others. A good place to start is a...
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...By the time her work brought her back to the United States, Nancy ScheperHughes had spent more than a decade tracking the illegal sale of human organs across the globe. Posing as a medical doctor in some places and a wouldbe kidney buyer in others, she had linked gangsters, clergymen and surgeons in a trail that led from South Africa, Brazil and other developing nations all the way back to some of her own country's best medical facilities. So it was that on an icy February afternoon in 2003, the anthropologist from the University of California, Berkeley, found herself sitting across from a group of transplant surgeons in a small conference room at a big Philadelphia hospital. By accident or by design, she believed, surgeons in their unit had been transplanting blackmarket kidneys from residents of the world's most impoverished slums into the failing bodies of wealthy dialysis patients from Israel, Europe and the United States. According to ScheperHughes, the arrangements were being negotiated by an elaborate network of criminals who kept most of the money themselves. For about $150,000 per transplant, these organ brokers would reach across continents to connect buyers and sellers, whom they then guided to "brokerfriendly" hospitals here in the United States (places where ScheperHughes says surgeons were either complicit in the scheme or willing to turn a blind eye). The brokers themselves often posed as or hired clergy to accompany their clients into the hospital...
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...– If a buying company has an objective of involving suppliers early during product development, what type of questions should the buying firm ask a supplier during evaluation and selection? 1. Is the supplier willing to have a long-term commitment? 2. Does the supplier’s roadmap & policies align with those of the buyers? Do they share buyer’s vision? 3. Is supplier flexible to vary production on a need-by basis and flexible to changing demands (quantities, timeframe)? 4. Is supplier willing to share technical expertise and process knowledge to improve Product Development efficiency? 5. Is the Supplier willing to share Accounting records to compare actual cost v/s estimated cost? 6. Is the supplier willing to continuously evaluate cost reduction opportunities? 7. Is the supplier willing to share expertise to develop and share cost improvements and eliminate any costly processes? 8. Does the supplier share your same values and commitment to quality? 9. Is the buyer willing to let supplier participate in buyers’ project team and willingness to share cross-functional skills? 10. Is the supplier willing to let buyer monitor supplier performance? Q3 – Develop and design a multistep process that will guide this organization as it seeks to involve suppliers in projects such as the one highlighted in this case? Q4 – What...
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...context of business-to- business markets, that with the spread of digitization “value has shifted from the product itself to informa- tion about the product.” Intermediaries create value via information collection, aggregation, display, and information processing; by managing workflow for a set of transactions between a buyer and seller; by coordinating logistical services to buyers and sellers; or by providing information processing services for end-to-end transaction management. Such infomedi- aries are becoming commonplace in many business and consumer market settings, including in hotel and travel coordination (Dube and Renaghan 2000), retail marketing (Chen et al. 2002), and private online exchanges for B2B commerce (Hoffman et al. 2002). Bailey and Bakos (1997) discuss four services offered by intermediaries: (a) aggregation of buyer demand and seller products, (b) providing trust between participants, (c) market facilitation, and (d) matching buyers and sellers. Kaplan and Sawhney (2000) reinforce the notion that electronic intermedi- aries fulfill aggregation and matching roles (e.g., via catalogs and auctions respectively), bringing “a large number of buyers and sellers under one roof” and enabling real-time negotiation of terms and price discovery. More recently, the academic and indus- try literature suggest that infomediaries have evolved from being merely matchmakers to purveyors of an array of services (see, e.g.,...
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...training Q2 – If a buying company has an objective of involving suppliers early during product development, what type of questions should the buying firm ask a supplier during evaluation and selection? 1. Is the supplier willing to have a long-term commitment? 2. Does the supplier’s roadmap & policies align with those of the buyers? Do they share buyer’s vision? 3. Is supplier flexible to vary production on a need-by basis and flexible to changing demands (quantities, timeframe)? 4. Is supplier willing to share technical expertise and process knowledge to improve Product Development efficiency? 5. Is the Supplier willing to share Accounting records to compare actual cost v/s estimated cost? 6. Is the supplier willing to continuously evaluate cost reduction opportunities? 7. Is the supplier willing to share expertise to develop and share cost improvements and eliminate any costly processes? 8. Does the supplier share your same values and commitment to quality? 9. Is the buyer willing to let supplier participate in buyers’ project team and willingness to share cross-functional skills? 10. Is the supplier willing to let buyer monitor supplier...
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...The first and most significant accomplishment in my career is my initiative of a modification in the designing of a project and its work-flow which saved the life of a dying product. In early phases of my career, I was hired as Software developer by a startup company. Six months into my first project, I got to know that the marketing team was struggling to get a prospective buyer of that product. Company decided to terminate the development, as they had some big projects lined up and decided to divert all its focus and energy towards them. It was a small company with around 20 personnel, so did not follow all the professional courtesies that one may imagine in an enterprise. A good example may be, that company decisions were announced on the lunch table. This being my first professional project, I got emotionally attached to it at a certain level. I could not see it dying. In a meeting with the CEO, when informed about the halting of the project for a few months, I suggested to launch this product as open web portal till the time we get a potential buyer for it. As launching it would not require much additional investment and resources, since only the interface of application had to be changed according to web portal, he decided to give it a thought. Meanwhile I was shifted to another project. Though I started working on another project, the idea of a web portal was still at the back of my mind. I started working on designing the User Interface for web portal after office hours...
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...In researching how information asymmetry played a role in mortgage defaults, I found at least two types of asymmetry. The first is between a home buyer and the mortgage company. The second is between the lender and the insurer. Although I have a mortgage of my own, I am not too familiar with all of the mortgage types and other background information. The information asymmetry between the home buyer and the lender is where the lender knows more about the financial history and type of loan that the buyer is taking out. For example, with an option ARM, the first couple years there is nothing or little owed on the principle, and some owners choose to pay nothing. But after that period of no principle due, the principle has increased and the owner cannot afford the mortgage. If the owner knew not paying any towards the principle would make it harder to pay later, they may have made different financial decisions. The other information asymmetry is between the lender and the protection seller (insurer). The lender had the information advantage on the buyers’ credit, and the insurer did not have the ability to evaluate the quality of the loan. The lender would screen buyers and decide to buy protection if necessary. But with buying protection via a CDS, the lender would screen buyers even less. When there were few mortgage defaults, the system was working, but as they increased, the system failed. Both of these examples of information asymmetry contributed to the increase...
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...What does a five-forces analysis reveal about the strength of competition in the U.S. family clothing stores industry? The competition of rivals in the U.S. family industry is strong because the competitors are numerous, buyer demand is growing slowly, and the rivals face high exit barriers. The threat of new entrants is weak because the entry barriers are high and the industry outlook is risky and uncertain. The threat of substitute products is strong because good substitutes are readily available, substitutes have comparable or better performance features, and buyers have low costs in switching to substitutes. The bargaining power of suppliers is weak because good substitutes for supplier products/services exist and the number of suppliers is large relative to the number of industry members and there are no suppliers with large market share. The bargaining power of buyers is strong because buyer costs of switching to competing products are low and the industry’s products are standardized or undifferentiated. This analysis reveals that the strength of competition in the industry is strong especially since the recession that began in 2008 caused buyer demand to decrease. This decrease in buyer demand strengthened the intensity of competition. What factors are critical to success in the U.S. family clothing stores industry? The factors critical to success in the U.S. family clothing stores industry are the ability to successfully develop new product lines that...
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