...Answer 1: Man is a gregarious animal and always lived in social groups. Their needs to survive were food, shelter and clothes. In the primitive times, every tribal or village group was at the same level. They compete for survival and to fulfill essential needs. With time, consumer behavior has evolved. And slowly different societal status was formed and the distinction less privileged to more privileged was seen. In the early times, the consumer’s decision process to purchase a commodity was based on his need. Slowly that has shifted from what a man “needs” to what he “desires”. Every human is a consumer at some point of time in their life-span. Markets create desires more than needs. For example if a company introduces any new product or service to the market, a consumer will assess the product/service by the following criteria: • Make their life more convenient. • Cost effectiveness • And, how cool it makes them look in the society Need factor is mostly ignored in current market. Answer 2: The article clearly states, for a not so rich person, in order to enjoy a commodity that a wealthy person enjoys, he has to look for a similar commodity (under a different brand maybe) that is created to serve masses and the medium that provides more economical option to make the purchases. Take for example an LCD TV, today in the market there are varied options and brands that are less expensive and can be afforded by masses easily. Not only that for a smart consumer, he has...
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...departments are authorized too much power, such as the purchasing clerk and the cash disbursement department. These duties need to be segregated among other departments. By pre-approving transactions, such as an approved vendor list, preventative controls can eliminate the ability to engage in fraudulent activities. Also, this company needs to engage in a system of checks and balances among each department to ensure validity, accuracy and completeness. Analysis The first step in the expenditure process may create issues. All the employees should not have access to create a purchase requisition. For example, how can an employee that works in the cash disbursement department know about the inventory levels and make a purchase requisition. BLUE Company is lacking an inventory control department; this needs to be incorporated. BLUE Company should limit the number of employees with the access to create a purchase requisition within the inventory control department. Unauthorized access exposes assets to misappropriation, damage, and theft. By incorporating access controls, BLUE Company may be able to eliminate the misappropriation of assets. The purchase requisition should be prepared by an employee with access to inventory needs. Also, a purchase requisition should only be prepared when inventory drops under the predetermined reorder point. This point is set by each individual firm. This is to ensure that a firm is not purchasing unnecessary amount of inventory. After the purchase...
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...Southeastern University Situation: * Southeastern University was one of the largest universities in the state. * Total enrollment of more than 25000 students and approximately 3500 staff. * Had 12 faculties at the university, over 20 continuing education diploma and certificate programs and 3 affiliated colleges. * Its purchasing department was centralized and it has a detailed policy. * Purchasing director Blake Hyatt, reported to the university’s VP of administration. * Maintained a list of approximately 1200 approved suppliers, adjusted every 3-5 years. * Follows a weighted average vendor selection system * Volume of purchases amounted to $75 M for goods and services each year. * The office of registrar handled about 160000 pieces of mails a year. * 50 to 60 employees(full time and temporary) were occupied in manually stuffing envelopes two days a month. * Walter Charbonneau, Manager of university registrar’s office bought the automatic folding machine; at cost -$14000 and supplier-not in the approved supplier list. * Heather Sloman, buyer in the purchasing department received quotes from 3 of her suppliers for a similar machine * .Q1- 10000,Q2- 11000 and Q3- 15000 +free 1 year service. Tasks: * What does Heather do? * Investigate unauthorized purchase * Talk with Walter about following university policy * Check with other suppliers on stock availability/lead...
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...DISADVANTAGES: - You usually have to wait long periods of time to receive your sofa. Sometimes, this can even take up to a month or longer if being shipped from overseas. There could be delays on the delivery, or miscommunication and you can’t go to the store or get in contact with someone face to face. Usually, there is no one to ease your frustration about any delays that occur. - Shipping costs on your item can be extremely high in comparison to what you paid for the sofa, sometimes making the purchase not worth it. - Sometimes looks can be deceiving. You don't get to test the product before you buy it. What might have looked beautiful to you in picture might not live up to your expectations once received. Then what? - If it’s an online store that doesn’t have a local store in your area, returning the sofa will be a HUGE hassle. Make sure before you purchase online that you are clear on the stores return policies. Make sure that no matter how good the deal is that you have the option to return if need be. You wouldn’t want to spend 500+ dollars on furniture you can’t bring back. - Another factor to remember about returns. You will have to pay the charge for shipping it back, repackaging, and stocking in most cases, unless it’s a manufacturing problem. - People worry about fraud or theft with credit cards purchases. Make sure every website you shop from is security verified secure and protected and has this information displayed clearly on their website. Also...
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...Situation: • Heather Sloman is one of the buyers in the purchasing department of the Southeastern University. o Report to her boss, Glen Meredith, about a new equipment purchase all purchases report to director, Blake Hyatt, • New equipment was purchased without following standard university purchasing polices. • Standard university purchasing procedures: o Submit a purchase request to purchasing department o Additional information may need to be added: such as tax, and duty status, product classification and supplier status o If purchase amount over $7500, at least two written quotations are required; if the amount over $15,000, three or more written quotation is required o Buyer prepares the request for quotation form (RFQ). o Any RFQs over $100,000 had to be posted on the internet. • Current situation: o Walter placed an equipment order that cost $14,000 o Other suppliers offered lower rate or better service plan for similar equipment: $10,000, $11,000 and $15,000 that included one year free service. BASIC ISSUES: 1) University personnel placed the order directly with supplier 2) About 275 cases were signed with suppliers without prior approval each year 3) Some employees often ignore university policy Tasks: • What should Heather do? o Should Heather keep the machine and pay for it? o Status quo • What are alternatives: o Can the equipment be returned? (avoiding...
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...supplies are crop protection: 1.9, equipment and supplies: 0.60, fertilizer: 6.2 and seed: 4.2. Many improvements such as adding hybrid centralized- decentralized method to their supply management, hire specialists to only focus on managing supply and inventory rather than give managers too much power and overwhelm them and lastly increase inventory turnover especially on equipment and supplies since its very low but also targeting all farm supplies. Maybe the company can also increase supplier relationship and buy local. 4. Why hasn’t Scott McBride proposed a cost reduction plan in the past? Mr.McBride, the director of purchasing, has not proposed a cost reduction in the past because he was working with a small limited group of team that focused mainly on office supplies, brochures, advertising and other purchases. Iowa Elevators also did not view the purchasing department as a primary importance until new executives stepped in and realized that one can save a lot more by cutting costs in the inventory level (supply management) rather than...
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...Chris Middlebrooks BUSG 528 5/2/2012 2. Pro forma financial statements are predictions of the future but they are based on the past. The past is a good indicator of the future and the trends of the past used as a foundation to estimate the future. 4.a. $100,000 ($80,000 * .5 + $120,000 * .5) b. $75,000 ($80,000*.5 + 70,000*.5) I am not sure about the 45 day cycle. Would it only be half of the AR from August? So perhaps it would be $80,000*.5 + $70,000*.25=$57,500 c. - $100,000 ($80,000 * .5 + $120,000 * .5) It seems like this answer would be the identical equation to questions A because the other 50% that is not received in cash is in AR. - $117,500 or $135,000($80,000 *.5 + $120,000 *.5 $70,000 * [.25 or .5]) I am having the same issue on this one that I had on B. How do you factor the 45 days? Would you factor half of the months beginning receivables? 6. net sales: C19+C19*C4 Equity: c37+d28 8. Based on the monthly cash budget there will be cash deficit in March. This would be an indicator to the treasurer that an investment would not be feasible at this point. Quite the contrary it appears that a bank loan will be required in order to keep the company in a positive cash position. If I were the treasurer of this organization I would forecast the cash position for the rest of the year and use that information to determine the correct amount of cash necessary to keep the company in a positive cash position at least through the...
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...Question 10: Customer satisfaction within certain aspects of Bardot are important in determining if selling techniques through an online website are either very good or poor. In order to obtain this information candidates were asked to rate the Bardot website. It is quite apparent that majority of the people surveyed find the Bardot website to be good. In question 9, the majority of candidates were aware that Bardot had an online website present. Inevitably this means that certain age groups are referring to the online website prior to entering the store and making a purchase. With the popular age group being 19-23 year olds (Question 2) we are able to make a generalization that this particular age group most likely uses the online website as a way of not only making a purchase but also browsing items. Over twenty individuals have selected this criterion over the other three which are poor, average and very good. The lowest category was poor with two people having selected that option whereas average and very good were equal with a total of ten. The online website enables individuals to make a purchase without having to go into the store itself. Inexorably this means that buyers who have a busy lifestyle and generally don’t have the time to go shopping are able to go onto the website in their free time and just browse. The website has its advantageous, evidently people don’t have to wait in line to try on clothes, they are able to make a purchase swiftly as well as having...
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...Company currently face challenges in their supply chain due to a variety of reasons. The company which manufactures products that are complex, technological and engineering driven have poor procurement procedures that are creating issues for various departments in there organization. Blozis needs to make changes to a variety of steps in the supply chain in order to maximizes there employees skill sets and insure product is ordered to specification, timely, accounted for properly, received and expedited in order to maximize the companies efficiencies and create less problems in the supply chain. I recommend that Blozis should change make changes to some of the procurement staff duties to better utilize their skill sets and create an easier purchasing process for the operations department. The company must also invest in up to date software to gain the ability of tracking expenses to particular areas as well as knowing when and where goods have been received in the organization. Issue Identification Blozis structure of the organization is currently not coinciding with proper procurement procedures as people in the organization do not follow consistent practices. Ordering and requisitions are done with little or no approval process and the monies being allocated to each order are not accounted for until month end. These problems in the supply chain are also coupled with a lack of receiving and storing of goods properly so end users know when and where it is once arrived. In the...
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...Is the use of technologies, such as "cookies", strategic to marketing goods and services online? What is the impact, if any, on consumer privacy? There is no doubt that the use of internet cookies is a strategic tool for online companies. Cookies are small text that is put on a computer’s hard drive when a user visits certain websites. Cookies are able to identify the users browsing and purchasing history. For example if someone has recently purchased a video game on amazon.com when that computer revisits amazon the user will be shown a variety of home goods based on their previous purchase (Laudon & Laudon, 2013). Cookies benefit online companies because they are able to track user’s purchases and provide them with relevant products the appeal to them. What is the impact, if any, on consumer privacy? Forbes.com suggests that while cookies used to be the best technology for marketing they will soon be left in the dust. The problem is that many users are aware of cookies and with a click can turn all cookies off. Forbes also notes that mobile phones are starting to take over a large percentage of web usage and they do not use cookies. Fingerprinting, is what Forbes says will overtake the cookies era. Fingerprinting is similar to cookies in that it tracks user information. Fingerprinting looks at the unique characteristics of your computer such as: screen size, programs installed, time zones, fonts, these unique features create a fingerprint. The fingerprinting phase of technological...
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...Questions | 1. |Which one of the following is not a type of organizational data that is utilized in the procurement process? | | | | | |Client | | |Company Code | | |Storage Location | | |Purchasing Organization | | |Manufacturing Plant | | | | | |Answer: e Difficulty: Easy Page Reference: 2 | | |Section: Organizational Data Practice: | | 2. |What is a storage location? ...
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...of information sources, the Internet, personal networks, and social media platforms rate highly, and much higher than traditional information sources such as television, radio, and direct mail. In fact, more than 70 percent of consumers use the Internet while shopping for new and used vehicles—more than double the usage of any other information source. This reflects consumers’ growing desire for an objective resource of trusted information. Increasingly, analysis shows that consumers are relying more and more on their social media networks and trusted connections for guidance on vehicle purchases. A primary conclusion to draw from these trends relates to control and influence: The most influential sources of information in the vehicle purchasing process exist beyond the traditional span of control of the OEM and dealer to include social influences. 2. Manage the customer experience: The challenge of managing a customer experience that lives beyond the boundaries of the OEM’s four walls is not new. After all, manufacturers have worked to manage customer relationships through independent dealerships. However, due to the ways in which consumer power and vehicle shopping influence are rapidly changing, consumer expectations about their experience in the dealership (which they view as inseparable from their experience with the vehicle brand) are also transforming. What’s more, the customer experience lifecycle features many more touchpoints compared to what existed 10 or 15...
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...keb19700POSITION: PROCUREMENT COORDINATOR DEPARTMENT: CAPITAL PLANNING & PROCUREMENT SUMMARY: UNDER DIRECT SUPERVISION, THE PROCUREMENT COORDINATOR WILL ASSIST THE PROCUREMENT MANAGER OR PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR WITH THE ASSIGNED COMMODITIES WITHIN THE GUIDELINES ESTABLISHED EDUCATION: BUSINESS OR RELATED STUDIES EXPERIENCE: RELEVANT OCCUPATIONAL EXPERIENCE TRAVEL: NONE LOCATION: FOUR SEASONS CORPORATE OFFICE – 1165 LESLIE STREET, TORONTO, ONTARIO APPLICATION METHOD: PLEASE SUBMIT COVER LETTER AND RESUME BY EMAIL TO JOBS.CORPORATEOFFICETORONTO@FOURSEASONS.COM KEY ACTIVITIES Supplier Follow-Up OUTCOMES Prepare Requests for Quote as directed. Assist Procurement Manager with all supplier follow-up (pricing, deliveries, etc.) Assist with preparation (acquisition of samples) and presentation of product for review. Assist with preparation of cost comparisons Assist with preparation of information for master database files Expedite and update Delivery Status Report as assigned. Assist with budgets and Budget Variance Reports. Enter purchase orders into database system. Prepare and keep all relevant documentation as required. Other duties as assigned and special projects. Reporting Purchase Orders Other COMPETENCIES: KEY BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES Excellent oral and written communication skills; must be able to write clearly and effectively. Ability to work under pressure and meet various shifting deadlines in a very fastpaced environment. Analytical...
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...Kudler Company is dealing with issues that could eventually become detrimental problems that could hinder the company if not addressed before substantial growth. Kudler foods face many issues that can eventually become problems, if not corrected. The goal of Kudler foods is to be a one stop shop with a reasonable price. The mission statement says that they shop the whole world for their products. The finest is what they guarantee their customers. One if the issues are in the process of purchasing “There is no purchasing department in any of the stores although standard purchasing procedures are in place” (Kudler Foods). The lack of a purchasing department within each store leaves room for theft by store managers and over ordering because of favors to venders. Unfortunately, if Kudler is leaving all of the purchasing to the managers except for bulk items, they are jeopardizing the integrity of the products and the company leaving it open for corruption. The solution would be to produce a purchasing department that would make purchases and verify the orders of the management and providing purchase orders to vendors. A new study suggests that nearly any worker may be willing to steal from an employer under some circumstances--unless the company makes clear that theft is unethical ”(Research news). The other alternative is to place more responsibilities of lost on the manager’s salary because a study at Ohio State University shows that, “nearly no employees were willing to steal if...
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...evaluation of the advantages, potential disadvantages, and managerial considerations of purchasing outside stores services. Advantages of purchasing outside stores services: * A purchase price saving of approximately 6 percent can be realized on approximately 90 percent of the items purchased. Assuming that this 90 percent includes a proportionate number of high-value items, minimum purchase savings should approximate $48,000 to $50,000 per year ($900,000 x .90 x .06 = $48,600). * If the stores operation is discontinued, personnel and facilities operating costs can be reduced approximately $200,000 per year. (This assumes that the four individuals can be absorbed on an attrition basis elsewhere in the organization, and that the freed-up space can be used for other productive purposes.) * If Futronics is able to enter into a systems contracting type of agreement for three years with one of the supply houses, the incremental supply ordering costs in purchasing will decline markedly. This is a very significant operating efficiency which will free a buyer up to engage in additional analytical purchasing work. * Discontinuance of the stores operation will virtually eliminate the time requirements for supervision of the operation. Similar to item number 4 above , this additional time can be used by purchasing personnel to do a more productive and professional job of purchasing. * Futronics now has 42 operating sites. As the organization continues to grow...
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