...Week One: Strategic Business Continuity and Internal Risk Assessment Details Due Points Objectives 1.1 Identify key firm capabilities. 1.2 Describe the components of sustainable competitive advantage. 1.3 Analyze the influence of the organization on strategic business continuity. Readings Read Ch. 3 of Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization, Concepts and Case. Participation Participate in class discussion. All Days 1 Discussion Questions Respond to three discussion questions. Days 3, 4, 5 3 Weekly Summary Write a 300-350 word summary of how this week’s material relates to you professionally and to organization. Post to Weekly Summary Thread. Day 7 1 Learning Team Instructions Create the Learning Team Charter. Select one of the following Virtual Organizations to use throughout the course for strategic plan development: • Riordan Manufacturing • Huffman Trucking • McBride Financial Services Day 7 Individual Internal Risk Assessment Resource: University Library’s Datamonitor 360 Access the University Library’s Datamonitor 360 and look up one of the following companies: • Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. • Jet Blue Airways Corporation • Hewlett-Packard Company • The Home Depot Prepare a 1,050- to 1,750-word paper identifying the key capabilities of your selected company. • Discuss the firm’s strengths and weaknesses in marketing, human resources, management, research...
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...Week One: Strategic Business Continuity and Internal Risk Assessment Details Due Points Objectives 1.1 Identify key firm capabilities. 1.2 Describe the components of sustainable competitive advantage. 1.3 Analyze the influence of the organization on strategic business continuity. Readings Read Ch. 3 of Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization, Concepts and Case. Participation Participate in class discussion. All Days 1 Discussion Questions Respond to three discussion questions. Days 3, 4, 5 3 Weekly Summary Write a 300-350 word summary of how this week’s material relates to you professionally and to organization. Post to Weekly Summary Thread. Day 7 1 Learning Team Instructions Create the Learning Team Charter. Select one of the following Virtual Organizations to use throughout the course for strategic plan development: • Riordan Manufacturing • Huffman Trucking • McBride Financial Services Day 7 Individual Internal Risk Assessment Resource: University Library’s Datamonitor 360 Access the University Library’s Datamonitor 360 and look up one of the following companies: • Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. • Jet Blue Airways Corporation • Hewlett-Packard Company • The Home Depot Prepare a 1,050- to 1,750-word paper identifying the key capabilities of your selected company. • Discuss the firm’s strengths and weaknesses in marketing, human resources, management, research...
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...Strategic Audit of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. | Explore Page 1 of 70 Home Blog Contact Site Map Explore Learn. Live. Share. http://www.jacobcamp.com/2011/05/29/strategic-audit-of-lowes-companies-inc/ 5/25/2012 Strategic Audit of Lowe’s Companies, Inc. | Explore Page 2 of 70 Strategic Audit of Lowe’s Companies, I May 29, 2011 | Business Development,ERP,General Business Home » Blog » General Business » Business Development » Strategic Audit of Lowe’s Companies, In Click for PDF: Lowe’s U.S. Strategic Audit Spring 2011 Lowe’s Company, Incorporated is a home improvement retailer that has stores throughout the Unit following report is a student strategic audit for Mike Anderson’s strategic management course at th undergraduate student project team was composed of the following people: Keelie Cox, Alicia Kelly Wu, and myself (Jacob Camp) I. Executive Summary This report critically overviews the U.S. Division of Lowe’s Company, Incorporated. The purpose of accurate and current representation of Lowe’s through research using a variety of sources, method statements, recommendations, or opinions offered herein are only perspectives from the respective state that these aforementioned statements will come to fruition. The current operations, performance, and policies of Lowe’s will most certainly lead the company t the fortunate position to avert disaster. A note of exceptionally good news is that Lowe’s was evalu with a probability...
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...Finba1. i. Home Depot’s mission statement is as follows: “The Home Depot is in the home improvement business and our goal is to provide the highest level of service, the broadest selection of products and the most competitive prices. We are a values-driven company and our eight core values include the following: Excellent customer service, Taking care of our people, Giving back, Doing the "right" thing, Creating shareholder value, Respect for all people, Entrepreneurial spirit, Building strong relationships.” (Home Depot, 2014). According to Exhibit 2.1 in chapter two, Top management of a company provide strategic direction after assessing the external and internal environments. Taking a look at the external environment, some of Opportunities available to Home Depot (Circa 2005) were Restructuring, to make operations more sound and profitable, provision of internet shopping facilities to customers, and expanding the market geographically and locally, as well as targeting new market segments. It should be quite important to note that during the Nardelli era, the slogan Home Depot used was “Improve everything we touch”. Threats included declining home sales and market share, a looming credit crunch, a dip in the level of customer service and product knowledge hitherto offered due to poorly trained staff, and a saturation of the markets in North America. Increasing levels of Environmental Uncertainty as more layers of management are added to achieve a more vertical structure...
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...Assessment/Diagnosis………………………………………….……………..………………….. 3 Analysis of the Change Strategy…………………………………………………………………………….…..………… 4 Results/Outcomes………………………………………….……………………,………………. 7 Evaluation of the Effort…………………………………………………………………………………….……….. 9 References………………………………………………………………………...…………….. 13 Appendix A……………………………...…………………………………………………………………. 14 Appendix B……………………………….……………………………………………….……………….. 15 Executive Summary Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. From the start, associates were able to offer the best customer service in the industry, guiding customers through projects such as laying tile, changing a fill valve or handling a power tool. Not only did store associates undergo rigorous product knowledge training, but they also began offering lessons so customers could learn how to do it themselves. Home Depot is still guided today by those values established by its founders, excellent customer service, taking care of people, entrepreneurial spirit, respect for all people, building strong relationships, doing the right thing, giving back to communities, and creating shareholder value. (Corporate Website, 2003). I will be concentrating on the Human Resource department of the organization. They restructured their HR department by cutting down their HR functions believing that it they could create jobs in other sections of the company. The changes occurred when the company officials decided that it won't be handling human resources issues on a store by store basis...
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...Background The Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in Atlanta, Georgia after they were fired from their executive post at the Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers in California. The founders began the home improvement company around their vision of “one-stop shopping for the do it yourselfer” opening their first two stores in 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia in a cavernous warehouses that dwarfed the competition stocking 25,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), much more than the average hardware store at that time, and staffing the stores with knowledgeable experts in home improvement and customer service. From the beginning, Home Depot was able to offer not only the best customer service in the industry by hiring employees knowledgeable and experienced in the business and by motivating the sales associates to develop relationships with the customers instead of seeing sales as a transaction, but by popularizing the concept of “do it yourself” (DIY) offering to homeowners and other individuals trainings workshops and clinics so customers could learn how to do it themselves. The Home Depot revolutionized the home improvement industry by bringing the know-how and the tools to the consumer and by saving them money. In 1980, Home Depot opened two more stores achieving annual sales of $22 million from all its four stores. By 1990, the company had opened 145 stores, employing 21,500 people, generating annual sales of $3.8 billion, and becoming the number one U.S. retailer...
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...Roles and functions of Human resource department Introduction The Human Resource Department deals with management of people within the organisation. There are a number of responsibilities that come with this title. First of all, the Department is responsible for hiring members of staff; this will involve attracting employees, keeping them in their positions and ensuring that they perform to expectation. Besides, the Human Resource Department also clarifies and sets day to day goals for the organisation. It is responsible for organisation of people in the entire Company and plans for future ventures and objectives involving people in the Company. (Handy, 1999) Research has shown that the human aspect of resources within an organisation contributes approximately eighty percent of the organisation’s value. This implies that if people are not managed properly, the organisation faces a serious chance of falling apart. The Human Resource Department’s main objective is to bring out the best in their employees and thus contribute to the success of the Company. These roles come with certain positive and negative aspects. However, the negative aspects can be minimised by improvements to their roles and functions. These issues shall be examined in detail in the subsequent sections of the essay with reference to case examples of businesses in current operation. Positive aspects of Roles and Functions of the Human Resource Department Recruitment of Employees This is one of the...
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...Riordan Manufacturing is facing a decline in morale and work ethics. Declining sales and uneven profits over the years not only forced the company to change its sales processes, but also prompted them to adopt a customer-relationship system. Riordan’s HR reward and compensation policy program needs to be revised to deal with the existing problem. HR professionals over the world know that their toughest job is recruiting and retaining top-notch employees for their companies. With unemployment at its current rate, expanding businesses search for qualified workers like big-game hunters stalking the most elusive prey. Compensation plans and benefit plans are two compensation packages companies are using to invest in its employees. To assist Riordan Manufacturing in changing its sales process, Team D has chose the following companies to use as a benchmark: Liz Claiborne, QUALCOMM, Home Depot, Hertz, Coke Cola, Lafarge, Ford and The Container Store. Team D will then analyze each company by providing key concepts such as designing the elements of an effective employee relations program, create a career development planning model that will incorporate attention to key development success factors, evaluate compensation and motivation practices as they relate to organizational strategy, and discuss the impact of ethics on the determination of compensation and rewards systems. Effective Employee Relations Programs. "Success requires satisfied, loyal employees," as stated by Dreher...
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...CHAPTER 1: COST MANAGEMENT AND STRATEGY EXERCISES 1-24 Strategy; Real Estate Services (15 min) This exercise can be used to provide a good perspective for the students to see the role of cost management in solving business issues, and in placing the management accountant in more of a leadership role in the firm. It also provides an early motivation for the cost behavior issues to be discussed later in chapter 3 and chapter 8. The management accountant has a hunch that the company is about to take on a potentially damaging strategic initiative. This is a great opportunity to begin to play more of a strategic role in the company. The first step should be to obtain the relevant information about projected revenues and costs and do a careful analysis of the likely profitability of developing the new, smaller customers. Here’s how the case might be used in a class discussion. First, ask the class to identify the types of costs likely to be incurred by this company in providing its service. The answers are likely to include labor costs and materials for cleaning and maintenance, in addition to costs for maintaining the firm’s office. As these examples are given, put them on the chalkboard and collect 6 or 8 of them. Then, ask how each of these costs might differ between large and small customers. For example, the cost of cleaning labor and materials will likely be somewhat proportional to the square feet of space each customer occupies, so that cost projections...
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...remodels a company’s social systems. The leadership team of Home Depot employed a remarkable set of tools to do that. by Ram Charan W hen Robert Nardelli arrived at Home Depot in December 2000, the deck seemed stacked against the new CEO. He had no retailing experience and, in fact, had spent an entire career in industrial, not consumer, businesses. His previous job was running General Electric’s power systems division, whose multimilliondollar generating plants for industry and governments were a far cry from $10 light switches for do-it-yourselfers. re tu ul C Change HOME DEPOT’S BLUEPRINT FOR april 2006 61 H o m e D e p o t’s B l u e p r i n t f o r C u l t u re C h a n g e Nardelli also was taking over what seemed to be a wildly successful company, with a 20-year record of growth that had outpaced even Wal-Mart’s – but with latent financial and operational problems that threatened its continued growth, and even its future, if they weren’t quickly addressed. To top it off, Nardelli’s exacting and tough-minded approach, which he learned at General Electric, set him on a collision course with the freewheeling yet famously close-knit culture fostered by his predecessors, Home Depot’s legendary cofounders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank. It was this culture that Nardelli had to reshape if he hoped to bring some big-company muscle to the cooled from the breakneck pace of the late 1990s, the company continues to enjoy robust and profitable growth. Revenue climbed...
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...Summary This author has provided an analysis of the IKEA case study found in the Marketing Management textbook. It analyzes the strategies used by IKEA to gain competitive advantage in markets outside of its original market. The report provides a background of the organization, recognizes IKEA’s main markets and examines corporate level strategies by identifying its target market and evaluating its pricing strategies. This case study will further analyze how culture, design, and price play significant roles in determining IKEA’s success. In addition, IKEA’s “global sourcing network of more than 2300 suppliers in 67 countries” (Peter & Donnelly, 2013, p. 411) allows its suppliers to provide furniture of all kinds to its customers. IKEA produced standardized products, however, this international strategy did not work for the United States. Therefore, the company has to take corrective actions. Table of Contents Executive Summary i Situational Analysis 1 Environment 1 Economic conditions and trends 1 Cultural and social values and trends 1 Political and legal issues 1 Technological factors 1 Summary of environmental opportunities and threats 2 Industry 2 Classification and definition of industry 2 Analysis of existing competitors 2 Analysis of potential new entrants 3 Analysis of substitute products 3 Analysis of suppliers 3 Analysis of buyers 3 Summary of...
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...TECHNOLOGY (B.TECH) IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. MODIBBO ADAMA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY YOLA, NIGER STATE OCTOBER 2012 DEDICATION This report is dedicated to the Almighty ALLAH and to my beloved mother and Mrs Aisha Tijjani and her husband also with the entire staffs and students of Surveying and Geo-informatics Federal University of Technology Minna. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT My profound gratitude goes to the Almighty God who saw me through this training program and thanks my parents and siblings who encouraged me when the road seemed too tough, for shelter and financial support. My appreciation goes to the staff of Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) especially my supervisor and the staff of Pipeline Right Of Way (PROW) and to all NNPC staff and development control for their kind support and for the knowledge they impacted on me during the period of my training. My thanks goes to the SIWES and ITF coordinators especially the Federal University Of Technology Minna SIWES coordinator, my Head of Department (HOD), Course Adviser, and entire survey staff and students for all their contribution so far truly I am very grateful for their support and kind words of encouragement. I really appreciate all my friends for being there in both the good and challenging times and for the fun we all had....
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...globally famous home furnishing retailer. IKEA was founded by a 17 years old boy Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. It has grown rapidly and today it is the world's largest furniture retailer, known for its cost control, operational details and continuous product development, allowing it to lower its prices while continuing its global expansion. Since then, the IKEA Group has grown into an international retail brand with 131,000 co-workers in 41 countries generating annual sales of more than 24.7 billion EURO. IKEA carries a range of approximately 9,500 products, majority of which is flat-pack resulting in reduction in costs and packaging. This wide range is available in all IKEA stores and customers can order much of the range online through IKEA’s website. IKEA stores include restaurants and cafés serving typical Swedish food. They also have small food shops selling Swedish groceries. The biggest sales countries are Germany, USA, France, UK and Sweden. Competitive prices are one of the foundations of the IKEA concept and help to make customers want to buy from IKEA. This low price strategy is united with a wide range of well designed, useful products. IKEA’s products provide for every lifestyle and life stage of its customers, who come from all age groups and types of households. This is vital in times when the retail sector is depressed, as it increases IKEA’s potential market. I have selected The Home Depot for comparison with IKEA which are one of the largest companies in the furniture...
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...CUSTOMER CENTRICITY MODEL? CASE # 3 Best Buy Co. Inc.: Sustainable Customer Centricity Model? MGT403 Strategic Management Prepared for Tanvir H DeWan Coordinator of College of Business IUBAT Prepared by Serial Number | Name | ID | 01 | Shahriar Rawshon (Group Leader) | 09102095 | 02 | Md. Zakiruzzaman | 09102151 | 03 | Suchona Akter Swarna | 09102163 | 04 | Shahara Akter Eva | 09102156 | 05 | Kanij Fatama | 09102165 | 06 | Ruksana Aktar | 09102130 | 07 | Md. Al Amin | 09302012 | Section: B International University of Business Agriculture and Technology Date of Submission: 29th May, 2012 Current Situation: Best Buy was a specialty retailer of consumer electronics. It operated over 1,100 stores in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. With approximately 155,000 employees, it also operated over 2,800 stores in Canada, Mexico, China, and Turkey. The company’s subsidiaries included Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, and Pacific Sales. In Canada, Best Buy operated under both the Best Buy and Future Shop labels. From a strategic standpoint, Best Buy moved from being a discount retailer (a low price strategy) to a service-oriented firm that relied on a differentiation strategy. In 1989, Best Buy changed the compensation structure for sales associates from commission-based to non- commissioned-based, which resulted in consumers having more control over the purchasing process and in cost savings for the company (the number of sales associates...
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...Aniemeke Strategic Analysis of PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc. Annual Report 2013 R1403D66321 Table of contents 1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………………….3 2. Strategic Analysis of the Annual Report ………………………………………………………5 3. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………..14 4. References ……………………………………………………………………………………………………15 Introduction “Strategic management process is a method by which managers conceive of and implement a strategy that can lead to a sustainable competitive advantage” (StrategicManagementInsight.com, 2013). The structure of this report will focus on a Critical analysis of PZ Cussons most recent annual report based on the Strategic management process in play. The purpose of this study is to analyze PZ Cussons Nigeria PLC’s strategic management process with the aid of its annual report. The Nigerian fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector is evidently extremely competitive and as such requires a meticulous execution of strategic management process within its business environment. A business must be able to analyze its environment and make informed decisions that will not only guarantee its survival but profit. The fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in Nigeria basically involves the manufacture as well as the marketing of soaps, detergents, home and personal care products, and electrical goods. This also includes food and nutritional products. The sector comprises of four major consumer companies - PZ...
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