...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2: Creating a Business Anna Hall Dean Carol T. Williams Introduction to Business – BUS 100 July 26, 2010 Creating a Business There are many challenges when starting up a business such as lack of funds, finding the right location, and establishing a customer base. Funding a new business can be one of the biggest challenges because most people do not have enough money saved up to start a business especially if they are young and just starting out themselves. Trying to get funding from a financial institution can be very difficult, therefore it is best to figure out how much it is going to cost to start a business. It is always a good idea to have a financial plan before starting a business; otherwise the likelihood of the business being successful is slim. If the business is going to be a retail store, finding the right location is very important. It is important that the store is visible from the street, and that it has easy access from the street for both automobiles and pedestrians. It is also important to look at the amount of traffic in the area that the retail store is being considered. It certainly would not make sense to put a retail store out in the middle of nowhere. Establishing a customer base is very crucial to the success of a business. Without customers a business will not have any sales, and if a business does not have sales it cannot survive. Doing some light advertizing is one way to start getting...
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...when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. One challenge when setting up a business is the obstacle of arranging for financing. In business you’re going to have slow times when revenue is not steady or increasing. Ethically, businesses would like to retain their employees when times get rough. Being able to obtain a loan or establish a line credit is crucial to keeping the flow of the business going. You need capital and equipment to get your business up and running. Another challenge businesses face is finding the right employees for the job. Some people are lucky enough to have friends or family that are self motivated and are willing to put forth the effort to assist in establishing the business plan, practices, and model. Finding employees that have good work ethics: are punctual in their attendance, put in a full day’s work, and their personal integrity is held to a high standard, can be time consuming and difficult to find. Another challenge is getting your name out to a potential customer base. If people are unfamiliar and/or unaware of your company and services that you are offering to provide, they can’t contribute to the growth of your business. Creating an attractive, user friendly website is a great way to gain exposure and attract a new customer base. But most of the time, a company needs a sales force to reach out to its customer base so that the customers feel that there is personal interaction and that their business is valued and...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 5: Managing a Business Dr. Deborah Hill December 15, 2009 As businesses today is about passion and creating new things. The word fun has become a big element in the business strategy of many highly successful businesses. Make fun an important part of your corporate culture to enable relentless innovation and create an inspiring culture. 1. Explain how Urban Outfitters’ management ensures that no two stores are the same. Urban Outfitters ensures that no two stores are the same by knowing what is selling in the retail stores nationwide. In addition, Urban Outfitters has corporate directors which are in charged of what merchandise is brought and sold to the different stores. The store concepts, operations and products are very much integrated. Some stores are duplicated across the nation; Urban Outfitters does not have the same stores due to management and the company policy. John Kyees has stated that upper management is responsible for the mundane bones of the business, such as distribution and call centers, design at the store level. For example, director’s over sight the budgets for the store displayed at corporate level, but managers many of whom are artist and are very intelligent in interior design regarding specific store design. Moreover, in opening up new locations it demands that store managers and product developers are to be in teams to make sure each store is different. Their brand is to be unique even with the...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Marketing a Business Jason A. Knight August 21st, 2011 Professor A. Garabedian 1. Explain why Sears or Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Urban Outfitters can be credited for successfully creating a trendy counterculture image. They have been able to do this by targeting specific markets in key areas and locations, offering exclusivity, and promoting a certain lifestyle. Sears and Wal-mart have both established themselves as being highly successful and profitable business chains. However, even though these large chains have established themselves as strong contenders in the retail market Sears and Wal-mart cannot effectively create a trendy counterculture image. Sears and Wal-mart lack the ability to offer exclusivity and the ability to target specific markets. Both chains are just simply too large. Even though there are Urban Outfitters locations worldwide they still manage to offer a very specific selection of items on a small scale to accommodate the social and socioeconomic demographics of the area in which they are located. You can find a sears or Wal-mart in virtually every state in the U.S. and find the exact same broad range of products. There is really no differentiation, nothing that sets the stores apart. Literally just anyone has the ability to shop in these places and offering such a broad range of products, including groceries, clothing, and electronics attracts a wider range of people...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Steve Jobs Introduction to Business Professor Mariatta Lewis July 31, 2011 Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Starting a business can be very challenging. There’s always a positive and negative side to it and it’s not always easy. Entrepreneurs and business owners will always over come different challenges when setting up a business. Finances, location, and finding a good staff is all linked together but can be challenging when opening up a business. Finances have a big part to opening up a business. You will have to find the right lender and see who has the best interest rates for business loans. For example, if I was to start up my own restaurant I will need money to buy or rent a facility, buy restaurant equipment, or buying the food. First I will have to sit down and set up a business plan and see what is within my budget. If the bank qualifies you for a $100,000 loan you know that is your budget. Figure out what you need to get for the business, find the location, and hiring a staff. A good way to budget is find stores that sell cheap items and buy things in bulk. Budgeting money can be very challenging because when you have that large lump sum it’s easy to just buy whatever you see. So as a new business owner plan out what you need for the business and budget the money you got. Finding a location can be very challenging. Explore your options to see if it...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Introduction to Business Prof. Maria Gambuzza Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business 1. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. One of the challenges when setting up a business is about finance. First and foremost, business needs to determine the startup cost. To be able to do that, they must identify all the expenses their business will encounter during their startup phase. The expenses will be either one-time cost, such as business license fee or going costs, such as leasing cost, supplies, etc… After that phase, business needs to find their capital sources. If they don’t have their own savings or can’t borrow money from friends or family, their option will be getting loan from banks. In the early state of the business, their inexperience “in financial matters often prompts banks to deny loan requests”. (1) Business owner needs to well prepare and organize to prove to their lender that they are the bank’s good investment. The other challenge is experience and skills. Many people are first time business owners who are inexperience and lack of skills. Some start a business because they see people doing successfully and think they can do the same. However, running a business smoothly and successfully requires owners to have skills and experience in all perspective of the business, including accounting, marketing, etc. The third...
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...BUS100096VA016-1118-001 Assignment #1: Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2: Creating a Business 1. Setting up a business can be a very challenging job. Having a beautiful dream thinking about the business while sitting in your nice office with all the amenities is not enough. It is great to have an idea, but you have to make that idea work. There are lots of challenges that face their owners when setting up a business. It could take years for a business to produce enough profits for the owners to be able to enjoy. Most businesses start small and in time, with experience, goodwill, and success, they can grow into bigger businesses. Here are three challenges that new business face: ➢ Idea/Concept: Many entrepreneurs face risks to create their own business because they do not have the right idea or concept. Sometime ideas and concepts are good but if customers will not buy what they are offering, the business will fail. Richard Hayne and his wife Judy along with an old college roommate, Scott Belair had a great idea. They wanted to open a small shop filled with unique objects that they could sell. The basically sold used second hand clothes, bohemian knickknacks, and “found objects”. Their customers would come for the unique “found objects” and were willing to pay what they were being sold for. Entrepreneurs- people who risk their time, money and other resources to start and manage business-business basics chapter 1 page 3 ...
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...Creating a Business Gerri Lutz Professor Ashok BUS 10008616 July 25, 2010 When setting up a business there will be many challenges that you can encounter during this process. And why customers would pay a higher price for goods, and others less because of the quality of the product being marketed. In the following questions and answers, this will tell you why customers will definitely pay for the quality. 1. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. 2. Define what a “niche” product is. Give at least three examples of niche products. 3. Explain why a niche company might have an advantage in a market. Would price necessarily be an advantage? Explain why or why not. 4. Identify and explain three reasons why customers would pay more for exclusivity. 5. Explain how a niche player “chips away” at a larger competitor’s base. Give three examples of retailers who have done this. Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. Financing: Does the owner have sufficient cash flow to fund the opening of the business as well as continuing operations? Many times an owner does have enough financial background to open their doors...
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...TermPaperWarehouse.com - Free Term Papers, Essays and Research Documents The Research Paper Factory * Join * Search * Browse * Saved Papers ------------------------------------------------- Haut du formulaire Bas du formulaire ------------------------------------------------- Haut du formulaire Bas du formulaire * Home Page » * Business and Management Case Study: Chase’s Strategy for Syndicating the Hong Kong Disneyland Loan (a) In: Business and Management Case Study: Chase’s Strategy for Syndicating the Hong Kong Disneyland Loan (a) Case Study: Chase’s Strategy for Syndicating the Hong Kong Disneyland Loan (A) Q1. How should Chase have bid in the first round competition to lead the HK$3.3 billion Disneyland financing? 1.Three ways to approach this deal 1) bid to win, 2) bid to lose and3) no bid. Chase chose to bid to lose on the first round, but just enough to make it to the short list. Also, since Chase is one of Disney's relationship banks, Chase would not want to ruin this relationship by not bidding on their project. If Chase wanted to lead the competition from the first round, they should have made a bid that was more aggressive and aimed to win. This bid would have been closer to the desires of Disney, making them more appealing and increasing their probabilities of leading the financing. However, they chose to bid to lose, with just enough terms to get into the second round to "protect their reputation", but not...
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...ASSIGNMENT #1 2 Question #1 - Given the business situation for Spectrum Brand. Explain. Spectrum Brands, the former Rayovac Corporation, went on a radical business transformation under David Jones’ management. According to Dictionary.com, to transform means to: “change in condition, nature, or character;; convert” (“Transform,” 2011, para. 2). The company that used to produce only batteries ventured into new businesses and currently operates in the market of pet products, personal grooming, and lawn and garden care (“The Buyout  Boom,” 2007). The diversification of products certainly required a new organization structure, which should be based on a matrix structure, or a multidivisional structure; since line, and line-and-staff structures would not be appropriate anymore for the required dynamic of the new company. It has been discovered that “[a]s companies grow and diversify, traditional line structures become difficult to coordinate, making communication difficult and decision making slow” (Ferrel, Hirt & Ferrel, 2009, p 247). Remember, you never end a paragraph with a quote. In a multidivisional structure, the company is organized in divisions, which are large groups that might be formed on the geography, product or customer basis; and within those divisions there may be departments also organized by customer, products, regions or a combination of those groups. This structure enables the decision process to be faster, since the managers...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study Part 2: Creating a Business Identify 3 challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. Since we live in such a technological age, customers can surf the web 24 hours a day and seven days a week, looking for the lowest price available. So, it will be up to the business owner to market a quality and unique product that will spark the interest of customers and will ultimately encourage them to buy. Considering the last few years that our nation has been in a recession, housing and banking loans have been very difficult to obtain, so I’m sure it’s just as difficult to get approved for a business loan. Also, being a new brand or business, banks may also be less inclined to give out credit. So, it will be a huge challenge to the available funds to start a business. Being able to persevere during the rough times, it’s all on you. Being an owner, you will have to be 110% invested mentally and physically, but also be motivated to take on every challenge that may arise. Whether it be uninspired employees to possible a natural disaster damaging your business. The way you handle each obstacle can make or break your business. Define what a “niche” product is. Give at least 3 examples. A niche product is a product made and marketed for use in a small and specialized group. The iPad, BlackBerry Torch and Taylor Made Burner Irons are three examples of a “niche” product. Explain why a niche company might have...
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...Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a Business Preston Frey Dr. Jose A. Folino Introduction to Business October 29, 2011 1) Identify at least three challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. The first challenge in setting up any business is having a viable product or service to bring to the market. The selected product or service must fill a need in the market that is in general not presently being met, or is superior in quality to what is presently being provided. In a market that is saturated with product and services, finding an uncovered market or need demands innovative thinking. Money is the second challenge. After identifying the product or service, capital must be obtained to fund all the costs involved in the initial start-up. These costs would include such things as; securing a physical location for the business, up-fitting and staffing said location, hard costs to produce or supply initial deliverables, and a host of other ancillary items. Securing this upfront funding is difficult in an economy that is struggling with limited resources or incentives to receive funding from government or private investors. A third identified challenge, are the extensive requirements for a new business to insure that the product as well as the operation will be compliant with the myriad of federal and state licensing and regulatory laws. Examples of such requirements would include workman’s compensation, OSHA rules and regulations...
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...A study on the franchising opportunities and the barriers to it in Pakistan A Proposal Submitted by: Faizan mujtaba malik TP027822 BA (hons).International Business Management In Partial fulfilment of requirements of the programme Bachelors of Arts in International Business Management Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation 06-11-2013 Abstract Recently countries over the world have been in a very fast economic development race with the most modern and appropriate strategies and technologies. However, franchising has been of the most successful and useful strategies that helped in the development and improvement of countries. On the other hand Pakistan is one of the developing countries that suffer from the lack of such strategies and technologies that would play the role in the economic development of the country. This report provides an overview of franchising strategy with its advantages and drawbacks. Moreover the report is about the market in Pakistan and provides a much clear image of the environmental factors and current situation in the country. The aim of research is to study the opportunities of franchising in Pakistan as well as the challenges that organizations face in the market of Pakistan specially in franchising. The research focuses on the environmental factors, political and social and cultural factors and its impact on the franchising market in Pakistan. The report also focuses on how technology and infrastructure can...
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...N S I EG EL Haier's U.S. Refrigerator Strategy The objective of most Chinese enterprises is to export products and earn foreign currency, exploring easier markets first like Southeast Asia. . . . Our purpose is to establish a brand reputation by first penetrating difficult markets such as the United States. . . . All success relies on one thing in overseas markets—creating a localized U.S. brand instead of an imported Chinese brand. We see an opportunity to compete against established, slow moving companies there by being more customer-focused than they are. To win over those customers we have two approaches—speed and differentiation. — Zhang Ruimin, CEO Haier Group1 The Haier Group was one of China’s most accomplished and important companies, with estimated global sales in 2007 of $16 billion. Founded in 1984 as the Qingdao Refrigerator Company, the original company was a collectively owned enterprise in the same northeast coastal municipality that produced the popular Tsingtao beer. Haier became a conglomerate electrical home appliance and consumer electronic products company. Its core business was white goods—refrigerators and freezers, ranges, and microwave ovens, dishwashers, and washing machines and dryers—and room air conditioners. Later, it diversified into mobile telephones, television receivers, personal computers, and even financial services and pharmaceuticals. Overall it produced 96 different product lines comprising 15,100 different product specifications...
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...CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER OUTLINE What Is Managerial Ethics? Criteria for Ethical Decision Making Utilitarian Approach Individualism Approach Moral Rights Approach Justice Approach Factors Affecting Ethical Choices The Manager The Organization What Is Social Responsibility? Organizational Stakeholders The Ethic of Sustainability and the Natural Environment Evaluating Corporate Social Performance Economic Responsibilities Legal Responsibilities Ethical Responsibilities Discretionary Responsibilities Managing Company Ethics and Social Responsibility Ethical Individuals Ethical Leadership Organizational Structures and Systems Ethical Challenges in Turbulent Times Economic Performance Social Entrepreneurship Managerial Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Define ethics and explain how ethical behavior relates to behavior governed by law and free choice. Explain the utilitarian, individualism, moral rights, and justice approaches for evaluating ethical behavior. Describe how individual and organizational factors shape ethical decision making. Define corporate social responsibility and how to evaluate it along economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary criteria. Describe four organizational approaches to environmental responsibility, and explain the philosophy of sustainability. Discuss how ethical organizations are created through ethical leadership and organizational...
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