Business case for Franchise of McDonalds

Business case for Franchise of McDonalds This business case is mainly designed for planning about the franchise of Mc Donald Company while this company has been franchise from 1955 and the franchise of this company brings the success in many times. Mc Donald considers franchise is one of the predominant ways of doing business. At present, the Mc Donalds franchise is one of the greatest food service retailers which have 30,000 restaurants placed in more than 100 countries. For purchasing Mc Donalds franchise I have to purchase existing restaurant of franchise. By purchasing this, I can save 15% of the cost because initially I have to come up with 25% costs for existing one where new one purchasing cost will be 40% that means the profit of 15% can be gained. Mc Donald never provides the financial support for franchise and fund must be gained from the non-borrowed personal source. And the statistical figure might be come up to about $3, 00,000. The key objectives of taking the plan of Mc Donald franchise to achieve profitability. Because the brand image of Mc Donald is already existed in market and it is more recognized. So, I can expand the market easily and profit can be achieved. Business opportunity: There is the opportunity to operate own individual or more than one store. For this reason, I choose the place for establish the franchise of Mc Donald i.e. in Ilford station. Near to this station, any branch of Mc Donald is not placed. Not only this, there is the potentiality of huge customers and highest profitability because the product or menu of Mc Donald are already recognized to the whole world. Benefits: For Mc Donald franchise, there is no need to think about new menu and the cooking employees are already extremely efficient and used with all tasks. In Mc Donald franchise, risk is reduced to set up my own business where division of labour and turnover intensity of fixed menu grants for appropriate economies of scale. Another benefit is that any new products are no need to develop and dont require to conduct any kinds of market analysis. And also no need to think about brand name or image. Costs: The franchise cost of Mc Donald might be  £3, 00,000 where I have to provide 25% of the worth which is considered as unencumbered finance and the rest 75% will be collected from the bank as a loan in order to favourable funding terms. Another cost is one-off franchise fee of  £30, 000 and franchiser training program fee is  £5, 000 which is returned after finishing the training program. Miscellaneous cost: rent which will be paid monthly on premises related to profitability and sales will 12%. A fee will be paid for use of the Mc Donald system-5% of sales. National marketing expenses contribution-4.5% of sales. Returns: in a year, a cash flow will be made where the cash inflow and outflow will about  £70, 000 to  £98,000 per year. But this statement will not certain because it will be made before debt repayment. The return can be more. The return on investment will currently about 10% which shows the profitability rate of this business. Implementation plan: Paid initial franchise fee: 26th March 2010 Franchiser training program: 27th March 2010 (start) Go down payment to Mc Donald: 28th March, 2010. Service providing will be started from 1st April, 2010. Task 2: 1.2 Literature review: The report is mainly done on the business plan of Mc Donald franchise. I take the business plan of franchise of Mc Donald, because of several reasons. Todays business world are very much competitive and its become tougher and tougher for successful in the business market. If a person want to start his business as an entrepreneur it may be impossible to become profitable in the business market. Because establishing the new business or enter the market as a new, it is quite impossible to set up his business or become successful. But if we take the plan of establishing the business as a franchiser then it will be easy to achieve profitability in our business. Because, in franchise business, a recognized brand is already existed and all thing are readymade in before. Just spend some money to buy it and start the business. Franchising can be defined as the exercise of using another companys brand image and their successful business model. Through this kind of business, we can avoid investment and liability over a chain. The key factors of adopting franchise the business are that we can get the business with a good track record of profitability and that business is easily imitated. Here, for making business plan, I adopt the Mc Donald franchise because I want to be my own boss in my business, can trade a well established and high quality of product, continuous support, benefits from national marketing carried out by Mc Donald and they receive excess to business forecast information. The best example of franchising is the brand franchising of Mc Donald. Mc Donald allows peoples to establish their own business as Mc Donald franchiser and grant the rights to set up their business. Under the Mc Donald franchise, the franchisee purchases the equipments, fittings and the permission to run the franchise for 20 years. All franchisees of Mc Donald use standardized branding, menus, design layouts and administrative systems of Mc Donald. The Mc Donald franchisees also use the same standards and operating methods or manufacturing and maintain the quality of products. Any company, when they bring new products or service in the market they have to consider about the customer demand and their choice. They have a huge number of options of spending their money and places to spend it. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on the improvement of their menu in order to customer need. For this reason a market survey are conducted for analysing the customer demand. Thus, customers demands change time to time. Therefore, Care is not only taken to impact negatively the sales of the option of one by recognizing the new option, which will cannibalise sales from the old one (trade off). McDonalds knows that items on its menu will vary in popularity. Action of marketing undertaken and the resources invested will be different depending on the stage a product as reached. For example, a new product launch will typically relate to television and other advertising support. In any time a company will have a products portfolio, where each in a different stage of its cycle. It is accepted that Big Mac are now in the stage of maturity where the options Mc Donald are increasing towards the popularity. Task 3: Information about market Mc Donald is recognized as the one of the best known brands around the whole world. Branding is the term which formulated an image of an organization, service or product. The image of the brand focuses on the customers view on the organization. Brand image is mainly used while an organization shows their loyalty towards their customer through their products or services. A brand can be recognized by marketing communication methods such as: promotion and advertising which is used for developing the designs, colours and images. Similarly, Mc Donald is popular by its most familiar logo- the Golden Arches. The brand image is a significant factor for franchising. Because without strong brand image, it is impossible to become successful in franchising business. Mc Donald faces competition from other forms of businesses in all its market. In addition, there are some factors such as: economic, legal and technological changes and social factors and many other ingredients may affect the success of Mc Donald. Mc Donald franchising marketing consists of identifying the needs and requirements of customers and tries to meet theses demand in a better way than its competitors and by this the company can get loyal customers. Mc Donald has some competitors which are Burger King, KFC, Subway, Star Bucks etc. But among them Burger King is the main competitor. And in my new Mc Donald franchising place, these entire competitors branch are existed. If we focus on Mc Donald and Burger King then we can see the first difference between these two is that the Big Mac and the Whopper. But both are concentrating on customer health and taste. Mc Donald creates the achievement place for children. From this sector, Mc Donald earns a get percentage of their profits. And it is seen that children are requested to their parents to take them to Mc Donald, while Burger King doesnt give any response to this. They are used to have a sad kids clubs with B-grade promotion, where Mc Donald shows promotional activities through the childrens hit such as: Mattel, Disney and Barbie. Another strategic difference between these two is adult advertising. Mc Donald mainly advertises their salads shows to pacify the mothers who bring their kids in the sign of Golden Arched restaurant where Burger King uses other promotional strategy that is the advertisement of Stacker Sandwich which is made with the layer of cheese and meats which is stacking up to four burgers high. Sub way provides 265 calories in its meal, while Mc Donald provides a gluttonous 1230 calories. Mc Donald promotes the healthy side of foods by providing salad and water; they are still promoting the Big Mac and Pounder, that doesnt really help the matter. On other hand, Subway promotes the fresh salad and 5 a day veg. Subway provides either sub with a cookie, crips and/ or drink. Where, Mc Donald provides small chips, medium chips, and large chips, drink and a salad which probably is not much healthier than the chips. Mc Donald which is treated as a fast food company also gets competition from Star Bucks. Though Mc Donald has the strong marketing growth in fast food business, but the intention of doing competition against Star Bucks carries some risk. It can shown from the research analysis that Mc Donald restaurant has the slow down services where the Star Bucks serves the customer speedy services. But on the other hand, because of slower marketing growth, Star Bucks stock has lost about half its value since last January. Chances of success: In case of Mc Donald franchising, I have to meet so many competitors like as: Burger king, Starbucks, Subway etc and may be there create tough competition in the fast food market. But as a Mc Donald franchisee, I can say that there is the possibility of huge success and can be got reasonable returns from this business because Mc Donald is already market recognized brands and it also famous for its healthy foods which bring child, young people in the Mc Donald store. Mc Donald franchise business is one that can be beneficial for both franchisor and franchisee. So, while the Mc Donald franchisor is benefited through the brand becoming more and more visible and gets franchise fees from the franchisee, the franchisee that is me, take advantage of working with recognized brand, on there chances of success will be more. Assignment 2: Task 1: Project resources: Mc Donald is mainly recognized for its delicious burgers and milk shakes. In annual, Mc Donald plan to continue expansion. It is considered as a more suitable place for franchising to own. For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, I have to take care about franchising business requirement that is its required resources such as: financial resources, human resources, business experience, ongoing fees, training, raw materials, considerations, growth, and equipment etc. These resources are described below: Financial resources: Mc Donald franchising headquarters fixed the financial franchise requirement which should be minimum $ 3, 00,000 of non- borrowed personal resources. It is also said that since the cost of each restaurant does vary, the fee of franchise would also different, but the 3, 00,000 is a standard requirement. Among this requirement, 25% is coming from the franchisee and 75% is coming from bank loan. Human resources: Mc Donald often wants to recruit high experienced people for joining its bandwagon. As a Mc Donald franchiser, I have huge business opportunities but for using these opportunities I need the high skilled and experienced people who are the efficient on managing or owning business units, low level workers who have the experience of serve the customer and also dealing with the customer. Store equipment: In case of Mc Donald franchising, franchisor has to be made a contract with Mc Donald for 20 years. And this contract indicates that building ownership consists the property used for example: equipments of kitchen, seats, decorator, fittings are all possessed by McDonalds and are carried on lease by the franchisee. So, there is no need to spend money on purchasing these equipments because these equipments are already provided by Mc Donald. Budgeting of Mc Donald Franchising Financial Requirements: Liquid assets: N/A Net worth: N/A Franchisee fee:  £ 30,000 Required owner capital: 75,000 (25%) Bank loan: 2, 25,000 (75%) Total investment: 3, 00, 000 Budgeting: Total investment: 3, 00,000 Franchise fee: 30,000 Training: 5,000 Rent: 72,000 Service fee: 30,000 Contribution to national Marketing spend 27,000 _________________________________________ Total cost:  £ 4, 64,000 Total sales per day: number of customer ÃÆ'- per day selling = 200ÃÆ'- 100 =  £20,000 Monthly sales=  £20,000ÃÆ'-30 =  £ 6, 00, 000 N.B: 5 of the 10 people average 50 sales a day, thats over 200 sales per day. If it converted into Pound it would be around  £20,000 in sales per day and  £ 6, 00,000. Here, rent is 12% of sales Service fee is 5% of sales Contribution to national marketing spend is 4.5% of sales. So, profit= total sales total cost =  £ 6, 00, 000- 4, 64, 000 =  £ 1, 36, 000 Task 2: Staff cost: Staff training and development: As a franchisee, I take the existing store of Mc Donald which is placed on Ill ford. So, there is need to train myself as a franchisee and for this purpose Mc Donald provides training to franchisee for being able to run the business efficiently. For becoming a franchisee, every franchisee has to complete a full time training program for which franchisee pays money to Mc Donald after completing the training program this money is refunded to franchisee. This program is lasting for nine months. It is very much important for a franchisee to start work with Mc Donald, wearing the staff uniform and learning all things from cooking and making food to serving customers and also learn cleaning. Training is held on regional training centre focuses on areas such as: leadership skill, team building, business management and handling customer enquiries. The franchisees will have to recruit, train and motivate their work force, so they must learn the skill of human resource management. At the end of the training program, they learn about stock control and ordering, profit and loss accounts and the legal side of hiring, and recruiting staff. As a result, no franchisee of Mc Donald would have to ask a member of his or her staff to do something that they couldnt do themselves. Knowing this can also be powerful motivator of the staff. Mc Donald is not only providing the training to it franchisee, it shows that the success and profitability of Mc Donald mostly connected to the success of the franchisee. An experienced and high skill full professional consultant team offers continuous support on all things from human resources to accounting and IT business controls. These field consultants may become valued partners of business and are a sounding board for ideas. In case of Mc Donald franchising, here for running business, I take the existing store of Mc Donald and in accordance to Mc Donald franchising business, in existing business there is no need to recruiting, selecting and hiring and train the employee. Because the old one store, there is already all staffs are recruited and trained. And these staffs are highly skill full for doing all types of restaurant jobs such as: customer service, cleaning and managing the store also. Because, Mc Donald, whenever recruit staff on its store they at first give 3 or 4 days training to new recruited person so that he will be able to do his work effectively and efficiently and he doesnt face any difficulty in sensitive work that is servicing the customer. Cost of staff training and development: I already mention that in case of old one store there is no need to recruit, hire, select and train the staff because on that store all things are available in readymade. Not only staff, equipment and store are also placed in right position. And there is the huge possibilities of achieving profit because the cost is only occurred from rent, service fee, franchisee training fee, contribution to national marketing spend. And franchisee training cost is: 5,000 and it is also refundable. Task 3: Sources of resources: Financial resources: An initial investment that is 40% of the total cost in case of a new restaurant and 25% for existing restaurant is needed to be paid to the company where rest of the money being paid in at least 7 years. In order to down payment, there also have to meet some specification. Mc Donald franchising financial resources are coming from non- borrowed and personal resources. It may be including of bonds, securities and debentures; cash in hand; real estate or business equity. In case of financing, Mc Donald doesnt provide any financial support though there is the possibility of getting the benefits of achieve loans at lower rates. In the time of franchise, Mc Donald has to be paid monthly rent and service fees. Source of financial resources: Obtaining finance for a new business is very difficult rather than obtaining funds for a franchising business. The key factors for easily getting funds for franchising business is previous track record of franchise business. Because brand and trademark is already established, therefore Mc Donald franchise is considered a lower risk investment. Franchise Bank Loan: A franchisee can get loan from commercial bank where this type of bank offer loan to franchise business with lower defaulter rate. In fact, most of the franchising industries expand by taking loan from commercial bank at an average rate of 10 to 12 percent per year. Mc Donald franchising is also expanding by taking loan. Here, as a Mc Donald franchisee I also take the loan from commercial bank. If a potential franchisor has enough capital and they think that they have the skill of operate the business successfully, franchisors will naturally assists with financing in any way that they can. Here, in franchising market, there is also seen that some of the franchisor provide loan application packages for helping the franchisee. A good number of franchisors offer financial help to the franchisee either by financing all or part of the franchisee themselves or by helping them in locating another lender. Other financial resources: I can also get financial help from limited partnership, taking loans from friends and family, and second mortgages on existing properties. In end, whatever means a franchisee motivates in financing their franchising, it is necessary to remember that they will need to pertain in making a detailed plan about a new business for showing to prospective lenders how the business will be run. Human resource: After considering about financial resources, I have to think about human resources that are about hiring, selecting and training employees. Without employees, a business operation cant run. Here, Mc Donald offer a limited scope for employee advancement to the level of management which may attract a few motivated persons, most of our work force will be young, inexperienced and just learning about job responsibility. High employee turnover must be expected as employees graduate from high school or college or move on to other work. Good management techniques can make a difference in keeping longer term persuade staff and present continuously. Assignment 3: Task 1: Implementation of the project: Before implanting my project that is Mc Donald franchising in Ill ford, there should be describe about leadership and motivation that is how Mc Donald leads and motivate employees to do their jobs. Leading and motivating employees on Mc Donald: Employees are considered as the most significant resources in Mc Donald. Basically, Mc Donald Company uses three different motivational techniques such as: financial encouragement, non- financial encouragement and social policy. These three factors are mainly described in Maslows hierarchy theory. According to this theory, all kinds of needs must fulfill one after another. The strategy and structure of Mc Donald Company represents that only the simultaneous fulfillment of employees needs will be enhanced an employees performance. In brief, for enhancing employees performance and companys productivity, Mc Donald uses effective motivational system. In order to present situation, Mc Donald administration staff use situational approach. On the basis of motivation theories, Mc Donalds administrators have used particular motivational techniques. Having using the procedure of assembly line in food preparation, Mc Donald has assures the standard of quality and high performance. Basically, ma nagers of different stores use different leadership management technique. But in Mc Donald store, every manager use their own management techniques, some managers are stiff and some are easy. And some use the both the hard and soft techniques of management. In fact, there is the mixture of lay back (laissez- faire) and autocratic styles leadership. Mc Donalds has achieved the status of one of the most recognizable franchises across the globe through a mixture of successful marketing, consistent service and product, and strong leadership. Mc Donald mainly uses the goal oriented and task-focused leadership styles that still exists in the corporation today. Project implementation: List of activities: Assess financial requirements. Meet the experience requirement as a franchisee. Fill up the franchise application form. Pay initial franchise fees and other fees. Make 20 years agreement with Mc Donald. Start the business. These activities are now shown on the critical path analysis: Task completion time Assess financial requirement 25.03.2010 Meet franchise experience requirement 28.03.2010 Fill up franchise application form 30.03.2010 Pay initial franchise fees 04.04.2010 Make 20 years agreement 10.04.2010 Start the business 15.04.2010 3 2 5 5 44 6 Task 2: Marketing strategy: Strategic groups: For becoming successful in Mc Donald franchising, there are some key factors which I have to consider. These key success factors are described below: Price: People can get the facility of food started from breakfast to meal in the price sector. Whenever any person feeds his family to Mc Donald, he first thinks about its cheap price with delicious and healthy items. In case Mc Donald franchising, it should be considered by a franchisor about its competitive price advantage. Quality: Mc Donald is one of the greatest food retailers that has reached new peaks at what can be achieved out of a global business market. The burger and French fries of Mc Donald are prepare to look, taste and smell very similar across the globe, despite all the variations in environmental differences. And in Mc Donald franchising, standardization of quality is also important. Location: Location is very important factor for set up the franchising the business. For selecting the location, any franchisor should have to consider its competitor, its marketing environment and consumer forms. For that reason, as a Mc Donald franchisee, I choose place of Ill ford, where the store of Mc Donald are already established and its marketing also going good. Opening hours: Generally, stores opening hour is very necessary for set up a business. But it depends on different stores and different place. Numbers of Mc Donald franchisee stores are 198 and these stores have different opening time and end time. In my Mc Donald stores, the opening time is 8 am. I think this opening time is better because it is the right time of taking the breakfast and on that more customers can come to the restaurant. In case of considering strategic group, Mc Donald is now in group 2 i.e. the main market food retailers- compete on price, offer better ranges and better customer services. Selected marketing strategy: There are several strategies such as: Strategy 1: all unnecessary attributes are removed, leading to lower costs Strategy 2: offer a range of products but change a lower price. Strategy 3: hybrid strategies; combination of differentiation and price based strategy. Strategy 4: the product must be differentiated in a significant way that buyers are prepared to pay extra. Among these strategies, I take the strategy 3 that is hybrid strategy. This strategy is already used in my Mc Donald store and this strategy includes: Successful use of price or differentiation strategy can lead to opportunities to develop other strategy. Superior cost advantage of Mc Donald, which generates profit that are invested in differentiation without destroying the cost advantage. Differentiation may lead to high sales volume, economies of scale, and lower cost. But in Mc Donald, differentiation leads to lower cost. Implementation of marketing strategy: Marketing strategy is basically planned by considering the basis of competition and the standard of quality. Different marketers such as: niche, leader and followers select and implement different strategies in different ways. As a market leader, Mc Donald may choose to consolidate their position in a number of ways to help them achieve competitive advantage. They may: Exploit their superior cost structure. Raise barriers through marketing expenditure, blocking access to distribution channels. Buy competitors and close down their capacity. Among these ways, Mc Donald use the first one that is exploit their superior cost structure. Marketing mix: Product; While providing the option of new menu item, the most necessary thing is to consider that the customer also have more option to choice their demanded product. Generally, they have a lots of options of their money spending and also spending place. However, McDonalds places considerable importance on developing a menu which customers want. Market research establishes exactly what this is. However, customers demands change time to time. The products which are now interesting, fashionable and attractive in present may be through away in future. Marketing continuously consider customers demand. For meeting these changes, McDonalds should bring new menu items and leave out old ones, and will continue to do so. Price Value of customers perception is an important factors of the price charged. What a product is worth customers draw the picture of product on their mind. A product is a physical item and it has psychological connotations for the customer. There are some difficulties of using products low price as a marketing tool is that the customer may feel that a low price is symptom of compromised quality. It is very much important when deciding on the price to be fully aware of the brand and its integrity Promotions It includes marketing communication such as advertising which is conducted on TV, radio, in cinema, online, using poster sites and in the press. Other promotional sectors are sales promotions, point of sale display, merchandising, direct mail, telemarketing, exhibitions, seminars, loyalty schemes, door drops, demonstrations, etc. Marketing communications skill is to develop a campaign which applies several of these methods in a way that provides the most effective results. Place: The most important element of the marketing mix i.e. price is not just about the physical location or distribution points for products. Price gives emphasis on the management of a range of processes involved in bringing products to the end consumer. Task 3: Monitoring controlling: Majority of the chain of franchising are controlling under both the outlet of company- owned and franchised. In previous, a manager was ran the business and in return he got the salary when the chain is the remainder of the profit. After the time change, franchisee keeps the profit after paying the applicable fees to the chain. Thus, when product is decentralized, then franchisee give incentives as a high amount which are very much significant for a large organization. As a franchisee, I have to monitor my franchise business because whether it is new or existing one business, every business should monitor by its owner, whether it is run properly or not, whether it gains profit or not, or whether it can satisfy the customer expectation or not. There also has the reason for monitoring the business. Such as: I have to see whether my business is going according to my plan or not also have to detect and react appropriately to deviations and changes to plans. As an owner of Mc Donald franchising, I have to monitor only its quality and its money. Because, other significant things such as: human resources, machines, materials, space, time, task etc. after monitoring these things, the output such as: progress, costs, job starts, completion, engineering or design changes and variance order also have to monitor. But in case of Mc Donald franchising, there is no need to monitoring the human resources or machines or materials these things. Because, in case of existing store franchising, there all ready all resources and material are ready. For my franchising business, I can visit the store from my head office on logically basis that means on the basis of specific reason. Monitoring technique: There are several techniques through which I can monitor and control the franchising business and these techniques are: Through meetings with clients, parties involved in project (contractor, supplier etc.) For schedule -update CPA, PERT charts, update Gantt chart. Using earned value analysis. Calculate critical ratios. Milestones. Tests and inspections.

Analysis of Young People’s Buying Behaviour

Analysis of Young People’s Buying Behaviour 1.0 Introduction In a very conservative and traditional context, businessmen used to focus on the consumers lying between the age group 30 and 45. However, things have changed in the last two decades, in the sense that more and more young people are entering the markets as potential buyers (Michman et al., 2003). One simply cannot accept the fact that consumerism and the material aspects of life are confined merely to the older generation. Actually, the young people of today are much more in tandem with the varied aspects of consumerism and materialism. In this context, it has become imperative for the businessmen to understand and have a pragmatic insight into the buying behaviour of the young people, so that they can target their marketing strategies and business plans as per the needs and aspirations of this potent and influential consumer segment. It is a must for the businessmen to understand as to how the young consumers perceive and value their products and services. Realistically speaking, th e more competition oriented and proactive businessmen are already in the process of narrowing down their focus on the young consumers. Yes, to a great extent, the young people of today are more receptive of and vulnerable to varied promotional and advertising approaches (OShaughnessy OShaughnessy, 2003) . Also, the youth in the current times does have an access to disposable income, which it prefers to spend on luxury and consumer goods. Still, this in no way justifies the utterly simplistic conclusion that the young consumers are sitting ducks. Actually, the young consumers are not merely lured by the expensiveness of a product, commodity or a service. The young people, like any informed consumer segment, do intend to desire value for money and are open to only those products and services, which add to their sense of well being and individual identity (Simpson et al., 1998). With the rise in the numbers and purchasing power of the young consumers, the businessmen not only need to know about this consumer segment, but must also put in efforts to orient their business strategies and promotional activities, as per the expectations of this consumer base. 2.0 Mega Trends Shaping Young Consumers May sound strange, but, the expectations and aspirations of the consumers in every age and time tend to change and alter? Each age has its own concept of individuality, family, identity and social status, and the preferences of the consumers do respond to these mega trends. 21st century being the age of information and the internet, the young people of today should not merely be expected to be cognizant of the mega trends unravelling in their age, but also that they being young are more likely to suit their buying preferences in consonance with these rampant trends (Manolis, 1999). Businessmen who are oblivious of the mega trends influencing the young consumers are more likely to be left behind in the race for survival and sustenance (Rotfeld, 2001). In that context, it will be really interesting to touch on the mega trends to which the young buyers of today are exposed to. 2.1 Fading of Age Barriers Changing consumer values are influencing the buying behaviour of young people. So it is necessary for the businessmen to understand as to what ticks the contemporary young consumers. The consumers of today have an age defying approach towards consumption (Fine, 2002). People no more consider age to be a marker of personal identity. On the one side the consumers affiliated to the older age groups are getting more open to the products designed and marketed with the young people in mind (Lancaster Reynolds, 2005). On the other side, in case of young people, not only their buying power has considerably increased, but they are being extended a greater autonomy, as far as their buying decisions and aspirations are concerned (Roberts, 2002). Todays young consumers acquire brand awareness and develop brand loyalties at a very nascent stage (Lunt, 2002). So, the businessmen who are cognizant of this trend can expand their customer base, by altering their marketing and promotional strategies, so as to make them age neutral and focused more around the values and aspirations that are common to all age groups. This way then can reap double benefits from their advertising investments. They can woo the young people, without alienating their mature consumer base. Any businessmen who is competition minded simply cannot afford to ignore the trends shaping the buying behaviour of the young buyers. 2.2 Health and Fitness Going by the augmenting trend towards fitness and mental well being, the young consumers today are immensely health conscious (Iacobucci, 2001). The young buyers have a holistic approach towards consumption and do believe that physical fitness and mental well being are of paramount importance. It is not a wonder that most of the advertisements one comes across in media publications and broadcasts feature young and healthy people with a positive and fun loving approach towards life. Businessmen do need to take cognizance of this trend, actively moulding the buying behaviour of young people. Today, a significant number of young consumers in Europe and United States believe that their consumption patterns should be such that, they should insulate them against the life style diseases (Sirgy Samli, 1995). Consumers groups are increasingly taking steps and measures to assure that the vendors and companies adhere to the established health standards and regulatory norms (Mazis Raymond, 199 7). Hence, the most logical conclusion will be that a businessman who chooses to target this trend towards health and convenience and alters ones manufacturing and promotional strategies to highlight this trend is bound to reap manifold benefits and profits. On the contrary, ignoring such consumer aspirations or simply failing to highlight them, are bound to alienate young buyers, who may then chose to transfer their buying potential to the businesses that are more sensitive and responsive to their expectations and needs. 2.3 Changing Family Values One more trend that is impacting the buying behaviour of young people and of which businessmen need to take cognizance of is the changes in the life stage cycles and family structures in the modern society (Dizard Gadlin, 1990). Though it is a fact that most of the young people do prefer to stay in their nuclear families, but there exist a significant proportion of young buyers who prefer to leave their families and live alone, on their own. Also the young people of today prefer to spend a significant part of their lives as singletons (Nathan, 2007). Hence, this trend is destined to shape the buying behaviour of young people. They are more likely to prefer products and services that are not manufactured, packaged or priced with the family consumer in mind, but are rather customized as per the requirements of the single young people. Businessmen do need to keep an alert watch over the altering social trends and must customize their service procedures, manufacturing plans, packaging s trategies and pricing policies, with an eye on the mindset of contemporary young and single buyers (Alhabeeb, 1999). May, sound funny, but good businessman by necessity needs to be a demography and sociology expert. It is next to impossible to attract the young buyers, without having an insight into the social and cultural trends that shape their buying behaviour. 2.4 Time Constraints The young people of today, including the young women are career oriented and do not have the time and patience to indulge in elaborate household chores and responsibilities. The time at the disposal of the young people of today is more scarce and dearer then what it used to be two decades ago. In every aspect of life, be it fitness, entertainment, personal grooming, nutrition, etc, the young buyers place a high premium on convenience and economy of time (Michman Mazze, 2001). The entire fast food industry is to a great extent dependent on the patronage of young buyers, who do not have the time and patience to wait long for elaborate meals. So, if an enterprising businessman who is aware of this trend towards convenience and could offer products and services that could extend the desired benefits while assuring convenience and economizing on time, is destined to own a booming business. 2.5 Mixing of Gender Roles The other thing that is bothering the young consumers of today is the fading of the gender roles (Fulton Maddock, 1996). Just two decades ago, the varied aspects of Western culture, be it education, cinema, media, arts, etc tend to focus on defining as to how a boy or a girl should look or behave like. However, the role models available to the contemporary young buyers are oft gender neutral. The young women of today by necessity are required to develop male attributes like assertiveness, aggressiveness and confidence (Fulton Maddock, 1996). Similarly, the young men in the contemporary Western society exhibit female attributes as being conscious about looks and personal grooming, dieting to improve health and fitness and spending more time at home and not being averse to indulging in household chores and responsibilities (Fulton Maddock, 1996). Thus, the type of products and services that the young buyers of today prefer to subscribe to are definitely not the same that they used b e just twenty years ago. Businessmen need to learn from this shift in the buying preferences of young people and must respond appropriately. 2.6 Need for Connectivity In the modern times, marked by high divorce rates, breaking families and loosening of social bonds, young people do look for products and services that fulfil their need for connectivity (Roberts Foehr, 2008). If this is not so, then how can one explain the success of social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter (Tassel, 2006). The revolution in telecommunication technology could also be attributed to the need of the young people and aspiring professionals to remain connected. At an emotional level, young people tend to cherish business organizations, products and services that endow them with an opportunity or a portal to bond or connect with their friends, loved ones and likeminded people. Therefore any business aspiring to be a rage amongst its young clientele simply cannot afford to overlook this fact. Businessmen determined to influence and convert the young people need to add a connecting element to their products and services. Varied mega brands like McDonalds and St arbucks, to a great extent owe their success to their ability to create venues where young people can feel comfortable to mingle with the people they like. So the businessmen of today are not only required to know about the buying habits of young people, but are also required to be able to think like their young clients, at least conceptually if not intellectually. 2.7 Redefining of the Concept of Luxury Most of the aware and astute businessmen do know that as far as the markets for young people are concerned, they are witnessing a new egalitarian trend in the demand for luxury goods (Eun-Jung, 2008). Just three decades ago, the young people affiliated to different socio-economic strata desired different goods and products. However, today it is not the same. With the rise of the urban middle class, most of the young people hailing from middle class families demand and desire the same commodities as enjoyed by their young counterparts (Eun-Jung, 2008). The premium brands have already taken a hint from this upcoming trends and have started coming out with product ranges that are affordable to their low-income or middle-class young customers (Eun-Jung, 2008). The young consumers of today across all economic segments seek products that extend to them, comfort and indulgence. No more the notion of luxury or comfort is regarded as an attribute that is affordable only to the rich. The democ ratization of education and professional training has created a new breed of young professionals, who may not afford a personal Jet or a Limousine, but when it comes to their culinary preferences, entertainment avenues and the gadgets they possess, they are not very different from their rich friends. Any businessmen simply cannot ignore these socio-economic developments. If one does so, then one will soon lose to the competitors who are shrewder at deciphering socio-economic trends. The young consumers are more than ever ready to look for new experiences and qualities in the products and services they avail. Besides, courtesy the onset of globalization, the young consumers are also immensely willing to try exotic products and services from faraway locations and countries around the world (Lukose, 2005). It would certainly not be too exaggerated to claim that it is the young people who are the primary trend setters in the contemporary markets, and any businessman oblivious of the immense power of young customers in the modern economies, simply could not hope to do well or eventually survive. Look at any new innovation or any new product, be it the Apples iPhone or iPad, first of all it was introduced and tested on the young buyers, before it was targeted to the more mature users (Kahle, 2008). Besides, considering the logical conclusion that the young buyers are likely to stay in the markets for a longer time, it makes sound business sense to convert them while they are young and hence relatively more impressionable. Also, the well connected young people do have a tendency to spread the news about the products and services they like. Hence, understanding and targeting a young clientele assures ample word of mouth publicity and free promotion. 2.8 The Advent of E-Commerce E-commerce is a natural outcome of the information revolution and the ubiquity of the internet usage. Businessmen opting for e-commerce oriented retail or owning online companies would commit a great blunder if they ignore the buying behaviour of their young clients. However, luckily, most of the e-commerce entrepreneurs do have a fair notion of the obvious advantages that a young customer base offers to an online company. Todays young people are to e-commerce what their parents were to cable television. Yet, unlike their parents, they constitute a market that still remains largely unexplored, going by the dearth of astute e-commerce entrepreneurs (Siegel, 1999). First and foremost, 16-30 years old constitute the largest chunk of the people who regularly use internet and go online (Rosen, 2001). Not to say, these young customers do have money to spend and also the discretionary power to freely decide about the products and services they need to avail (Rosen, 2001). A businessman if m anages to attract a tiny fraction of the purchase power at the disposal of the young surfers, it would amount to millions of green backs. However, if the e-commerce entrepreneurs lack an insight into the buying behaviour of the young customers, their websites are as good as an ugly picture on the wall. For example, very few businessmen know that young buyers who purchase online do not like to be overwhelmed with options (Youn, 2008). They desire to choose from a small collection of well selected product variations. May sound surprising, but the wired generation is also well aware of the leverage that online product selection and purchase endows them with and hence the uninformed businesses may often commit the mistake of testing their patience. The good thing is that the young online buyers are mostly willing to extend personal information in exchange of freebies (Youn, 2008). Yet, on the other side they greatly detest it if their vendor is not transparent and straightforward. Also, these consumers are very intolerant of poorly executed websites. Yet, they can easily be attracted by offering small incentives. So, in the realm of e-commerce, the crux of the game is to have a grip over the buying behaviour of young people. 3.0 Conclusion The generation X of today differs from its predecessors in the sense that it has the money to spend and the autonomy to make business decisions. Any worthy businessman aspiring to survive and grow simply cannot afford to overlook the purchasing power and buying behaviour of young consumers. Not to say, understanding the behaviour of young buyers is not as simple as it sounds. The buying behaviour of young people of today is an outcome of a wide range of mega trends that are influencing and shaping their consumption decisions. Therefore, the best approach for a successful businessman or a company is to keep a keen eye on the changes in the buying behaviour of young people and the trends that lie behind these changes. Young people constitute a very flexible and malleable market, and require a lot of patience and understanding on the part of potential sellers.

Steve to Stephanie Essay

1) How can Henrietta help Steve transition in a company where not everybody is supportive? Henrietta can help Steve transition in a number of ways. Because the idea of switching gender is abstract idea, not every person will be accepting of it. In fact most people will be unaccepting of it being that they are morally agaist the idea of switching gender. Just as people are hesitant to accept gays, the dominant male female role stereotypes have been long ingrained in most cultures and most people accept them as â€Å"normal†. I believe the first thing that must be done to help Steve and LaSalle with the gender transition is to educate people about the process. People need to be aware of the reasons someone would choose to do this so they can understand why and possibly make some sense of it on their own. However the timing of this education needs to be carefully planned as to what the company and Steve believe is best. After education the Human Resource team should be leveraged to carefully monitor the situation and help those who are struggling to accept Steve’s life choice. 2) Does Steve’s transition risk integration of CatalCon, or any stakeholder relationships? Be Specific! Yes Steve gender transition will more than likely affect CatalCon and Lasalle’s integration for a number of reasons. First being that Steve’s sales partner Alex already has a bad opinion of Steve due the fact that Steve was given the Sale’s Director position over Alex. Alex being the number two at CatalCon before the acquisition believes he is much more qualified for the position though his 20 years of experience. Because there is already residual resentment the news of this gender transition angers Alex because he believes it is morally wrong and doesn’t believe in such a thing. Also he thinks that many of the shareholders and customers who are mostly conservative will not like this announcement. Alex believes they will lose business because of this and there is nothing the company can to stop it because they cannot fire Steve due to gender discr imination state laws. Also Alex is a very respected sales man and losing him would be detrimental to the CatalCon acquisition. He is needed for his understanding of CatalCon products that sales people from LaSalle will just not have due to lack of experience. 3) How far should firms go to protect and accommodate employee differences in the workplace? The firm has an obligation to protect Steve’s privacy, as this is a medical issue. So while they might want to settle things in ways that will make the majority happy, there are laws that force you to look out for the little guy. Any firm has a human resource team that is obligated to mediate employee disputes. But no matter what type of employee is the majority they must take actions to provide an equal and safe working environment for everyone. I believe that Henrietta made a mistake sending out a memo to specific people in the firm. Memos can be misplaced and seen by the wrong eyes. This could lead to a privacy lawsuit and should be avoided by waiting to announce sensitive material until a time that is right for the subject and the firm. Some employees may have issues other than medical that need to be met such as religious differences and cultural differences where dress code must be bent. I believe if there are differences that need to be accommodated for they most likely have laws that protect those differences. Therefore you will have some sort of guidelines as to how you many attempt to accommodate them.

Subcultures in Organization

Discuss whether an organization might be better considered as consisting of many sub-cultures which are conceptually different, rather than one ‘major' culture. * An introduction Culture, whether in some organization or society, is about people. People play a key role in culture. People create culture.And because people are individual units with different opinions, values, goals, attitudes, wants and needs but at the same time they interact with other people, they share all of these things with others on the base of the communication and they influence each other, so naturally it leads to exchange of their opinions, many confrontation and conflicts. But confrontation and conflicts do not always mean something wrong, it can bring improvement, progress, and change. And likewise, it goes the same in organizations. One person is equal to one opinion in some particular issue.And nobody can say this is a good or bad way or decision. For somebody it is obvious that some manner is the best and for another person it can mean something totally different. More people, more opinions and more points of view. Sometimes it can make more difficulties and another time make things easier. That is why it is not easy and clear to say whether an organization might be better considered as consisting of many sub-cultures which are conceptually different, rather than one ‘major' culture. Because we have to take into account all of these things which I mentioned before.In this essay I try to assess all factors related to corporate culture and its sub-cultures and find out pros and cons of one ‘major' culture and sub-cultures in the organization. * A central part In the beginning let's have a look at two basic terms which are fundamental in this topic. These are corporate culture and sub-culture. Everybody knows what to imagine under these words. But everybody can imagine something else, each of us perceives corporate culture differently and this is the reason why ther e exist a lot of definitions of culture.Of course I will not write down many definitions here but I would like to mention just one which on my opinion is the most apposite. According to Andrew Brown (1995, 1998) who stated the definition of organizational culture in his book Organizational Culture is the following: â€Å"Organizational culture refers to the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history, and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviors of its members. Simply said, organizational culture is everything what surrounds us at work. Organizational culture influences everything what it happens in a company, company's success and efficiency. When we are taking into account two companies with the same technological equipment, so theoretically they should be equally successful, but they are not. Why? The answer is different corporate culture. Corp orate culture can support strategy and company's goals but on the other side it can mean for company obstacles in progress, higher cost and low competitiveness. Every organizational culture can contain many sub-cultures.And sub-culture in organization is the second very important term which I want to mention. We can say that sub-culture is natural phenomenon within the company and a subgroup of a larger organizational culture with the unique values and beliefs. Subcultures are caused by a particular employee's interests, different levels of management (e. g. hand worker x manager) different functional areas (people have another scope of employment or solve totally different types of problems or with the same scope of employment but with insufficient cooperation – e. . Human resources x Informatics) or by large distance within the same organization. In many cases the presence of sub-cultures is desirable for company and positive but the culture in the company has to be dominan t and people within the sub-cultures have to follow common goals and values. In other cases it is counter-productive and subcultures deny dominant culture and they can damage the whole company because subcultures can get in to the conflict and complicate integration and coordination within the organization.For dominant culture are typical definite communication within the company, clear company's goal and values, desirable behavior, uniform attitudes and following quick decision making and planning and increasing motivation and team belonging. The majority of company believes in the core values of organization. But the strong cultures have to deal with some problems as less  flexibility,  sticking to the  past experience; company is not too  willing  to accept change, isolation from the surrounding environment and information.On the other hand there exist weak corporate cultures where there are really bad communication among members of company, variety of opinions and valu es and people do not follow company's core ideas. If the managers do not support meetings, cooperation a communication among employees, sharing information and experience, then people look for their own way how to communicate, solve the problems, make decisions and set up the priorities according to their own values, needs and wants. * A conclusion And back to the question â€Å"what is better†? One company = 1 culture or 1 company = many subcultures?Do we want one major culture where the well-defined values and principles will be followed by almost all employees in the company? If course, we do. But what will be happening if these values and principals are not so clearly defined and managers do not follow it? Or these values are considered as fundamental and unchangeable and company never wants to accept another new approach although things are changing with time. The company finds itself in crisis. And what about the other possibility? What about the presence of some subcul tures in the company? The one strong culture and co-existed other subcultures?Subcultures which are different from each other, with different values, needs, behavior for example according to level of management or function but still identifying with the core values of dominant culture of the company. But what will be happening in the case that the culture is not so dominant? Then people in the subcultures will have totally different opinions, they will follow other values and the goal of the company will be different and company will have big difficulties to achieve their goals, satisfy their employees and also customers, the communication will be confused and a lot of conflicts will be occurred.So how to get to the ideal solution? As we know nothing is ideal but we can try to get to ideal solution as closer as possible. In case of one main culture and other subcultures on my opinion the organization should insist on clear and accurate definitions of its strategy, mission – t he fundamental purpose of the organization, what business the company is, vision – where does company wish to go? , core values – what are the desired behavior and characters, attitudes and etc. Also another really important thing is clear formulation of well-arranged conditions of work, e. g. equired ways of behavior at work (dress code, manners), assessment, remuneration, education and trainings (mandatory or voluntary) of employees. Company should inform their employees not only about changes but also about all things mentioned above as much as possible. Each a new employee should be familiarized with company’s strategy, its values, mission, vision and so on. Company should also support communication among particular subcultures for example organizing regular meeting where they will make them acquainted with all news in each subculture, with changes, outcomes, future plans and all important things which happened.Another advice which I would recommend is to ar range teambuilding activities and trips, company-wide actions (cultural, sport, charity) which converge employees together. And managers also take care of different opinions and values of his employees and appropriately motivate them. In case of the one dominant culture without any subcultures in the company I would recommend to target the opened mind during a decision making and take into account and assess more alternative than one and for example the company can hire some external experts in a lot of tasks because they can bring a lot of new ideas into the company.Also an employee participation in many staff trainings, courses and seminars and their exchange of experience there can help to see things in a different light. Because nowadays the life is going really fast, things are change every day, technological progress and also people's thinking as well that is why I think that company should be open to all changes, new approaches and methods so on my opinion and with respect to present time the one strong culture with many subcultures is the most suitable for companies.And we have to take into account that organizational culture is not important only for current employees of the company but also for new coming employees; sometimes people prefer atmosphere in the company to for example salary. And corporate culture gives current employees some confidence what direction the company will take and what they can expect. Because when we have a look at this fast going and changing world it is clear and understandable that people need security jobs and income and the right corporate culture can help to find it and also maintain it.A list of referenced sources Books: LUKASOVA, R. , NOVY, I. and et al. : Organizacni kultura, 1. ed, Prague: Grada Publishing 2004, 176 p. ISBN 80-247-0648-2, s. 64 SIGUT, Z. Firemni kultura a lidske zdroje. 1. ed. Prague: ASPI, 2004. 87 p. ISBN 80-7357-046-7. Internet: SUN, S. cit. : â€Å"BROWN, A. , Organizational Culture. (2nd ed). Pitman Publishing, 1995,1998† in: International Journal of Business and Management 2008, December http://ccsenet. org/journal/index. php/ijbm/article/view/760/726] ——————————————- [ 1 ]. SUN, S. cit. : â€Å"BROWN, A. , Organizational Culture. (2nd ed). Pitman Publishing, 1995,1998† in: International Journal of Business and Management 2008, December [http://ccsenet. org/journal/index. php/ijbm/article/view/760/726]. [ 2 ]. LUKASOVA, R. , NOVY, I. and et al. : Organizacni kultura, 1. vydani, Prague: Grada Publishing 2004, 176 p. [ 3 ]. SIGUT, Z. Firemni kultura a lidske zdroje. 1. ed. Prague: ASPI, 2004. 87 p. ISBN 80-7357-046-7.

Marco in a View from a Bridge Essay

Give advice to an actor playing Marco on how he should present the character Marco is a character of two faces. At the beginning of the play, a grateful and respectful man is presented to the audience. He shakes Eddie’s hand, and makes it clear that he does not want to impose – ‘when you say go, we will go’. This is in stark contrast to the absolute lack of respect your character gives Eddie later in the story, and the more-so you can make this the better the reception will be from the audience. Marco is also quite a reserved character. When the two men first come to the house, Marco speaks only in short sentences, rarely elaborating on his point. However, he also seems to have a quiet authority and this is shown in stage directions when Eddie ‘is coming more and more to address Marco only’. This authority is also shown when Rodolpho starts to sing, saying ‘You’ll be quiet, Rodolpho.’ silencing his brother. This reservation is also shown in his realistic sense of mind, compared to his brother who has possibly unreachable dreams. He is also not as flamboyant or elaborate as his brother, who sings, cooks and sews; he is a ‘regular bull’. This makes others respect him and this sense of authority and strength needs to be portrayed. In the scene where Marco shows his strength by lifting the chair one-handed, the tables start to turn. The respect Marco once had for Eddie seems to have disappeared suddenly, as Marco menacingly holds the chair over Eddie’s head. On the surface, it looks as though he is protecting his brother, but the underlying reasons are mainly that by doing so, Marco has just proved Eddie’s inferiority. This enjoyment of feeling superior mixed with the defence of his brother makes Marco a fierce character in this scene, and a character that may have been shadowed in earlier scenes come to prominence in the play, and this continues in the later parts. The character then follows a vicious path of revenge after realising that is was Eddie that reported them to Immigration. Your character loses sympathy with the audience due to this, and as you lose sight of everything else – why you came to America, your family etc. – the seems to be no compassion in Marco. He not only wants to kill Eddie but humiliate him as much as possible in the process. Essentially, Marco is like Eddie. A formally caring man of his family, he is an honourable man who lacks the quality of forgiveness.

New enterprise operation

Once firms understand the issues involved coming up with an effective strategy, they should therefore evaluate their internal strengths and weakness as well as opportunities in the environment.   This is summarized as SWOT analysis which refers to strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. Therefore good analysis of these key factors will put a company in a better position of healthy competition in a global business environment.Therefore, I have critically and categorically provided a detailed analysis of the following   papers: the paper on strategic planning in some empirical findings (SMEs) and a paper on growth, Entrepreneurship, structural change, time and Risk.   The first paper on strategic planning tries to bring some insight to entrepreneurs and business managers.This paper attempts to provide managers and entrepreneurs with a variety of knowledge on how to employ tools of strategic management and planning when operating a business or discovering business opportuni ties to create goods and services.   Mostly it provides some guidelines to small and medium sized business managers and entrepreneurs with strategies to evaluate their strength and weaknesses and opportunities.   Good planning for a business should form the basis part of experiencing high standards of quality results (Anita 2004, pp87-90)The second research paper on growth entrepreneurship, time and risk tries to provide entrepreneurs with some knowledge and guidelines as how to manage risk.   The perception of the entrepreneur on risk analysis and ways of overcoming the risks are also covered in this research paper.Again the paper has elaborately talked about different kinds of risks and the risk return relationships. In summary this research paper-points out how entrepreneurs and managers cope up with the risks that arise in their decisions making and what determines the way they view the risk of their decision.   Otherwise lack of entrepreneurship would create an environm ent where task are taken back to olden days where growth is not achieved or realized.The two research papers have been presented by the use of different research methods of collecting information.   For example, the research paper dealing with strategic planning in SMEs has been provided after a thorough research has been done.   Different methods of data collection have also been used to come up with this documented paper. Research Paper on strategic planning has showed the usefulness of questionnaires as a method of collecting data the so called primary data.   This has helped to provide first hand information on the topic to be researched on.   However, in most of the cases the questionnaires have proved to be misleading especially when it is posted.The person filling in the questionnaire or administering the questionnaire may just decide to provide wrong information or figures especially if quantitative analysis is to be provided.   All the same since oral interview co uld be the best, questionnaire has proved to be best since several questions can be researched and answered at researcher’s convenient time hence time saving.   The questionnaire has covered the whole topic areas and research finding figures have been provided to support or to give further explanations on the topics researched on.   For example table on page 856 of articles by George stone house and Jonathan Perberton.   But the findings ware found to be inaccurate or degree of accuracy was low because of the way in which the questionnaire was filled.The research method used in the second paper on growth entrepreneurship, structural change time and risks in just too theoretical.   Everything was done by extracting information from secondary sources, that is information was obtained either from books, journal or from periodicals.   Though this method seems to be good because a lot of books and other sources are researched on, the research method at times tends to pro vide information which may be outdated.Several books undergo review after every year so the validity of the information provided is questionable.   However, since the researcher has consulted a number of sources then I can say that the method is good.   Very many scholars have also been quoted in the paper showing that the research was detailed or thorough.   An example has been on the analysis of entrepreneur’s perception on risk management.   The weakness of this research paper is that technical meaning of some terms has not been explained elaborately for example where the researcher was talking about types of risks.The mode of presentation also differs in the two papers for example the paper on strategic planning in small and medium size enterprises presents the findings using both qualitative and quantitative thus a mixture of the two methods.   This has clearly come out when the questionnaire was completed and supported using some figures on a table form.The ta ble has shown us the number of those who were consulted and the results obtained.   The figures help in providing us with information on whether the sampled population of people who administered the questionnaire was a representative one that is not biased because sample size should be large enough to provide effective and efficient result.   The table has shown as the number of the companies in both services and manufacturing sectors that uses different kinds approaches of planning (mintzberg, 1990, p 184)On the other hand the paper on growth Entrepreneurship, structural change, time and risk is purely qualitative in nature.   It has been produced after several collections of different scholar’s views and thoughts have been put together.   Nobody was interviewed or consulted during the research so only books or secondary sources of information were researched on.Whether the information is outdated or current we cannot tell .We also realize that a survey has been used in the research paper on strategic planning where the companies researched on were divided into large, medium and small.   This breakdown could intensify the finding therefore making the research to be appropriate and applicable because of good representation.   The survey could also help to determine the type of strategic planning carried out by these companies so that when doing analysis pieces of advices could be given to bring improvement on the business.The research paper on strategic planning acknowledges that the choice of planning strategies defined by a business industry determines the profit the company is going to make.   This paper argues that strategic management involves careful planning; thinking and some frameworks designed which help the mangers of business firms or organizations to improve on the quality of work done.   This was done with restriction to Uks manufacturing and service industry.It has also talked about the differences about the three ambiguou s terminologies used in strategic management.   The three terms are mostly confused since they appear to be same but they are totally different in meaning.   They include strategic thinking, which means that a manager has to think and do brain storming beyond every days operations for him to develop long term vision for the business.   Without the vision then it implies that business would collapse or perform poorly. (Demarest 1997, pp374-384)Another terminology is strategic learning, which involves a system where organizations try to learn about themselves and environment by inventing method goals which are achievable in the long run.   This will rate the company in a global market where it is to compete with other competitors.   So strategic learning involves gathering useful information and skills which the company uses to improve its production.The other term is strategic management which means a combination of procedures managers employ to run the whole business plan for the business in future.   Lastly there is strategic planning which refers to the way a manager is going to implement the objectives in order to achieve his goals and objectives.The other paper on growth entrepreneurship, time and risk talks about the ways on how the entrepreneur manages the risk.   The idea behind this is to maximize the benefits and minimize threats in the environment inorder to improve the business.   The paper has also given us some strategies that can be used to minimize risks. For example the use of division of labor as a way of distributing risks around different levels.Role of entrepreneurship in social capital and growth has been discussed in the paper whereby we find out that entrepreneurship expands institutional development and social capital accumulation.     Social capital accumulation encourages them distribution.   Therefore in brief entrepreneurship has brought positive changes or growth in business and expansion of social capital.Thi s second paper also talks about how uncertainty affects growth and how entrepreneurs cope with risks.   The risk should be minimized to avoid unnecessary losses in business set up.   In short the paper has shown us the way the entrepreneurs should react to risks, social capital and uncertainties as a way of creating structural changes in a business environment. (Holcombe, 1998, pp 45-60).Even though the two papers have exhausted the ways entrepreneurs and managers can improve the business, I suggest there is one area they have not talked about.   This is in the area of strategy development and implementation.   This is where firms should come up with a means of evaluating their internal strength and weakness as well as the opportunities and threat in the environment.   This is what is called SWOT analysis which refers to strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.   They should also identify critical success factors like choosing on the task that can be done particula rly to achieve the stated operations strategy.   These are activities that make a company realize some success in a competitive business world.The two papers differ in analyzing the contents more significantly.   For example paper on strategic management shows how different procedures can be used by a company or industry to increase its production.   If the entrepreneurs follow the different strategies then fruitful results would be obtained.   Paper on risk management or entrepreneur’s perception on risk new touches about management strategies.   Instead it shows us how the perception or worldview of the entrepreneur on risk can enable him minimize the losses and maximize the profits.The argument and analysis made on paper dealing with strategic planning carries some weight and stronger findings as compared to the paper on entrepreneurship, structural charge, growth, time and risk.   The differences come because the research approach in the first one is more deta iled and a number of data collection methods have been used.   For example survey was done before the actual questionnaire was posted.   Research finding were also analyzed and supported with some figures unlike in the case of the other paper.   Introduction of the paper containing strategic planning is clear and understandable by almost to everybody, good English has also been used that everybody can capture.   Explanation and differentiation of different terminologies has also been expressed showing that the paper is just too good.In conclusion the research on new enterprise operations can bring tremendous changes in the business world.   If the entrepreneur’s use the findings obtained from the research effectively then the world will change very fast as far as business operation is concerned.   Improvement in production quality and managerial skills require strategies, which are properly laid down.   These strategies should work on environmental analysis, det ermination of corporate mission and building a competitive advantage such as low price, good quality, after sale services, broad product lines and high benefits.REFERENCEAnita, M. (2004). How Industries Change. Harvard Business Review, 82 (10) October, pp.87-94.Dernarest, M. (1997). Understanding Knowledge management: Long Range Planning, 30  (3) Pp.374-384Holcombe, R.G. (1998).   Entrepreneurship and Economic growth. Quarterly journal of AustrianEconomics, 1 (2), pp. 45-62.Mintzberg, H. (1990).   The design school: reconsidering the basic premises of strategicManagement journal, 1(3), pp. 171-195.

The Product Of Organic Energy Drinks Appeal For A Small...

1. According to the NAICS guideline, my product is classified under manufacturing code # 31-33 and wholesale trade code # 41. My company is a production company because we are creating our product in house by mixing ingredients together and bottling the final product for distribution. We are also considered be a wholesale trade company because we distribute our product to retailers and vending machine operators. In our opinion, this describes my product correctly because we produce our product in-house and then sell it to our B2B clients (not to customer directly). 2. What source of competitive advantage would you recommend for your product or service (i.e. Cost, Product/Service Differentiation, and Niche)? We recommend two sources of competitive advantage which are Niche and Cost: †¢ Niche: our greatest competitive advantage is the niche aspect of our product. Organic Energy drinks appeal to a small section of the population. Most people would rather buy name brand products such as red bull and AMP. As a result, our best strategy would be to target a smaller group of consumers through promotions i.e. free drinks. In doing so, we can increase our following when people start to recommend our product to family and friends. Also, because of the niche factor of our product we can build a loyal customer base comprised of people who love drinking healthy beverages. †¢ Cost: we can also consider cost as a competitive advantage. The ingredients required to create ourShow MoreRelatedFuel Marketing Plan5676 Words   |  23 Pagesinnovative new product by the Coca-Cola Company. The analysis allows us to outline the best strategies to follow for the achievement of the company’s strategic goals. â€Å"FUEL† (For Unleashed Energy. Levels) will be marketed as a unique organic functional drink while striving to reinforce the company’s status as the leader in innovation and successful product launches. 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Johnson C. Smith University Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores, GPA

Johnson C. Smith University is a private historically black university with an acceptance rate of 46%. Located on an 100-acre campus in Charlotte, North Carolina, JCSUs nearly 1,600 students are supported by a 13-to-1 student / faculty ratio. Students can choose from 22 undergraduate programs through JCSUs three colleges. Johnson C. Smith has a host of student clubs and organizations, and is a member of the NCAA Division II  Central Intercollegiate Athletics Association (CIAA). Considering applying to Johnson C. Smith University? Here are the admissions statistics you should know, including average SAT/ACT scores and GPAs of admitted students. Acceptance Rate During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, Johnson C. Smith University had an acceptance rate of 46%. This means that for every 100 students who applied, 46 students were admitted, making JCSUs admissions process competitive. Admissions Statistics (2017-18) Number of Applicants 6,369 Percent Admitted 46% Percent Admitted Who Enrolled (Yield) 12% SAT Scores and Requirements Johnson C. Smith University requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 76% of admitted students submitted SAT scores. SAT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile ERW 420 490 Math 390 490 ERW=Evidence-Based Reading and Writing This admissions data tells us that most of Johnson C. Smiths admitted students fall within the bottom 29% nationally on the SAT. For the evidence-based reading and writing section, 50% of students admitted to Johnson C. Smith University scored between 420 and 490, while 25% scored below 420 and 25% scored above 490. On the math section, 50% of admitted students scored between 390 and 490, while 25% scored below 390 and 25% scored above 490. Applicants with a composite SAT score of 980 or higher will have particularly competitive chances at Johnson C. Smith University. Requirements Johnson C. Smith does not require the SAT writing section. Note that JCSU participates in the scorechoice program, which means that the admissions office will consider your highest score from each individual section across all SAT test dates. ACT Scores and Requirements Johnson C. Smith requires that all applicants submit either SAT or ACT scores. During the 2017-18 admissions cycle, 40% of admitted students submitted ACT scores. ACT Range (Admitted Students) Section 25th Percentile 75th Percentile English 12 17 Math 14 17 Composite 14 18 This admissions data tells us that most of JCSUs admitted students fall within the bottom 14% nationally on the ACT. The middle 50% of students admitted to Johnson C. Smith received a composite ACT score between 14 and 18, while 25% scored above 18 and 25% scored below 14. Requirements Johnson C. Smith does not require the optional ACT writing section. Note that JCSU does not provide information regarding the schools ACT superscore policy. GPA In 2017, the average high school GPA of Johnson C. Smith Universitys incoming freshmen class was 2.84, and over 65% of incoming students had average GPAs of 2.5 and above. These results suggest that most successful applicants to JCSU have primarily B-/C grades. Admissions Chances Johnson C. Smith University, which accepts just under half of applicants, has a somewhat selective admissions process. If your SAT/ACT scores and GPA fall within the schools average range, you have a strong chance of being accepted. However, JCSU also considers academic achievement in  required high school  coursework. Potential applicants should have a minimum of four English courses; three math courses; two social science courses; two natural science courses (including one with a lab); and two foreign language courses. While not required, Johnson C. Smith will also consider application essays and letters of recommendation if submitted. JCSU recommends  that interested applicants visit and tour the campus.  Students with particularly compelling stories or achievements can still receive serious consideration even if their grades and test scores are outside Johnson C. Smiths average range. If You Like Johnson C. Smith University, You May Also Like These Schools Spelman CollegeUniversity of North Carolina - CharlotteEast Carolina UniversityHoward UniversityMorehouse CollegeNorth Carolina AT State UniversityUniversity of North Carolina - Asheville All admissions data has been sourced from the National Center for Education Statistics and Johnson C. Smith University Undergraduate Admissions Office.