Essays on Business Week

Business Week 2

Business Week 2

There are many different sources to explain organizational theory that have been developed over time. The principal theory for classical organizational theory is Weber’s scientific management approach, (Lounsbury, M.). The scientific management approach is based on the notion of planning of work to achieve efficiency, standardization, simplification, and specialization, (Lounsbury, M.). This highlights the trust between management and worker, (Lounsbury, M.). The bureaucratic approach discusses the organization as being a part of broader society, (Lounsbury, M.). Administrative theory is based on the importance of planning, training, organizing, and coordinating functions, (Lounsbury, M.). Branching off from ...

Johnson & Johnson has gained relevant experience in the field of public relations, given that the group of companies was founded over thirty years ago; it definitely had a role in the evolution of public relations. Indeed, J&J has been held aloft in the PR world for nearly 30 years as the torch-bearer of the “right way’ to handle a crisis (Yaxley, 2010). Its public relations personnel, strategies, implementation process and assessment have matured over the years. Johnson & Johnson is a holding company which majorly deals in pharmaceutical products which are under constant scrutiny due to issues of quality ...

Bill, Carmody. “The End of E-mail as a Mass Marketing Tool”. Business Week. March 24, 2014. Web. April 21, 2014. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-02-24/the-end-of-email-as-a-mass-marketing-tool Marketing: The processes, set of institutions or activities for creating, delivering, communicating and trading offerings with value for partners, clients, customers and society at large.

Mass Marketing: developing promotions and products to attract large group of people.

The article takes a futuristic outlook on the marketing practice and analyses the declining relevance of e-mails as mass marketing tools. According to the article, in 2013 alone, marketers spent about $113 Billion on e-mail mass marketing initiatives alone. However, going forward, automated mass marketers that depend on e-mailing technology will be doomed. ...

- Key points in Business Week Articles on Outsourcing & Impact on China Broadcasting Industry

There are several points that are identified in the Business Week articles on outsourcing. In the Rise of India article, the points raised are that outsourcing is considered as an opportunity for the jobless recovery in the tech and services between India and America.

However, the outsourcing has raised the jobless rate among US software engineers that have increased 4.6% in the 3 years. The report by Bureau of Labor statistics has recorded unemployment of IT professionals is 234,000. The outsourcing is a ...

(a) How much did your company’s gross margin and gross margin as a percentage of revenue increase (decrease) over the past five fiscal years?

As per the report of Stock Analysis on Net on Starbucks’ profitability analysis, Starbucks’ gross profit margin was 55.75% in 2009, and it notably increased to 58.36% in the following year. However, the firm’s gross profit margin was decreased by 0.66% in 2011 reaching 57.70%. It was again dropped to 56.29% in 2012. According to the same report, in the last fiscal year, Starbucks achieved an improved gross profit margin of 57.14%. The recent increase in the company’s gross profit margin indicates that Starbucks is recovering from the shocks of the recent global recession. Similarly, the organization’ ...

Introduction

Companies are now required to be very dynamic, efficient, profitable, adoptive, and forward looking in order for them to gain a dominant and ocmpetitive edge. Without these qualities, they cannot compete in a very international and globally compettive market. In some industries like in banking and insurance, they may transfer into new and foreign markets (Ashkenas & Francis, 2000). In others industries such as in medical products and suplies, companies may choose to work with smaller firms which have developed or are developing new products which they can manufacture and/or distribute more efficiently. Meanwhile, the rest of the ...

Associated British Foods was founded in 1935 initially known as Food Investments Limited. It changed its name in 1960. During this period, the company had grown incredibly and has not stopped ever since. It has continually expanded its business by primarily acquisition. Associated British foods has embarked on opening store worldwide and until now it has ventured into Europe, Africa, America, and even Asia. In total, it is presently operating in 47 countries (Ruddick, 2012). The company specializes in foods, spices and of late, clothes retail. Its varied brands such as Primark, Twinings, and Pataks have charmed investors and ...

Nike Inc. is a listed American sportswear and equipment manufacturer with its head offices in Oregon City. It is the leading world’s supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and major manufacturer of sport equipment. To Nike “diversity is not just the right thing to do, it is the smart thing." Worldwide, Nike Inc. had more than 30,000 employees as of 2008 (Nike, 91). Essentially, Nike recruitment policies allow the in-house staff to view job openings on the internal web and apply directly to the SSC center electronically. The SSC ActiveRecruiter software from there handles the entire application ...

Jobs was a unique leader and a vivid example of the role of personality in history. He has already entered the history of management as a lone hero. Director of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California of Los Angeles Warren Bennis says that this is one of the few cases where the code of the company is wired in the brain of one person. It is not that Apple is not able to create outstanding market developments. The point in the presentation, product philosophy, which was translated to buyers and investors by Steve Jobs. According to Burrows, Grover & Green ( ...

Understanding How they Include Consumer Behavior Issues in their

Management and Marketing Mix Operations Introduction Trendy, hip and classy; all these three specifically different descriptions of what fashion-bags are all about could describe the very products offered by the Bag Borrow or Steal online company. The organization offers a unique concept for those who want to engage with their business. One is through actually buying the product they offer, another is through the rent program and the last option is to actually resell the bags to another market likely making an alliance with the company through retail agreement. These options are specifically created by the company to ...

Planning at Starbucks

Introduction Starbucks is a renowned coffee place and has grown exponentially over the last forty years. In 2007, Starbucks experienced a decline in their sales. This was largely due to growing competition from McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, and other similar outlets. Starbucks unique selling point was in providing fresh coffee and convenience. It had special importance for its customers as it provided coffee and other breakfast items. However, with McDonalds launching their breakfast line and entering the coffee market there were more options available to Starbucks customers. By 2008, when Schultz gained control as CEO at Starbucks the company’s share ...

Strategic Development and Challenges for McDonald’s

Strategy addresses the why and what of marketing activities. Marketing involves satisfying needs and wants of the customer. The task of any business is to deliver customer value while being socially responsible. In a highly competitive economy with increasingly intelligent buyers, a company can win only by fine tuning its value delivery process and providing superior value. In January 2011, McDonald’s announced that its earnings of fourth quarter in the previous year rose 2.1 percent despite of a slump in December due to extreme weather in U.S. and Europe. The analysts attributed the success of McDonald’s to the “Plan to ...

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF THE SAINSBURY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY - Sainsbury, one of the top retailers of UK, has been analyzed in this report. This report analyzes the business model of the company. - The report analyzes the income statement of the company over the last five years. The financial statements of the company analyzed are from the years 2008 to 2012. These statements have revealed that the performance of the company has been improving and the sales of the company are growing at an average growth rate of 5.73%. - Cash flow statements of the company of the last five years are ...

Session 2

Tesco - What’s next for Tesco? Where and how can it grow? Who will it target? The next growth I see for Tesco is branching into the automobile/gas sector. This sector promises growth since the consumer always looks for ways and means to save money, especially in the context of frequently rising price of fuel. This will target anyone who owns or operates a vehicle that needs or requires gas (Fletcher, 2006). - How can Tesco take its customer loyalty programs to the next level? Tesco can take its customer loyalty program to the next ...

Report on Traditional and Online Shopping

I. Introduction I have experienced and examined shopping the conventional and online way. I have imagined myself deciding to purchase a smartphone in Singapore. First, I shopped for the smartphone in the traditional manner and described how I did so. The way in which I gathered the necessary information that I needed to choose a smartphone was by an actual visit to a number of wireless centers. I read their posters, catalogue, leaflets, flyers, brochures, displays, etc. I have compared the features or specifications of one item over the others. It took me more than four hours to do conventional shopping ...

The continuation of QE3 without tapering can have advanced effects on the economy. This is because it has shown very little improvement. This is evidenced through the report from the U.S. fixed income at Los Angeles which manages more than $128 billion. According to this body, QE3 was meant to target unemployment and the labor market. Nevertheless, the program was also designed to increase in the interest rates and slow or bring to and end the economic recovery. For instance, the program has helped to the fall of inflation rates in the U.S. According to (Zumbrun and Catarina1) ...

- “Better leadership is too often proposed as a panacea for organizational problems which have other origins.” Critically argue for or against this proposition with examples.

Introduction

One of the major challenges of the new and global business environment is the management of people as globalization needs heightened interaction among people from diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and cultures than ever before (Ely, Robin, & Thomas, 2001). Global companies and dynamic organizations need human capital, knowledge and technology development to further enhance their innovation in order to compete with global competitors. The current market systems need leaders to totally comprehend the competencies required to ...

“Leaders are not born, but made. Leadership qualities are forged in times of distress. It is quite easy to take a sip of coffee while sitting with feet up on the desk dictating theories to subordinates but quite difficult to lead when the business is on the verge to collapse” (Lee Iacocca). Acquiring fame, money and power may be thrilling for others, but to Iacocca, all these outcomes did not matter much. To Iacocca, these outcomes were mortal that would vanish with time. Iacocca has always focused on leaving quality impression through his zeal and contributions. Making a difference in ...

Background

Over the past 100 years, more than 60 percent of world’s wetlands have been destroyed as people search for land to settle on, farm, and establish other types of business investments. Currently, wetlands cover 6 percent of the world’s surface providing a wide array of environmental services, including soil erosion control, water storage and filtration, a buffer against flooding, biodiversity maintenance, nutrient recycling, nursery for fisheries, and carbon storage among others.

However, destruction and drainage of these ecosystems has led to large amounts of carbon emissions equivalent to 40 tons of carbon per hectare per year for degraded swamp ...

Introduction

Apple is a US company whose business is the design, development and marketing of personal computers, portable digital music players, media devices, cellular phones and other personal electronic devices. Apple’s website describes the company as a corporation that develops and markets software, software services, networking services and solutions, peripheral equipment, and internet applications (Apple.com, 2013). The company is one of the most recognized consumer brands in the world and is poised to become the first trillion dollar company of the world. The Apple brand is so strong that it already commands a very strong brand premium. The base customers of Apple’s products span ...

Wal-Mart, their market power in the U.S. and whether or not they should be allowed to use banking services that were once restricted to banks.

Wal-Mart is one of the largest companies in the globe. Zellner, of the Bloomberg Business Week Magazine, writes that “in business, there is big, and there is Wal-Mart. With $245 billion in revenue in 2002, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) Inc. is the world’s largest company” (Zellner, 2003, p.1). Sowell, of the Capitalism Magazine, explains that “much is made of the fact that Wal-Mart has 3,000 stores in the United States and is planning ...

Executive Summary

This paper posts tat leaders make a difference in one organization. It tries to prove its point by sowing how leader make a difference in an organization and by how they affect the organizations by their own innate skills, personalities and their experiences. It tries to define leadership by the unique traits and skills a leader has.

The paper initially answers the question by asserting the importance of a leader in an organization. It illustrated its point through the examples such as the leadership of Steve Jobs and how e made a difference in Pixar.

Then it explores the various definitions of leadership and ...

Introduction

Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse operating not only in America but also over the whole world. Founded in 1971 but later acquired by Howard Schultz in 1987, the corporation specializes in brewing of top quality Arabica coffee, and some few other drinks. Since the acquisition by Schultz in 1987, Starbucks has quickly developed over the years, becoming the biggest speciality of its kind in the world, and joining the list of Forbes 500. It is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and currently operates some seventeen thousand stores, which are distributed in over fifty countries in the world, mainly in the ...

We have found out that the company discriminates directly or indirectly against its employees. Various cases of gender discrimination have been witnessed in the recent past where female workers are not given equal opportunities as their male counterparts on issues regarding assignments of duties and promotions. Women are mostly locked out even when they have similar qualifications as the men, and with more experience. The company has also created a work environment that demoralizes the workers. There is heavy workload but the remuneration offered is discouraging. Also, the company does not motivate its employees. Workers are sometimes forced to work ...

Companies like Wal-Mart compel individuals to get everything at the cheapest price (Anthony, 2003). This is the main reason why several jobs are sent overseas. For instance, Wal-Mart Corporation highly expanded that the manufacturers were told how much they would be paid for their own products. This made the manufacturers to send their manufacturing jobs overseas so as to meet the Wal-Mart pricing (Michael, 2005). The cheap labor available overseas greatly contributes towards loss of jobs to several individuals. In all honesty, this is the main cause of shoddy work. Companies fail to pay their experienced workers appropriately. If ...

In corporate chain stores and huge corporations, workers get frustrated as a result of several unjust treatments. A good percentage of the employees are forced to be part-time workers since these companies want to pay for as little benefits as possible. Such companies are also temporarily understaffed making many of their employees to work overtime which, in most cases, is not paid. Failure of the employees to complete their tasks directly results into loss of that particular job. This compels the workers to go extra miles even if it means working overtime, with very poor benefits. In these big stores, ...

Introduction

Currently, some companies compel individuals to get everything at the cheapest price. Such companies include the Wal-Mart. This is the main reason why several jobs are sent overseas. For instance, Wal-Mart Corporation highly expanded that the manufacturers were told how much they would be paid for their own products. This made the manufacturers to send their manufacturing jobs overseas so as to meet the Wal-Mart pricing. This cheap labor that is available overseas makes more companies to follow the footsteps of Wal-Mart. This in turn results into loss of jobs to several individuals. Several disadvantages come with this cheap ...