...Business Recommendations Memorandum Team A: Alpha Team Consultants (April Hill, Kenechia Nelson, Nicki Stoops, Tina Parker, Teresa Tessier) University of Phoenix ECO/561: Economics MEMO: To: Big Drive Auto From: Alpha Team Consultant, LLC Date: January 16, 2010 Re: Business Recommendations for Big Drive Auto based on Economic Projections This memo will present three specific economic futures over the next five years for the Big Drive Auto Company. This memo features recommendations from year to year and several graphs to provide visual support of the business recommendations from the Alpha Team Consultants (Alpha). Alpha would like the opportunity to present our recommendations for your future business management decisions. Our recommendations will provide you with money and time saving options regarding organizing, managing and integrating finances, product manufacturing and development, consumer relations and supply chain all while continuously increasing revenues and growth within Big Drive Auto. As your exclusive consulting firm we have composed several forms of data including diagrams, graphs and charts that aide in depicting the effects of our business recommendations over the next five years. This data is based solely on the GDP and any current economic contributing factors. The presented data and recommendations will aid the Big Drive Auto Company in staying ahead of the competition, while developing other methods that aide in business decisions...
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...Running head: BIG DRIVE AUTO Big Drive Auto Michelle International Economics August 29, 2011 Big Drive Auto In the automotive industry there is evidence that supports the future of economics within the automotive industry such as Big Drive Auto, a multi-manufacture of cars and trucks. Not only does the company conduct contributions in the coolant, tire replacement and motor oil industry, but Big Drive Auto, also, services parts for repairs and sales vehicles. Big Auto will have to forecast their prior records kept within the past ten years in order to remain successful as well as needing growth within the automotive industry if they are to stay ahead of the automotive industry. An evaluation, in spite of the fluctuations in the economy, of the revenue generated on service and auto sales and of the companies past sales of parts, this evaluation and/or information will assist Big Auto Drive’s management for the organization for future production plans. A future demonstration pricing strategy will be used from the data of previous years and in keeping the company moving forward, the management’s awareness of the economy in recent years will be considered in helping with product recommendations for Big Drive Auto. In moving forward, Big Drive Auto will need to assess in the upcoming years the mathematical equations and take into consideration operations, cost, economic analysis and productivity in order to create a strategy that is solid in dealing with the automotive...
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...Downsizing of the US Auto Market. Automakers will begin reducing production, cutting sales, or preparing for price wars in order to get rid of inventory. This type of downsizing may hurt Big Auto, forcing layoffs and reducing services offered. The consumers will no longer be able to afford expensive cars and would prefer keeping the current car they purchased. Even if the car is not worth the balance owed. Big Drive Auto will no longer carry certain makes or models, which would hurt sales. (Carseek, 2007) On the other hand, if downsizing affects the sale of cars, Big Drive Auto can look at generating revenue in the other two areas listed. Generating revenue in the other two areas may not show a major increase in sales, but should give a positive growth within the next five years. Downsizing falls in the recession area of the business cycle. The recession phase is a “period of decline in total output, income, and employment.” (McConnell, Brue, & Flynn, 2009). Americans No Longer Driving The culture of owning a new vehicle is dropping. Consumers are no longer driving, which decrease sales at car dealerships. Higher gas prices and rising unemployment plays a role in consumers purchasing cars. Evidence of this change can be found in the model below, created by Nate Silver, which reveals a snapshot of a decline in American Driving. This information created from information listed in the Federal Highway Administration, writes Nate Silver. (Esquire, 2009) Mergers...
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...differentiates itself from its competitors when it provides something unique that is valuable to buyers beyond simply offering a low price (Blackwell publishing, 2009). Big Drive Auto can differentiate by providing a superior protection package. The protection package vehicles will be given oil changes free of charge as long as the consumer owns the vehicle. Tire rotations and balancing of wheels will also be free of charge. Big Auto Drive should employ a service team that is consistently courteous and polite to customers and who provide excellent service to customers. Top notch certified mechanics are available to meet the needs of the customer. The maintenance package will allow consumers to receive car washes and rentals cars at no additional charge. With these sorts of incentives the likelihood of car sales will be increased. When consumers are satisfied they tend to put in a good word with friends and family members. This type of praise will increase the possibility that consumers will revisit Big Drive Auto to purchase a vehicle for them, trade in their vehicle, or purchase a vehicle for a family member. With the purchase of a new vehicle Big Drive Auto will offer the consumer free gas for a range of two to four months. Incentives and cash rebates will also be an appropriate recommendation for Big Drive Auto as well. According to All Business.com (1999 - 2009), Manufacturers often offer special incentives to both customers and dealers in an effort to increase sales on...
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...DE LA SALLE UNIVERSITY Graduate School of Business Case Analysis Financial Management Big City Trust Company Group 2 Dean Atty. Joe-Santos Balagtas Bisquera Executive Summary Big City Trust Company Mr. Samuel Cooper, a senior trust officer of Big City Trust, discusses with Mr. Richard Brainard, an analyst in the trust department, on how BCT should finance the growth of Auto-Drive Company’s sales. He also wants Mr. Brainard to examine the funding schemes adopted by two giant companies, Xerox and Polaroid, in financing their capital expenditures between the years 1960-1964. Mr. Cooper would like to explore the possibility of adopting an efficient and effective business model in order to finance Auto-Drive. Auto-Drive Company Auto-Drive Company is developing Auto-Drive, an automatic pilot technology which is installed in cars. This technology makes it impossible for the car to run off the road or into another car. Mr. Cooper sees that this auto-pilot technology is the next big thing and expects a high demand in the future because of the benefits it could bring its customers especially as regards road safety. Big City Trust would like to gain insight on how Xerox and Polaroid financed its innovation and growth. BCT thinks it is appropriate to compare Auto-Drive Company with Xerox and Polaroid because there two are pioneers and innovators in their respective fields. Xerox and Polaroid Xerox was founded in 1906 in Rochester as The Haloid Photographic...
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...ANALYSIS FOR BIG BLUE STORE Lisa Williamson Capella University MBA-6004 Table of Contents Introduction ………………………………………………………………….. 1 Mission and Goals …………………………………………………………… 2 Situation Analysis …………………………………………………………… 3 Competitors …………………………………………………………………. 3 Strategic Analysis …………………………………………………………… 4 Ethical Issues ………………………………………………………………... 4 Recommendations …………………………………………………………… 6 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………… 6 References …………………………………………………………………… 7 Introduction Big Blue Store is a farm, home and auto supply store that originated in Seymour, Indiana and expanded into North Carolina in the late 1970’s. Big Blue Store sells quality products at competitive prices with a concentration on the rural lifestyle. Majority of the customers are farmers, home owners, gardeners and homemakers. While Big Blue Store was in Seymour Indian, they were a part of a 12 store location franchise. Since Big Blue Store moved from Seymour Indiana and relocated to eastern North Carolina. Big Blue Store has locations in Kinston, Clinton and Elizabethtown, NC. The Kinston, NC location was opened in 1977. Since then, Big Blue Store seen a need to expand because of customer traffic and opened a store in Clinton, NC in 1978. During the early 1980’s, the Clinton location was purchased by Del Pollert and the Kinston location was purchased by Butch Bedient who were the respective managers at the time. In 2000, Del Pollert seen a need to expand Big Blue Store again...
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...ASSIGNMENT 2 1. Explain how email works in product recommendations. Product recommendation is something needed for an online business to use as one of the internet marketing campaigns. In fact, product recommendation is widely used by many of the people working in the internet and they would love to use this type of technique to increase the fame of the business and increase the chance to getting an order from the people who visit the website of your own. Actually, product recommendation is a technique of introducing or recommending some products on the website of the online business owners. This means that they would try to recommend some useful products or interesting products to people visiting the website. However, some people would try to recommend different types of products together in a website. For ecommerce companies with many products, structuring up-sells and cross-sells for optimal conversions can be very difficult. Product recommendations solve this problem by learning the behaviors of your site visitors on an individual and aggregate level. We automatically take this data and merchandise your site, matching behaviors and comparing intents of new visitors to thousands of shoppers who converted on your site. For returning visitors we display products based on their customer profiles, which are preferences our engine anonymously learns over time, including preferred categories, favorite brands, and even specific colors and sizes. 2. In implementing...
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...Toyota Toyota is currently the biggest car maker in the world. Toyota’s production model has been for long the envy of Detroit’s big three and the benchmark for the auto industry. The auto market in the US has showed signs of improvement, a sign of encouragement for the company. Toyota has invested billions of dollars to develop manufacturing capabilities and supplier networks to supply those markets. Toyota has many comparative advantages over it peers: a strong operational model that generates high margins; a strong global brand synonymous for quality and a business model that allows it to churn out multiple car models at low cost, high speed and high quality. Although Toyota’s supremacy is not uncontended; the so called big three are improving the quality of their cars, Volkswagen is currently buoyant of its success in Europe and the developing nations like China and Brazil and has announced that it will build a plant in the US, a return after an absence of 20 years. Hyundai has shown how favor for a Brand in the market can change quickly with the success of its Hyundai Elantra. Toyota’s competitors have learnt the merits of working with fewer platforms: reduced cost, increase profitability and better management of quality. Yet Toyota’s main challenge does not come from its competitors, rather from within. Although Toyota’s challenges are internal that does not reduce the magnitude of the issues, indeed the most difficult problems to identify and solve are...
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...| Syllabus School of Business ECO/561 Version 7 Economics | Copyright © 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved. Course Description This course applies economic concepts to make management decisions. Students employ the concepts of scarce resources and opportunity costs to perform economic analysis. Other topics include supply and demand, profit maximization, market structure, macroeconomic measurement, money, trade, and foreign exchange. Policies Faculty and students/learners will be held responsible for understanding and adhering to all policies contained within the following two documents: University policies: You must be logged into the student website to view this document. Instructor policies: This document is posted in the Course Materials forum. University policies are subject to change. Be sure to read the policies at the beginning of each class. Policies may be slightly different depending on the modality in which you attend class. If you have recently changed modalities, read the policies governing your current class modality. The discussion question points are now combined with the participation points for each week. You, as the instructor, may create a separate line item for discussion question points if you choose. Please note that some assignment points may have changed. Course Materials Ball, L. M. (2009). Money, banking, and financial markets. New York, NY: Worth Publishers. McConnell...
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...Rick expand his small manufacturing plant that produces parts for the auto industry, I’m going to identify a brief history of the automotive industry, how it impacts the GDP, the unemployment rate, and the inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The supply and demand of the automotive industry as well as the profits derived from the sector are clearly impacting by then macroeconomic policies. The industry’s history demonstrates the trends it follows in the business cycle and how economic indicators have impacted the performance of the industry over the years. The measure of production, interest rates, real GDP, automotive sales and inflation and unemployment are some of the most compelling instruments that can be used to assess the state of the automotive industry. Business Cycles The U.S automotive industry saw a steady expansion from its inception until 1978 in which where production reached its all-time peak. The industry showed a small contraction and a quick recovery leading to its peak between 1972 and 1976. In the early 1980 there was a big drop in production units and the industry fell into its first true recession. The industry recovered in the mid 80s peaking in 1988, but never reached its previous high before falling into another recession that lasted from 1990 to 1992 (Smith, 1996). The automotive industry’s production rates have been cycling through different business phases throughout history. In 1999 the automotive industry finally recovered...
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... 4 Environmental & Root Cause Analysis 4-5 Alternatives 6 Recommendations 7 Implementation 8 Monitor and Control 9 Executive Summary Being one of the top 3 auto manufacturers, Ford had been challenged for their leading position in the auto industry by their foreign-based competitors (Honda and Toyota) in past decades; at the same time auto industry was overcapacity which lead to more fierce competition. How could Ford maintain competitive power and market share in auto market? Improve quality, decrease price and fast response to market were “must-win-battles” in this global competition. Ford 2000, an ambitious restructuring plan, included multiple consolidation activities in operation, and major reengineering project such as order to deliver (OTD), Ford Production system (FPS) was embarked in 1995 to win these battles. In the same time period, with emerging of new...
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...Interview 1. Structure of the Case Interview 2. Frameworks 3. The Math 2. Company Overviews & Interview Processes 3. Practice Cases 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Bike DVD Rental Service in NYC Dry Wall Competitive Threat Organ Donation Case Central Power Chemicals, Inc. Hospital Profitability Contact Lens Manufacturer Growth TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONT’D) 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. E-commerce in the Airline Industry Big Green Biofuels New Rubber Plant Investment Asian Mobile Service Provider Radiator Lens for Defense Aircraft Capital Investment for Utility Electric Car Manufacturer Growth Miner’s Dilemma Big Truck Company Auto Spare Parts Machine Company Non-Profit Revenue Decline Gas Liquefaction 4. Acknowledgements THE CONSULTING CASE INTERVIEW STRUCTURE OF THE CASE INTERVIEW The consulting case interview typically lasts between 20-30 minutes and consists of the following parts: • • • • • Case Overview / Prompt Clarifying Questions Structure / Framework Building & Explanation Problem Solving & Analysis Recommendation The interview should be highly conversational and interactive. Depending on the firm, and depending on the round, some interviews can be more structured than others. Please see the subsequent section for more information on firm-specific preferences and formats. STRUCTURE OF THE CASE INTERVIEW Case Overview / Prompt The case interview will start with the interviewer providing an overview of the client and the problem. Take diligent...
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...latest most up to date technology available, get great economic fuel mileage, and be constructed with high quality materials to meet the highest safety standards, be comfortable, and last for a long time. Dealerships struggle to meet all the needs of their customers, but want repeat customer business. Not only do they sell the vehicles, they offer services after the purchase as well. These services being general maintenance, like oil changes, rotating tires, over all checkups, and following the manufacturers recommend service requirements. A quote that comes from an article found on Time.com, originally published in WardsAuto, a trade publication whose target audience works in the auto industry, “Parts and service carried us through the recession,” says Craig Monaghan, CEO of Asbury Automotive Group, a chain with 79 dealerships. “The front end of the store is sexy, but we make our money in the back.” (Tuttle, 2012) The dealership has overhead they have to cover. They cannot just sell the vehicles and expect that the customers will automatically come back to them for those services. It is a general perception that getting these services done at the dealership will cost more than at the drive-thru quick lube that is right down the street from most dealerships. As if they are strategically placed there. So it is up to the dealership to search out and implement new tactics to generate repeat customers in the service department. This...
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...softening but Progressive was determined to hold prices firm. Renwick argued that the recent high industry profitability was driven by unanticipated falling accident frequency and that this would not continue. He also pointed out that the difference in price might not be big enough to reflect market share, there might be many reasons for this, but the important issue was that Progressive didn’t know the reason. The second challenge was that the customer’s perception of Progressive differed from the Company’s self-perception as a champion of its customers. While Progressives goal was to be the consumer’s #1 choice for auto insurance, JD Power and Associates gave the Company a below average score for the overall customer satisfaction and ranked it 14. Progressive also scored below average for collision repair satisfaction and also ranked 14. The third challenge was consumer awareness of the Progressive brand. In 2006, Progressive had achieved 57% unaided brand awareness, up from 53%. This put the brand in the top four, but well behind GEICO(79%), Allstate (69%), and State Farm (74%) who had been advertising for many years. Moreover, the leaders were increasing their advertising support aggressively. Recommendation: The reality is that the standard of pricing sophistication among Progressive’s most important competitors has improved, as has the technology used to present rates and make the sale. This means that it is imperative for Progressive to redouble its efforts to lead...
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...2 Radialization of truck tyres in India 3 Classification of tyres 3 Cartelization accusations 3 Company Overview 4 Situation Analysis 5 Competitor Analysis 5 Apollo Tyres 5 JK Tyres 5 CEAT 6 Resources & Capabilities (2014) 6 Campaigns 6 Customer Analysis 7 Distribution channels 7 Market size and potential growth 7 Customer survey highlights 7 Perceived risks 8 Dealers’ survey 9 Company Analysis 9 SWOT Analysis 10 Strengths 10 Weaknesses 10 Opportunities 10 Threats 10 Challenges faced by MRF 11 Going Global 11 Incentives for dealers without hurting margins 11 Creating online presence 11 Widening gap between domestic natural rubber production and consumption 11 Options & Recommendations 12 Going global 12 Creating online presence 12 Incentives for dealer without hurting margins 13 References 14 Automobile & Tyre Sector and Company Overview Automobile industry The automobile sector of India...
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