...Fortune 500 companies Home Depot, BestBuy, and Mantel have all failed in the Chinese market. External forces such as competitors and sociocultural effect the companies’ ability to overturn a profit resulting in a complete withdraw. The ideal profitability of China’s market has shown resistance to standardized companies. The unwillingness to adapt and conform to consumers and the lack of preparation on all three companies serves as a lessons learned and displays the true setback of standardizing a product vs. adapt or formulate a new. Fortune 500 Companies Nose-Dive in the Chinese Market China’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and its economy have changed dramatically since the 1980’s. Revolution was widely due to the reform era lead by Deng Xiaoping. During the early 1980’s FDI was restricted to a small number of markets in certain regions. FDI policies evolved with time in the mid 1990’s and in the millennium, government policies relaxed and unified with domestic companies. Foreign companies are enticed into the Chinese market by its rising gross domestic product (GDP), favorable foreign exchange regulations, licensing requirements, tariffs, and taxes (Hale & Long, 2012, p. 2) Many U.S born businesses hop on the bandwagon in globalizing in economically stable countries. Hamlin & Li (2010) stated, “In 2010, China surpassed Japan and became the second- largest economy in the world “(as cited in Gio, 2013, p. 174). Torres (2011) further states, “China is projected to surpass...
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...Home Depot: Research and Development Improvement Recommendations This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment for Business Marketing (EMBA) - March 24, 2013 Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 SWOT Analysis 7 Strategic Alternatives 7 Recommendations 11 Marketing Strategy 11 Marketing Implementation and Control 13 References 14 Executive Summary Where do you go to buy your home improvement supplies? Have you experienced an exceptional home improvement store that meets all your needs and provides exceptional service? If the answer is no, there are several reasons to shop at your nearest Home Depot home improvement store. You can count on the variety of products to choose from while viewing the floor showcase. If you are worried about transportation, we offer truck rentals and service installations so you can sit, enjoy and relax while we do all the work. However, we are going to change the customer experience, our goals and efforts are to change your experience the minute you step into your friendly Home Depot store. You will no longer have to wait for a cashier to answer your question because an expert associate will be available immediately to help guide you and meet your needs during your shopping experience. To help fulfill the new customer service experience, we will enhance our current Mobile App that will provide navigation around the store along with a product information scanner. We hope to improve your families shopping experience by incorporating...
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...Global Fortune 500 Company Home Depot | Economics for SocietyAyesha MuhammadSeptember 1, 2014 | Global Fortune 500 Company Home Depot | Economics for SocietyAyesha MuhammadSeptember 1, 2014 | Global Fortune 500 Company Home Depot Home Depot is one of the largest home improvement retailer in the world. With stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico and China. Home Depot was founded in 1978 by Arthur Blank and Bernie Marcus, along with investment banker Ken Langone and merchandising guru Pat Farrah. Their vision was to open a store as a one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourself individual. Home Depot opened their first store on June 22, 1979, in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1981 Home Depot went public on NASDAQ and moved the New York Stock Exchange in 1984. Between 1980’s thru 1990’s the company saw tremendous growth, in 1989 the company celebrate their 100th store opening. The company wish to expand their store globally, so they open the first home improvement centers in 1994 in Canada with the acquisition of Aikenhead’s home improvement centers, in 2001 under the acquisition of Total HOME that expand the vision in Mexico, and 2006 the company extended its reach to China by acquiring the The Home Way, a 12 store chain. Their global expansion demonstrates how The Home Depot combines its vast knowledge of the home improvement industry with the needs, shopping trends and customs of each unique geography to best serve customers. They are committed to being a global...
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...Craftsman, and Snap-on. Even though, these three companies are among the most popular of tool brands in the United States, each have benefits and drawbacks. Benefits Ridgid, Craftsman, and Snap-on all have one very important thing in common that plays a major role with the purchasing decision of the passionate tool user, and that is all three carry a lifetime warranty on mechanic’s tools; such as wrenches, ratchets, screwdrivers, sockets, and a few others. Equally important, tools produced by all these manufacturers are durable and can withstand some abuse. Regardless, of brand an individual decides to purchase the ease of getting a tool replaced is very important. For example, if a Ridgid tool breaks the owner can go to the local Home Depot and get it replaced. Furthermore, if a Craftsman tool was to break he or she can...
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...Continental Products was a US based company that was known for their quality home good products. They were the leader in sales amongst all the industry competitors for over 15 years and had built a great reputation for themselves. They employed over 1000 people throughout each year while maintaining great management and treatment to workers. Employees of Continental were very happy and loyal to their company due to the excellent work environment. Continental enjoyed great profits and steady growth until around 2004 when an outside force came into actions. China, an unexpected competitor started growing its manufacturing industry extremely rapidly and without any warning started to hurt all US based manufacturing including Continental Products. After 2004, Continental Products was the only plant to survive in the US that was a competitor in the market. In addition to all these manufacturing plants closing down due to foreign competition, large retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot were starting to dominate the market and crush small retailers. With all this happening Continental Products was not sure what was going to happen to the company and what they should do, there are many factors and dilemmas that they had to consider when deciding on the future of their company. When Continental Products realized that they needed to make some changes due to increases in foreign competition they had a lot of variables to consider. There were both positive and negative things that...
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...1 PROBABILISTIC APPROACHES: SCENARIO ANALYSIS, DECISION TREES AND SIMULATIONS In the last chapter, we examined ways in which we can adjust the value of a risky asset for its risk. Notwithstanding their popularity, all of the approaches share a common theme. The riskiness of an asset is encapsulated in one number – a higher discount rate, lower cash flows or a discount to the value – and the computation almost always requires us to make assumptions (often unrealistic) about the nature of risk. In this chapter, we consider a different and potentially more informative way of assessing and presenting the risk in an investment. Rather than compute an expected value for an asset that that tries to reflect the different possible outcomes, we could provide information on what the value of the asset will be under each outcome or at least a subset of outcomes. We will begin this section by looking at the simplest version which is an analysis of an asset’s value under three scenarios – a best case, most likely case and worse case – and then extend the discussion to look at scenario analysis more generally. We will move on to examine the use of decision trees, a more complete approach to dealing with discrete risk. We will close the chapter by evaluating Monte Carlo simulations, the most complete approach of assessing risk across the spectrum. Scenario Analysis The expected cash flows that we use to value risky assets can be estimated in one or two ways. They can represent a probability-weighted...
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...but on an adjusted basis declined 6.7 percent. At the end of 2008, the U.S. economy was in the most severe recession it has experienced since the great depression. We planned for this tough economic environment, and we executed well against our plan, exceeding the sales and earnings targets we set forth at the beginning of the year. We gained over 100 basis points of U.S. market share in 2009, a notable accomplishment on a base of fewer stores. We saw sequential improvement in our performance during the year and exited the year with a positive comp in the fourth quarter. We also saw signs of stabilization in some key macroeconomic indicators, such as Private Fixed Residential Investment as a percent of GDP. In Canada, the demand for home improvement products is showing improvement. And our Mexican team delivered positive comps for the year in a very tough economic environment. As we look to 2010, we believe we will see modest economic recovery in the markets we serve and expect our performance to continue to improve as the economy undergoes a steady, though slow, recovery. As a company, we made significant progress against our strategic imperatives in 2009. We enhanced customer service in our stores, introduced new and innovative products with compelling values, and drove productivity and efficiency. Our customer service levels, as measured by our Voice of the Customer surveys and other external sources, continue to improve. A key factor in this improvement was the...
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...My thoughts on Immigration Submitted by: Dhara Shah The major reason people emigrate from their homelands is better future aspects such as better financial stability, better working hours and better living standards. Despite all these opportunities, there are many issues that immigrants face while trying to obtain the equality in their status-quo. Some of these issues are different visa levels, job insecurities, racial discrimination, language problems and cultural barriers that each and every immigrant has to cope up with. Initially, all immigrants face cultural clashes and have difficulty in communication since English is not their first language. Moreover, everything seems different, if not new – the attire, the weather conditions, the transport system, the traditions, mannerisms, language pronunciations. There is a lack of awareness and knowledge of how the system works which adds to their anxiety and uncertainty to deal with situations. Adjusting with these new situations can be drastic for many as they feel uprooted from their homeland and miss their near and dear ones. They feel homesick and alienated from the outside world. Most of the times, they experience difficulty in assimilating with the group since it is natural that people from same nationality often form their own private groups and are conversing in their local languages making it difficult for the other...
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...The Home Depot 2008 Annual Report Dear Shareholders: In 2008, our retail sales declined by 7.8 percent, with comp sales down 8.7 percent. Our adjusted earnings per share from continuing operations declined 22 percent. In ordinary times, these would be very disappointing results. But 2008 was not an ordinary year. Despite the difficult economic environment, we continued to improve our retail business, through investing in our associates and our stores, rebuilding our supply chain and improving customer service. We also made several strategic decisions to optimize our capital allocation, concentrating our efforts on our core business. In the first quarter, we closed 15 underperforming stores and reduced our pipeline of new stores by 50. In the third quarter, we renegotiated our private label credit card agreement, capping our cost of private label credit. In the fourth quarter, we announced our decision to exit EXPO and related businesses. These actions will make the Company stronger. On the financial side, we ended the year with a solid operating profit and $41 billion in assets. We generated cash from the business of approximately $5.5 billion, which allowed us to invest in the business where necessary and reduce our debt obligations while maintaining a healthy dividend. On the operational side, we implemented an “Aprons on the Floor” initiative, which deployed over $200 million in annualized savings onto the floor of the stores for customer service...
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...Poverty Amidst Plenty “India happens to be a rich country inhabited by very poor people”- Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister For the past few decades, India has been categorized as a developing country. In spite of significant landmarks and rapid advancements in various sectors, India has failed to become a developed country. While the nation has been making headlines for economic boom, multitudes of billionaires, construction of skyscrapers, million dollar investments and achievements in technology; the death rates, malnutrition, illiteracy and poverty is multiplying manifold. India is a country which has prosperity on one side of the coin and poverty on the other. It is the stark impact of poverty that hinders the growth of the country. Gone are the days when India used to be a famine land and had to rely on the Americas for the supply of PL wheat. With the advent of the Green revolution, India, not only eliminated famine but also increased its food production and became self-sufficient in food grains. Operation Flood, initiated by National Dairy Development Board in 1970 introduced a National Milk Grid that was effective in reducing the poverty and famine levels. It has also made India the largest producer of milk and dairy products in the world. Agriculture has been the base of India’s economic development with its existence dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization. Today, India is one of the major agricultural economies in the world, in terms of area of cultivation...
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...depth of understanding required to conduct successful international negotiations goes far beyond what is immediately transparent. Since culture has a substantial influence on how people deliberate, converse and act, it has significant effect on many aspects of business negotiations, and therefore must be considered when conducting business internationally. All too often companies try to operate using the same business structure and strategies in multiple different countries and are unsuccessful or have extreme difficulty due to the differences in culture. This paper will discuss several cultural differences which consistently cause difficulties in international negotiations specifically during the conduct of business between America and China. These differences are broken up into several different categories including: purpose of negotiation, cultural compatibility, governmental compatibility, communication barriers, risk aversion, formalities and negotiating speed, emotional response, and successful negotiating tactics. Purpose Understanding why both business parties are negotiating as well as cultural negotiation processes are important in obtaining a favorable outcome during international business transactions. While Americans consider negotiating as a short term process to reach a formal agreement and sign a deal, Chinese cultures typically see negotiating as a process to establish a rapport and ultimately lead to a contract being signed. The relationship...
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...International Analysis of Walmart 8/11/2013 International Operations Walmart is a Multinational Entity (MNE) that has 10,800 stores in 27 countries. The countries of China, Japan, India, UK, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, US, and Canada represent Walmart’s influence globally. Walmart employees 2.2 million people worldwide with 1.3 million in the US alone. At the end of fiscal 2013, Walmart’s domestic sales were $466.1 billion and international sales were 135 billion making Walmart number 2 on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies by revenue (Walmart, 2013). Walmart’s internationalization ratio is 29%, outlining the percentage of international sales of total sales. International sales, as a percentage of total sales, are up roughly 5% since 2010 when international sales were 24.7% of total sales (Walmart, 2010). Walmart’s international presence is growing through expansion and a more multinational mindset. Walmart espouses a multinational mentality. Although the company realizes the need to have an efficient business model, the thought is “we sell what customers want” meaning that Walmart treats the different regions of the world as local domestic markets (Pennsylvania State University, 2013). As Walmart enters emerging markets, obstacles arise with integration and expansion...
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...Prabesh Timilsina, HBD3173.E1, Exercise5 5.1 Study the Learning from Experience Case on p. 445. What is the significance of the organizational design of the company? The basis for any successful organization is for people to work together and understand how their behaviors support the organization’s strategy. Yet, talented people in even the best managed organizations are sometimes left trying to understand how their own activities contribute to their organization’s success. An organization’s design is crucial in clarifying the roles of the leaders and employees who hold the organization together. Organization design is the process of selecting a structure for the tasks, responsibilities, and authority relationships within an organization. An organization’s design influences communication patterns among individuals and teams and determines which person or department has the political power to get things done. The structure of an organization influences the behavior of employees. Therefore, an organization’s design plays a critical role in the success of an organization. Every organization’s design decision solves one set of problems but creates others. Organization design decisions often involve the diagnosis of multiple factors, including an organization’s culture, power and political behaviors, and job design. Organization design represents the outcomes of a decision-making process that includes environmental factors, strategic choices, and technological factors. Specifically...
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...an External Environment Analysis This essay will provide two aspects of environmental assessments undertaken on 800 Super Holdings Limited (800): a macro-environmental PESTEL analysis, and an industry analysis using Porter’s Five Forces of how 800 fairs in today’s competitive environment. 800 Super Holdings Limited 800 is a home grown company with humble beginnings in 1986 before its IPO offering and listing on the SGX-Catalist on 15 July 2011. An established integrated environmental solutions provider, 800’s business lies in waste management (WM) and recycling, cleaning and conservancy; and horticultural services. With its broad range of services, 800’s customer base is diverse and ranges from municipals to the industrial, institutional and commercial sectors (800 super, 2015). 800 has posted healthy profits year after year, with FY2014 revenue increasing 17.9% to S$115 million and net profit after tax improving 57.1% to $9.1 million (Chairman Statement, 2014); as of HY2015, revenue has already increased 95.4% to S$12.3 million, pushing current net profit to S$4.6 million (800 super, 2015). 800’s recent prominent deals include a Ministry of Home Affairs S$38.6 million three-year contract for cleaning and horticultural services in the East and West regions (shareinvestor, 2015). Winning two out of eight integrated public cleaning (IPC) seven-year contracts in the North-west and South-west regions of Singapore to the tune of S$302.2 million; receiving one out of only four...
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...Running Head: Business Synoptic BUSINESS SYNOPTIC Customer Inserts His/her Name University Name Table of Contents Question 13 Question 2…………………………………………………………………………………………5 Question 3…………………………………………………………………………………………9 Question 4………………………………………………………………………………………..13 Question 5…………………………………………………………………..................................15 References………………………………………………………………………………………..17 Q – 1) Compare Wal-Mart experience in countries such as Germany and South Korea on one hand, and China on the other. What determine Wal-Mart's success or otherwise in these markets? What lessons should Wal-Mart learn from these experiences? Wal-Mart Wal-Mart is an American public corporation that runs a chain of discounted stores throughout the world. Wal-Mart was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. The main head office of Wal-Mart is in Bentonville, Arkansas. Approximately 2,100,000 employees work in the Wal-Mart stores around the world. About 100 million customers each week visit the stores; Wal-Mart provides its customers low prices for their products. The slogan for Wal-Mart stores was low prices always. Now the new slogan is saving the people’s money so that they can have better lives. This slogan basically shows the 3 groups 1) Hispanics, 2) African-Americans and 3) rural residents of the country, which makeup of the 100 million customers who visit the stores each week. (Wal-Mart, 2010) Wal-Mart in Germany Wal-Mart is not a success in Germany...
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