...Janis Graham American Intercontinental University General Electric and the Kitchen Range October 20, 2013 Abstract General Electric (GE) has been a major successful brand name for so many years for its large and small appliances. GE’s iconic history and technological advancements have contributed to a loyal and lasting consumer base, one which will be analyzed further in this document. The following document will not only explore the history and present, but will outline in detail the future demographic trends that are essential to GE’s future success in the home appliance industry. General Electric and the Kitchen Range Introduction Kitchen ranges have gone through major transitions since wood burning and cast iron devices to induction, convection and dual fuel from gas to electric. The industrial revolution was a turning factor for many companies to expand in the marketplace by trying to make kitchen chores easier and faster for women through the development of appliances. This area was the beginning of progressive inventions in this market which many companies such as Whirlpool, Electrolux and General Electric (GE) all became major players and still are today in this very competitive industry of home appliances. Part 1: Competitor Selection In 1892, two companies combined Edison General Electric, developed by Thomas Alva Edison and the Thomas-Houston Company, owned by Charles A. Coffin to originate the organization of General Electric Company soon...
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...Diversification Strategies Arissra Stamps Strayer University Diversification Strategies Types of Diversification Strategies Diversification is a business strategy that allow a company to establish additional lines of commerce that maybe different from the current products or services. Depending on company’s directions, the different types of diversification that company utilize are: Horizontal, Vertical, Concentric, Heterogeneous (Conglomerate) and Corporate Diversifications (Small Enterprise Strategic Development Training, 2009). Horizontal Diversification is used when the company wants to develop new product or offer new service that could appeal to current customers. For example, a dairy who produces cheese wants to expand its products with new types of cheese. A construction company may choose Vertical Diversification; it may venture into new selling product such as paint and construction materials while the core business remains in providing construction services. Concentric Diversification is the method a company uses to enlarge the production portfolio by adding new products and aiming to utilize the potential of existing technologies and market system. The best example of this strategy would be a bakery who sales bread, pastries and cake who begins to sale dough products. Heterogeneous or Conglomerate Diversification is opposite from Concentric because it focus on new products or services that do not use existing technologies and does not have any commercial...
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...Information Systems MN5121 Competing with IS Yasaman Soltan-Zadeh y.soltan-zadeh@rhul.ac.uk Office: MX 120 Competing with IS • Does IT Matter? • IS and Competitive Advantage • The New Competitive Paradigm Does IT Matter? • Can IT provide a strategic advantage? • Is it sustainable? • Carr, Nicholas (2003), “IT doesn’t matter”, Harvard Business Review, May 2003, pp. 41-49. – “As information technology’s power and ubiquity have grown, its strategic importance has diminished. The way you approach IT investment and management will need to change dramatically” (Carr, 2003) IT Doesn’t Matter! • Information Technology: – Proprietary Technology vs. Infrastructural Technology • The Commoditization of IT – Transport mechanism – more valuable shared rather than isolated – Interconnectivity and interoperability – Standardisation of technology and homogenisation of its functionality – Highly replicable – Rapid price deflation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO2dCaaSDk8 IT Doesn’t Matter! • From Offence to Defence – Spend less – Follow, don’t lead – Focus on vulnerabilities, not opportunities Does IT matter? • Inherently strategic because of indirect effects • Creates possibilities and options that did not exist before • May become ubiquitous! The insight to harness the potential is not distributed evenly. Does IT matter? Three broad lessons • Extracting value from IT requires innovations in business practices. • IT’s economic impacts comes from incremental...
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...and a Marketing Review of Sears 1st submission Date Due in: April 19, 2012 Number of pages: 23 Word count :3,281 Table of Contents sEARS bUSINESS STRATEGY REVIEW i Executive Summary 2-3 introduction brief history and background of sears 4 mission & obJECTIVES II evaluation of sears existing mission and objectives 5-6 External analysis IIi Competitors 7 PEST 8-9 Five forces Analysis 10-11 Opportunities & Threats 11 InternaL aNALYSIS iV Strenghts & Weaknesses 12 Financial ratios analysis 13-14 Past and current strategies 15 Sears current strategic position v Sears current strategy Balance Scorecard 16-17 Porter’s Generic strategies 17 rEcommendations vi Objectives and strategic actions 19-21 Evaluation 22- 23 Conclusion 24-26 Bibliography Executive Summary Sears, once the leader of the retail industry, is now facing financial troubles and is relegated to the 10th position in the market (Store org, 2011). Even after the merger with K-Mart, the retail conditions have not seemed to improved, but in fact, Sears Holding’s financial reports continued to reflect loss. Investor confidence in Sears Holding and its SBUs has been consistently declining over the past few years, due to Sears’ poor performance. Consequently...
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...the C.P. Pokphand Company, a Thailand-based conglomerate, to open three Value Club membership discount stores in Hong Kong. MODE OF ENTRY Once Wal-Mart had selected the country or countries to enter, it needed to determine the appropriate mode of entry. Every company making this move faces an array of choices: It can acquire an existing player, build an alliance with an existing player or start greenfield operations, either alone or in partnership with another player. Wal-Mart entered Canada through an acquisition. This was a logical move for three reasons. First, Canada is a mature market - an unattractive situation for greenfield operations, since adding new stores (i.e., new capacity) will only intensify an already high degree of local competition. Second, because there are significant income and cultural similarities between the United States and Canadian markets, Wal-Mart faced relatively little need for new learning. Thus, entering through a strategic alliance was unnecessary. Third, a poorly performing player, Woolco, was available for purchase at an economical price. Furthermore, Wal-Mart's business model was precisely what Woolco needed to transform itself into a viable and healthy organization. For its entry into Mexico, Wal-Mart took a different route. Because there are significant income and cultural differences between the United States and Mexican markets about which the company needed to learn, and to which it needed to tailor its operations, the local...
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..."strategy" to pursue. 38 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING Witli laptops in liund, armies ol consullaiils were employed lo chum out graphs, charts, and tables that bolstered recommended head cuts in organizations across the globe. However, these activities have now given way to more popular growth activities. Strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, new market penetration, mass customization, customer intimacy, strategic alliances, and the like are all in the sights of businesses large atid small. More difficult than a downsizing strategy to develop and document, growth strategies, once contrived, present management with an even greater challenge: how to make their strategies work. Turning strategic plans into tangible business results can frustrate even the most seasoned manager. Unfortunately, the scenario follows an all-too-familiar pattern. First, there is often surprise that planning is even taking place. Consultants are brought in by senior management. They set up in a back room with a small team from the client (usually included for "involvement" purposes). And, they come out after several months with the golden "answer," neatly bound in a four-inch binder complete with all supporting data and documentation. Then comes some...
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...Sears, Roebuck & Co G5 Investment Group Matt Nutsch Renis Kacani Melody Seely Ashley Green Wiley Eagle . G5 Investment Group December 4, 2004 Retail – Broadline Buy Stock Data Price (52 weeks) Symbol/Exchange Beta Fully Diluted Shrs Average Daily Vol Current market cap Book Value / Share Current ratio $31.21 - $55.90 S / NYSE 1.3 230.4 million 5,028,000 shrs 10.82B $28.3 1.32 Valuation (per share) Current Price Comparables DCF Analysis Residual Income DD Analysis Abnormal Earnings $34.78 $36.60 $36.94 $38.38 $27.97 $46.49 Summary Financials (in millions) for 2004 Revenue Earnings $36.6 billion $550 million 1 Executive Summary Sears is following a differentiated approach in a competitive industry. Consequently, Sears has lagged behind other broadline retailers such as K-Mart, Target, and Wal-Mart. Should Sears adjust its marketing approach, it would have great potential for success. Growth prospects for Sears include continuation and growth of sales and expansion. The development of subsidiary brands such as Lands’ End and the acquiring of 61 of-mall stores from K-Mart and Wal-Mart. of new stores abroad will fuel this growth. Financing the acquisitions should not be overly burdensome for Sears, given the company’s large cash. Also, the company’s Z-Score of 5.9 will provide easy access to financing if needed Sears has began to shift to an off-mall emphasis for its stores as it acquired stores...
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...General motors corporation (GM) filed for chapter 11 bankcruptcy protection, the second-largest industrial bankruptcy in history (worldcom was the largest). GM, which hadn’t made aprofit since 2004, declare in its filing that it had 172 billion in debt and 82 billion in assets. As any competent business student could tell you. The ratio doesn’t make a balance sheet balance, especially when the companys equity is worth little. Fritz Henderson, who named CEO of Gm on march 30,2009, was a numbers guy, but he knew the companys culture had to change. His vision of the new organizational culture revolved around four guidelines: risk taking, accountability, speed, and costumer-product focus. The problem was that GM had tried before to reinvent itself, with mixed success. “GM’s past is littered with the buzzords of culture change. It has struggled to impose cultural change across the highly bureaucratic company in which brands, departments, and regions operated like self governing and competing states within a federation. But GM’s executive said, this time would be different. After all, there was the bankruptcy and the selective elimination of entrenched leadership. Were things really changing, though? Despite his well intentioned plans, Henderson was fired by the board on December 1, 2009 some felt he wasn’t radical enough to change the company. His replacement was the person appointed by the obama administrations car czar to oversee the automakers revival after bankruptcy, ed whitacre...
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...factors would hold consistent going forward. At this point, Costco was one of a special breed of retailers called wholesale clubs. Unlike other retailers, wholesale clubs required that customers purchase annual memberships in order to shop at their stores. Costco operated a chain of warehouses that sold food and general merchandise at large discounts to member customers. The company was able to maintain low margins by selling items in bulk, keeping operating expenses to a minimum, and turning inventory over rapidly. Costco’s closest competitors were SAM’S Club (a division of Wal-Mart) and BJ’s Wholesale, which both operated as wholesale clubs. Other competitors included general discounters (such as Wal-Mart), general retailers (such as Sears), grocery store chains (such as Safeway), and specialty discounters (such as Best Buy). Torres first considered investing in Costco because she herself was a member. She was impressed by the company’s low prices and noticed in particular that her local Costco was always crowded. She decided to research the company and started, as always, with their annual reports. She discovered a company...
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...ROBERT F. HARTLEY • Cindy Claycomb 12th Edition T W E L F T H E D I T I O N MARKETING MISTAKES AND SUCCESSES Robert F. Hartley Late of Cleveland State University Cindy Claycomb Wichita State University VICE PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER SENIOR EDITOR PROJECT EDITOR EDITORIAL ASSISTANT ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF MARKETING MARKETING MANAGER MARKETING ASSISTANT DESIGN DIRECTOR PRODUCT DESIGNER SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION EDITOR COVER DESIGNER George Hoffman Franny Kelly Brian Baker Jacqueline Hughes Amy Scholz Kelly Simmons Marissa Carroll Harry Nolan Allison Morris Janis Soo Joel Balbin Eugenia Lee Kenji Ngieng This book was set in 10/12 New Caledonia by Aptara®, Inc. and printed and bound by Courier/Westford. The cover was printed by Courier/Westford. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. has been a valued source of knowledge and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Our company is built on a foundation of principles that include responsibility to the communities we serve and where we live and work. In 2008, we launched a Corporate Citizenship Initiative, a global effort to address the environmental, social, economic, and ethical challenges we face in our business. Among the issues we are addressing are carbon impact, paper specifications and procurement, ethical...
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...The Strategic Use Of Information Technology in Business – Best Guidebook Posted by Admin April 13, 2009 [pic] X Welcome Googler! If you find this page useful, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic. You were searching forPosts relating to "strategic uses of information technology". See posts relating to your search »« Hide related posts • Information Security Technology We live in a world full of dangers. On one hand the world economy is going bonkers while on the... • fruITion Delivers a Novel Approach to IT Strategy Image via Wikipedia Around the world, an extraordinary new book about IT's ... • ShowClix Secures Series A Funding From Pittsburgh Equity Partners ShowClix, a Pittsburgh-based event ticketing company, today announced that it has secured an undisclosed sum of Series A funding from... • There is money in Internet Crime The BBC is reporting that Internet Crime is becoming quite the commercial activity. Apparently there is quite some money in... • So, there’s a nude font? This is a fun little thing I had to bring to your attention. It's a nudist font! Note... [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]TEACHER: Hello, Student. What do you know about Information Technology (IT)? STUDENT: Well, I know that most software is full of “bugs”! By the way, why are these errors in programs called “bugs”? TEACHER: Computer “bugs” have been around since malfunctions...
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...Go to All About Homonyms | A | | a | very short little insignificant English word | | eh | an interrogative utterance | | | | | acts | things done | | ax | chopping tool | | | | | ad | short for advertisement | | add | short for addition | | | | | adds | performs additions | | ads | more than one advertisement | | adze | axe-like tool | | | | | ade | fruit beverage | | aid | to assist | | aide | an assistant | | | | | aerie | eagle's nest | | airy | breezy | | | | | aero | of aircraft | | arrow | slender, pointed shaft | | | | | affect | to change | | effect | result | | | | | ail | sick | | ale | beer | | | | | | | | air | stuff we breathe | | are | 1/100th of a hectare | | e'er | contraction of "ever" | | ere | eventually | | err | to make a mistake | | heir | one who will inherit | | | | | | aisle | walkway | | I'll | contraction of "I will" | | isle | island | | | | | all | everything | | awl | pointed scriber | | | | | allowed | permitted | | aloud | spoken | | | | | altar | raised center of worship | | alter | to change | | | | | an | a single instance | | Ann | a woman's name | | | | | ant | insect | | aunt | parent's sister | | | | | ante | preliminary bet | | auntie | sister...
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...www.it-ebooks.info www.it-ebooks.info E L E V E N T H E D I T I O N MARKETING MISTAKES AND SUCCESSES 3 0 T H A N N I V E R S A RY Robert F. Hartley Cleveland State University JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC. www.it-ebooks.info VICE PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER EXECUTIVE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE MARKETING MANAGER ASSISTANT MARKETING MANAGER MARKETING ASSISTANT DESIGN DIRECTOR SENIOR DESIGNER SENIOR MEDIA EDITOR George Hoffman Lise Johnson Carissa Doshi Dorothy Sinclair Matt Winslow Amy Scholz Carly DeCandia Alana Filipovich Jeof Vita Arthur Medina Allison Morris This book was set in 10/12 New Caledonia by Aptara®, Inc. and printed and bound by Courier/Westford. The cover was printed by Courier/Westford. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2009, 2006, 2004, 2001, 1998, 1995, 1992, 1989, 1986, 1981, 1976 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, website www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should...
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...Professor Emeritus College of Business Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY 41099 (USA) 7539, Tiki Av. Cincinnati, OH 45243 USA Tel: (513) 984-1032 [Home] Fax: (513) 984-1032 E-Mail: datta@nku.edu A paper accepted for presentation at the 9th Oxford Business & Economics Conference to be held in Oxford, England, June 22-24. Table of Contents A Critique of Porter’s Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategies 4 ABSTRACT 4 Key Words 4 INTRODUCTION 5 COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY 5 Major Reliance on Modern Capital Equipment 7 Relying on the Experience Curve to Underprice Competition Risky 7 A Cost Leader Cannot Ignore Differentiation 8 No Such Thing as a "Commodity": Everything Can Be Differentiated 9 High Market Share a Prior Condition for Cost Leadership? 10 Porter Identifies High Market Share with Cost Leadership Strategy 10 Differentiation--Not Cost Leadership Alone--Behind GM’s and Whirlpool’s Success 11 “Low-Cost” or “Low-Price” Strategy? 12 Thompson and Strickland’s Low-cost Provider Strategy 14 Internal Orientation of Cost Leadership Strategy 14 DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 15 Superiority of Differentiation over Cost Leadership Strategy 16 Porter: Differentiation and High Market Share Incompatible 17 Differentiation Compatible with High Market Share--and Low Cost 18 Even higher quality may lead to lower cost 18 High Market Share Contributes to Long-term Competitive Advantage 20 Market Share Leadership...
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...Professor Emeritus College of Business Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY 41099 (USA) 7539, Tiki Av. Cincinnati, OH 45243 USA Tel: (513) 984-1032 [Home] Fax: (513) 984-1032 E-Mail: datta@nku.edu A paper accepted for presentation at the 9th Oxford Business & Economics Conference to be held in Oxford, England, June 22-24. Table of Contents A Critique of Porter’s Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategies 4 ABSTRACT 4 Key Words 4 INTRODUCTION 5 COST LEADERSHIP STRATEGY 5 Major Reliance on Modern Capital Equipment 7 Relying on the Experience Curve to Underprice Competition Risky 7 A Cost Leader Cannot Ignore Differentiation 8 No Such Thing as a "Commodity": Everything Can Be Differentiated 9 High Market Share a Prior Condition for Cost Leadership? 10 Porter Identifies High Market Share with Cost Leadership Strategy 10 Differentiation--Not Cost Leadership Alone--Behind GM’s and Whirlpool’s Success 11 “Low-Cost” or “Low-Price” Strategy? 12 Thompson and Strickland’s Low-cost Provider Strategy 14 Internal Orientation of Cost Leadership Strategy 14 DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 15 Superiority of Differentiation over Cost Leadership Strategy 16 Porter: Differentiation and High Market Share Incompatible 17 Differentiation Compatible with High Market Share--and Low Cost 18 Even higher quality may lead to lower cost 18 High Market Share Contributes to Long-term Competitive Advantage 20 Market Share Leadership...
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