...Module 4 Critical Thinking Case: Locating the New Recreational Vehicle Plant Module 4 Critical Thinking Case: Locating the Recreational Vehicle Plant The company GFMC wants to expand its U.S. operations and build a new plant to manufacture motorized recreational vehicles. The plant would employ 500 workers and GFMC would like to keep the new union-free. The United Automobile Workers (UAW) and other international unions may attempt to organize the workers after the first year. A planning committee is created and part of the committees’ responsibility is to provide advice about size, location, staffing, wages, and benefits to the company. This paper will outline what advice the committee could provide to GFMC to keep the new plant union-free and competitive. The first recommendation should be regarding the location of the plant. The plant should be located in a state with low union membership, so that unionization can be avoided. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014), South Carolina is the state with the lowest union memberships at 3%. Therefore, South Carolina would be the ideal state for the plant. The next recommendation is to survey the area of the plant for local wages and benefits and make sure that wages and benefits are compatible with the local area. This would avoid the need of a union to come in to bargain wages and benefits. When a company leads the market in pay levels, implements merit pay policies, and uses performance measures to increase pay...
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...Title Case analysis question: What are the strategies used by U.S. companies today to keep them union-free and why is it critical to the success of an organization in meeting its goals and mission? Introduction: This week case analysis, Treadway Tire Company’s presents a great topic of discussion for everyone and a possible open channel to further study unions and the cause and effect within the work force. As we review in-depth the case of Treadway Tire Company, it provides an opportunity for the reader to ask several key important questions like what are the strategies used by U.S. companies today to keep them union-free and why is it critical to the success of any organization in meeting its goals and mission? Clearly this paper focuses on those issues and show how the Treadway Tire Company’s efforts to curtail the rising cost of doing business in the tire manufacturing industry suffered, while having to deal with multiple growing union and employee issues, that cripple and destroy the organization ultimately failing its goals. Look pass Treadway Tire: In order to better understand the problem we need to step back and take a better in-depth look at the overall picture. First and foremost, why were unions created, previously I prepared a paper about the labor movement in the United States and how it gained its humble beginnings in 1768. How it fought and struck a good blow for the worker by protesting wage reduction. Since then, the fight for fair wages and decent...
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...covered the GM Powertrain Unit of General Motors as it existed in the mid-90’s, and specifically that period (1996 – 1998) when it was managed by Joe Hinrichs. The Division was beset by a variety of issues and resulted in an inability to manage to a budget, and that was problematic to management. Budgetary and ineffective or inefficient functions of the plant occurred due in part from numerous factors including continued use of old machinery, denominator management, i.e., management of human capital by attrition, inappropriate use of incentives, collective bargaining limitations, and a general lack of managerial creativity. These effects were felt throughout the GM organization during the ‘90’s , as a new chairman was installed in a “bloodless coup,” barely four years earlier, when in late October of 1992, John Smale, the chairman of the GM`s executive board, forced GM Chairman John Stempel to resign by issuing a statement that did not give chairman a vote of confidence. "Boardroom Coup At GM, A Chilling Message For U.s. Execs." Mateja, J., and Franklin, S, October 27, 1992. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-10-27/news/9204070415_1_gm-directors-gm-chairman-robert-stempel-john-smale Things appeared to be looking up as a take charge guy in John (Jack) Smith assumed the position of CEO in November of 1992, and eventually Chairman in 1996. It appears the industry was in larger turmoil as external threats were varied and resulted in significant alterations of the landscape...
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...CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 emphasizes the internationalization of business and economic activity that has occurred since the end of World War II. Although international business activities have existed for centuries, primarily in the form of exporting and importing, it is only in the postwar period that multinational firms have become preeminent. The distinguishing characteristic of the MNC is its emphasis on global, rather than affiliate, performance. Specifically, MNCs ask, "Where in the world should we build our plants, sell our products, raise capital, and hire personnel?" Thus the true multinational is characterized more by attitude than the physical reality of an integrated system of marketing and production activities worldwide. It involves looking beyond the boundaries of the home country, and treating the world as "our oyster." Good examples include the globalization of GE's medical systems division and Arco Chemical. After stimulating student interest with this vision of the MNC, I then introduce the financial decisions that multinationals must make. I begin by discussing the key concepts and lessons from domestic finance that apply directly to international corporate finance. The lessons include the emphasis on cash flow rather than accounting earnings, the time value of money, the importance of taxes, and the unwillingness of investors to reward companies for activities (like corporate diversification) which investors could replicate for themselves at...
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...Competitive Strategies with Mobile Phone Providers ECO/365 Competitive Strategies with Mobile Phone Providers The following report details cellphone analysis that will deal with cellphone services. In order for the different existing cellphone providers such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Metro PCS to survive in the business market, they need to implement competitive strategies. It will establish stability and profitability in the long term. The key personnel and maintain for each service is the customer's loyalty. Mobile phone providers can have a challenge entering in today’s market. For a new company to be successful they would need to find a way to give the customers phones and service cheaper than the other companies or have a new innovative phone available. T-Mobile does not require their customers to have a contract making the upgrade at the contract renewal time obsolete. The purchase of the initial phone when signing up with T-Mobile is where they make most of their money. The monthly plans with T-Mobile are not exorbitantly priced giving them an edge on the other phone companies. T-Mobile was also the first to give customers access to international services for free. A new smaller provider can be merged with one of the larger companies easily. It would be a horizontal merger between these companies because they provide the same services. In 2004 AT&T merged with Cingular Wireless. This merger gave Cingular customers a wider network to use...
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...UNION BUDGET 2013-14 AND THE INDIAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY AN OVERVIEW The Indian Textiles Industry has an overwhelming presence in the economic life of the country. India employees about 100 million people in various forms related to the textile industry. This number is about 1/3rd of the total population of the United States. Owing to the employment and revenue generation, India has a cabinet level ministry for the textile sector. Textile sector can be broadly categorized into jute, sericulture, wool & woolen, man-made fiber & filament yarn industry. The Indian textiles industry contributes substantially to India’s GDP and exports earnings. The export basket consists of wide range of items containing cotton yarn and fabrics, man-made yarn and fabrics, wool and silk fabrics, made-ups and variety of garments. The major competitors for the Indian textile industry are China, Vietnam, and Bangladesh. USA is the single largest importer of textiles & clothing items. The rupee vis-a-vis dollar movement does have an impact on export of the textile industry. A 100% FDI is allowed in the textile sector under the automatic route. Several international retail brands are planning to invest in Indian textile sector as the Central Government has announced many incentives, including tax exemptions, to the textile and garment industry in the Union Budget 2013-14. According to the textile industry analysts, there will be 5-7 percent increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) with global...
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...world. Over the past 20 years, however, the American industry has lost its comparative advantage. The state of the economy and the recession the country is experiencing is making it difficult for any industry to turn a sound profit. The auto industry is feeling the squeeze. The “Big Three” auto makers in the United States and Canada consist of, General Motors (GM), Ford and Chrysler. These companies are competing during these hard economic times and faced with competition from foreign manufactures as well. This paper will analyze the changes implemented in the auto industry, and the problems addressed by the leadership. It will identify new changes the company will implement for their organization to remain competitive within the industry and assess the effectiveness of the changes already implemented and the potential benefit of the new changes. The Big Three reigned as the largest in the world and two of these corporations are still the backbone of the top five. Ford has held the position of second-ranked automaker for the past 56 years, but the state of the economy has affected it powerful edge and responsible for their decent to third in North American sales, and passed by Toyota in 2007. That year, Toyota produced more vehicles than GM, however GM still outsold Toyota that year, holding fast to a consecutive 77 calendar years of top sales, but the first quarter of 2008 Toyota overtook GM in sales. Honda passed Chrysler for the fourth spot in 2008, and since...
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...Europe, The Renewable Energy Union Europe, the renewable energy union It is not a secret anymore that the world is running out of fossil energy resources. The oil winning has peaked which means that it becomes harder and harder to pump up the oil these days. Eventually the costs will exceed the benefits. Without payable energy resources the world economy will collapse which will result in hunger, chaos and war. Action has to be taken on a wide scale to prevent these scenarios and the European Union has a big role in this. Leaders and civilians have to be prepared, lifestyles adjusted and alternatives implemented. I can argue that securing the availability of the EU’s energy resources can only be done by modifying all member states, from fossil energy consumers, to renewable energy consumers. The European Union and fossil energy resources Only 15.59% of all oil the EU member states consume comes from their own natural resources. This means that 84,41% comes from non-EU members which shows how dependent we as the EU are on other countries. The EU is mostly dependent (42,4%) on the FSU (former soviet union) with Russia as its biggest supplier.[1] This means that they decide whether the prices are high or low. And nowadays, with the oil peak that is reached and other negative forecasts, barrel prices are increasing rapidly. Next to oil, another major energy resource is gas. By 2030, 60% of all natural gas the EU consumes comes from Russia too.[2] Clearly, Russia is of big...
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...Labor Relations and Negotiations at the Memphis Kellogg Plant As with everything, there is no guarantee in business; no one can be assured that he or she will have a job. Companies do their best to turn a profit and keep their employees happy, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. In the summer of 2013, Memphis’ Kellogg’s Plant was forced to implement layoffs. They blamed this on the “cessation of bran and retail rice production” in Memphis. While they had legitimate concerns, it didn’t go down without a fight. The Memphis plant was forthcoming in letting its employees know that layoffs were inevitable. They announced in April of 2013 that the impending layoffs would take place in the following months. They even have documentation of letting the mayor know, as well as the union that the employees were a part of. They laid off a total of 70 employees; 33 in June of 2013 and 37 in August. Not only did they have to lay employees off, they had to negotiate with the ones that kept their jobs to work less hours and restructure some other things as well. This presented a hardship for as many as 220 employees, and it started a snowball effect of issues. Some of these being that all new employees would be part-time, and would receive limited insurance and retirement. The employees affected by the layoffs and cutbacks were members of the Local 252-G union, referred to as BCTGM, which was comprised of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco workers and Grain Millers, and were to be covered...
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...and again in 1979. Oil has had further indirect effects on the structure of the UK economy by means of the exchange rate. The development of North Sea oil production enabled the UK to be self-sufficient in oil by 1980, but also bestowed ‘petro-currency’ status on the pound. This meant that the sterling exchange rate was now responsive to changes in oil prices, which between 1979 and 1983 tended to keep the pound higher than would otherwise have been the case. The oil crises of the 1970s heralded the onset of long-term (youth and adult) unemployment and the decline of the domestic manufacturing sector. The overall downsizing and restructuring trend that followed was particularly noticeable in the manufacturing sector of the economy: a large proportion of operations that were traditionally carried out “in-house” were either contracted out or exported to areas of the world that offered substantially lower labour and/or running costs (Matlay, 2001). Throughout the 1979-1997 period, general and specific support aimed at start-ups as well as established small firms were boosted by the “free market” economic policies pursued by the Conservative Governments led by Margaret Thatcher and John Major (Matlay, 1997a) Membership of the EU inevitably meant accepting some restructuring of the UK economy, in accordance with European comparative advantages. This is certainly true for industrial production, with the...
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...corporate policy that specifies how training, performance management and reward systems might integrate career-planning considerations. What steps can a company take to align its compensation system with its general business strategy? Today's compensation approaches, like the rest of the business world, are changing rapidly. As a result, the bridge that connects compensation strategy to the overall business strategy may have been weakened by the frequent shifts that characterize business today. The pace of change in both business strategy and compensation design are leading many companies to consider and implement changes to one side of the bridge without making changes to align it with the other side of the bridge. As a result, the bridge becomes weaker and is more likely to undermine the overall success of the business. This process encompasses the following key steps such as articulating the company's long and short-term business strategies and making sure they are aligned with current compensation approaches; choosing the compensation approach that will best reward and reinforce the company's articulated strategic goals; and periodically evaluating the compensation approach against the business strategy to see if goals have been met and make necessary adjustments. To align compensation with the business strategy, a company must first be able to articulate what that business strategy is. While identifying and articulating the business strategy seems self evident, many...
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...Global Business Final Exam Notes DRIVERS AND METHODS Lecture 1: Introduction *Globalisation: shift towards a more integrated and interdependent world economy. International Business: Any business that has productive activities in two or more countries (multinational enterprise - MNE). *Globalisation of markets: Merging of historically distinct and separate national markets into a global marketplace in which the tastes and preferences of consumers in different nations are beginning to converge. However, significant differences in culture, politics and economies exist between countries and adaption of products and strategies to local conditions is often necessary for international business to succeed. *Globalisation of production: Sourcing goods and services from locations around the globe in an attempt to take advantage of national differences in the cost and quality of factors of production (labour, energy, land and capital), thereby allowing them to compete more effectively against their rivals Example: Boeing aircrafts use companies s for all over the world for different components (e.g UK, France, Canada, Sweden) Firms are better able to respond to international customer demand due to improvements in transportation technology e.g jet transport; temperature controlled containerized shipping and co-ordinated ship-rail truck systems *Globalisation of institutions: Institutions are needed to help manage, regulate and police the global marketplace and promote the...
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...Summary The paper should present and discuss the most relevant old and new trade theories and all its components. Once they are presented, Integration may arise not only as a key concept but as one of the ultimate goals of international trade. Integration should be described and analysed not only theoretically but with the European case as framework. Finally, the conclusion may be presented showing all the benefits and drawbacks of integration. Table of contents Introduction 1 Analysis 2 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 11 Appendix 13 Introduction The aim of this project is to present, characterize, examine and analyse the nature and sense of the European integration. In order to achieve it some of the most important trade theories will be presented. Not only the classic ones but also some of the more recent ones, which will allow the analysis to fundament and give an accurate background to the idea of integration and all its components. The study should be focalized into the old classical trade theories of Absolute and Comparative Advantages, the Heckscher-Ohlin model and its Samuelson variation. Then, some of the newest classical trade theories such as the New Trade theory and the International Product Life Cycle theory will be discussed. Finally, it will be mentioned one new contemporary trade theory made by Michael Porter´s referring to the national competitive advantages. The main intention of presenting those theories is to...
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...Examination Paper of Customer Relationship management IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper MM.100 Customer Relationship Management Section A: Objective Type & Short Questions (30 Marks) This section consists of Multiple Choice & Short Note type questions. Answer all the questions. Part One carries 1 mark each & Part Two carries 4 marks each. Part One: Multiple Choices: 1. High congruence means: a. High probability of success b. Low probability of success c. Zero probability of success d. None 2. Novo Jim‟s excellent resource book for Recency, Frequency and Monetary is: a. Drilling high b. Digging the top c. Cutting edges d. Drilling down 3. In „FURPS‟ R stands for___________ a. Responsibility b. Resource c. Retention d. Reliability 4. NAICS stands for_____________ a. National American Industry Coding System b. North American Industry Cooling System c. National American Industry Cooling System d. North American Industry Coding System 5. The book „Reengineering the corporation‟ is written by: a. Michael Hammer and James Champy b. Michael Champy and James Hammer c. Michael Douglus and James Ferrari d. Michael Ferrari and James Douglus 6. The book „Building the Data warehouse‟ is written by: a. Michael Doglus b. James Champy c. Bill Inmon 1 IIBM Institute of Business Management Examination Paper of Customer Relationship management d. James Ferrari 7. Which of the following is considered as the bible...
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...Backward vertical foreign direct investment with an example Backward FDI is investing in an industry which supplies your firm at home. Buying or building a supplier. For example, if Ford builds an engine production facility in Mexico which ships engines to it manufacturing site in Texas. This would be backward vertical FDI. Vertical foreign direct investment with an example Investment from one country into another (normally by companies rather than governments) that involves establishing operations or acquiring tangible assets, including stakes in other businesses. Vertical: when different stages of activities are added abroad. Forward vertical FDI is where the FDI takes the firm nearer to the market (for example, Toyota acquiring a car distributorship in America) and Backward Vertical FDI is where international integration moves back towards raw materials (for example, Toyota acquiring a tyre manufacturer or a rubber plantation). Common law system and how it differs from a civil law system Common law is based on tradition, precedent, and custom. When law courts interpret common law, they do so with regard to these characteristics. This gives a common law system a degree of flexibility that other systems lack because it allows the judge to interpret the law. Civil law system and how it differs from a common law system Civil law is based on a very detailed set of laws organized into codes. When law courts interpret civil law, they do so with regard to these codes...
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