...REVIEW OF THE BUSINESS Argos business review —— As the UK’s leading multi channel retailer, Argos provides a highly successful and unique offer of choice, value and convenience. Operational review Multi-channel leadership Multi-channel sales have continued to grow and now represent £1.9bn or 46% of Argos’ total sales. Internet orders represent 36% of Argos’ total sales, up from 32% last year, with the remaining 10% of multi-channel sales being products ordered either in-store or by telephone for home delivery. Argos continues to be the second largest internet retailer in the UK, with 400 million website visits during the year. The Spring/Summer 2011 catalogue launch was the first to fully integrate social media into the multi-channel offer. Through the growing Twitter and Facebook communities, customers can access the Argos products, share ideas and discover engaging content. More convenience through store-based collection Stores remain a key component of the Argos multi-channel model, operating with a national chain that provides convenient ‘pick up points’ for the customer. During the year under review 11 stores were opened and five stores were closed, the net six new stores grew the store portfolio to 751. In addition, seven stores were relocated to improved locations. In the 2011/12 financial year, there will be around 15 new store openings, while around five older stores are likely to be closed; there will also be a number of additional stores that are relocated to better...
Words: 2293 - Pages: 10
...department stores. Their main clients included Marks and Spencer and Superdrug along with Proctor and Gamble (Williamson et al., 2004). The products range from shampoos, aftershaves, shower gels, etc. In addition, Alpha develops their customers own brands and manufactured from free issue basis. Order Qualifiers and Order Wining Criteria: Order qualifiers are the factors or elements that a firm must atleast have inorder to be considered for competition in the market place (Davis et al., 2007). The factors which gives a product or service the competitive edge over other players in the marketplace and helps to generate sales is known as order wining criteria (Slack and Lewis, 2011). For Alpha Toiletries, Product development, Quality and Delivery performance were one of the most important elements to consider in this category. However, their order winners like delivery...
Words: 1133 - Pages: 5
...Analyse the market of H & M and how well the company aligns its operations with its market. H M market can be analysed by using the following dimensions as described by D A Aaker. a) Market size & Market growth: Despite the fierce competition and being in the mature market, H & M has gained reputation of one of the biggest fashion retailer in Europe. The company has been able to maintain and expand its market share/size in the international market by focusing on price, quality and fashion/ market trends. Company’s operations alignment: a) Since establishment, H & M has used cost leadership strategy (Porter 1980) by producing and selling stylish garments at low prices. b) In 1987, the quality was added to this business strategy to offer the customer added value to have gain further competitive advantage against its competitors. The company has various quality tests are carried out at the suppliers factories to ensure they adhere to the company’s quality standards. c) H & M has been able to market development strategy (Ansoff) making its market presence in 16 countries through 1,345 stores. The company operates in Europe, North America, Asia and Middleast (through franchise). d) A wide geographical market presence has enabled the company to diversity its business risk. e) Company’s close review of the store performance has enabled the management to act efficiently resulting in closure of non profit or loss making stores and opening of new stores at more profitable...
Words: 1602 - Pages: 7
...Synergy, Autonomy. • Are we doing the right thing? • Duopoly. • Cobit is a top down view. • Cobit is a top to bottom shop. • Cobit is a control framework for information. • Cobit has detailed instructions on what to do? Not how to do it. • Cobit & ITIL are mapped on what to do / how to do it • IT should prompt the business to approve IT initiatives. • Always assign a business executive for each project, monitor business metrics. • EA is a Standard, Discipline (job), Tool for alignment and a Best practice. • It took ING bank 6 years to reach maturity of IT value. • Solvay did it by: o Build a skill catalogue. o Build a capacity sheet. o Pick skills + estimated time for each project. • Demand and supply process has no specific standard. • Outsourcing now is being used to achieve innovation. • Define business objectives from outsourcing. • IT has to do its performance metrics as any other business unit. • If you can measure you can manage. • Balance score cards require effort. • IT score card is the last step of defining IT goals. • Mapping metrics to IT : o Fewer measures are better. o Measure IT in business terms not technical terms. o Do business impact analysis for IT metrics. • ING bank has applied Net Present Value for IT this is a business metric!! • Control is: nothing is going wrong. • Internal control is management. • Embed IT within the business not align. • Confusion exists between Governance & Management, Security & Quality, Risk & Control. •...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...Introduction Marks & Spencer Plc (from now on M&S) is an international retailer with 718 locations across 34 countries. The group sells clothing, footwear, gifts, home furnishings and foods under the St. Michael trademark in its chain of 294 stores in the United Kingdom. Approximately half of the group's overseas stores are franchised to local partners. The group also owns the clothing retailer Brooks Brothers and the Kings Super Markets chain in the United States of America. Direct mail helps M&S meet the core objective of providing customers with wider, easier access to their products such as home furnishings, flowers, hampers and wine. The financial services comprise of operations of the groups financial services companies providing account cards, personal loans, unit trust management, life assurance and pensions. Retailing accounted for 96% of fiscal 2000 revenues and financial services, 4%. The company was always considered to have a great management support that helped in its growth. But the last years, M&S’s managers seem to fail on their strategic decisions, leading the group to lower and lower sales and profits. The share price is also dropping and shareholders feel insecure for the future (figure 2). Group structure and financial performance The group’s performance measures for the year ended at 31 March were disappointing (figure-5). The return on equity ratio and the earnings per share were zero as the company had only £1.3m profit this year. For the...
Words: 2968 - Pages: 12
...Determinants of library use, collections and services among the students of engineering: a case study of King Saud University Akhtar Hussain Civil Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Abdulwahab M. Abalkhail Department of Library and Information Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of library use, collections and services among the students of engineering at King Saud University, Riyadh (KSA). Design/methodology/approach – A survey was designed to collect needed information about the level of usage of library collections, services and satisfaction of users. A well-structured questionnaire was circulated among the faculties, research scholars, postgraduates, undergraduates, and other categories to collect the necessary primary data, keeping in mind the objectives of the study. Findings – The findings clearly reveal that the majority of users of the library used the circulation service. The study found that a majority of research scholars consult the reference books for research work followed by undergraduate students who used the library circulation service. Research limitations/implications – The present paper consists only of College of Engineering users and the geographical area is restricted to the central library at the King Saud University, Riyadh. The scope of the paper could be extended to additional private and government...
Words: 6330 - Pages: 26
... |Company. Nowadays, any book on the 115-year-old food | | |and clothing chain would need a new title. Comedy of | | |Errors is more like it. | | |Businessweek – 18.10.99 | Introduction Marks & Spencer Plc (from now on M&S) is an international retailer with 718 locations across 34 countries. The group sells clothing, footwear, gifts, home furnishings and foods under the St. Michael trademark in its chain of 294 stores in the United Kingdom. Approximately half of the group's overseas stores are franchised to local partners. The group also owns the clothing retailer Brooks Brothers and the Kings Super Markets chain in the United States of America. Direct mail helps M&S meet the core objective of providing customers with wider, easier access to their products such as home furnishings, flowers, hampers and wine. The financial services comprise of operations of the groups financial services companies providing account cards, personal loans, unit trust management, life assurance and pensions. Retailing...
Words: 3215 - Pages: 13
...Planning and implementation of Library Automation Bangladesh perspective Prepared by M Hossam Haider Chowdhury Associate Librarian, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) For Workshop on “Digitization of Medical Library and Information Services”, 2002, Mohakhali, Dhaka Automation, i.e., dependency on machine, has remarkable influence at our work place. With the help of machine people perform their job comfortably and quickly and ultimately it increases people’s efficiency and effectiveness. In case of library the term “automation” basically means computerization of library activity. Computer influences all fields of human activity. Pandey S.K. Sharma describes influence of computer very nicely in his book on library automation. “The invention and increasing use of computers in various fields of human activity is witness to the fact that the computer is considered to be essential component for all-round development. Computers’ entry and its continuance in almost all fields of human endeavor is due to its invincible qualities, viz., the splendid speed to act in nano-second, the superb capabilities to do unmanageable and impossible looking things, the unlimited capacity to store ocean of information on to tiny storage mediums, immense capability to perform repetitive jobs without fatigue, the radical power to sort, arrange, retrieve and disseminate information almost instantaneously etc., etc. Day by day it is becoming more and more indispensable for...
Words: 2996 - Pages: 12
...3.4 Teak Wood Details: Teak is found in tropical areas of the world. Thailand, Burma and India are just three countries. Teak is a natural wood, ideal for outside furniture. It contains natural oils that protect it against wet and cold weather. It can also be treated with teak oil giving it more protection against the elements. Teak is expensive although the growth of sustainable teak plantations means that the price will eventually fall and it will be more widely available. ANALYSIS FOR POWER REQUIRMENT OF MACHINE. I. CATALOGUE METHOD Reff:- PRODUCT CATALOGUE. NORTON GRINDWELL LTD. cutter used for Wood cutting applications are; B88 x – 44 A24 T These wheels have following performance characteristic 1. MATERIAL REMOVAL RATE (MRR) = 0.05 cm2 / Sec. 2. AVAILABLE POWER = 0.04 TO 0.125 KW / inch of wheel. 3. MAX OPERATING SPEED = 6000 RPM. TARGET:- Application is wood cutting ; Maxm diameter = 20 mm 0.8” To cut Material = wood Power Requirement at m/c spindle = 0.8 x 0.06 = 0.048...
Words: 929 - Pages: 4
...Nationality | Polish | Sex [M/F] | M | Academic year | 2014/2015 | Study cycle | Bachelor | Subject area,Code | ISO 3166 | Phone | +48609158799 | E-mail | jaroslaw.krawiec@op.pl | The Sending Institution Name | University of Lodz | Faculty | Management | Erasmus code (if applicable) | PL LODZ01 | DepartmentAddress | 90-237 LODZ Łódź ul. Matejki 22/26 | Address | ul. Narutowicza 65PL-90-131 Lodz | Country, Country code | POLANDPL | Contact person name | Dr Małgorzata Kołodziejczak | Contact person e-mail / phone | mkolodziejczak@uni.lodz.pl | The Receiving Institution Name | University of Coimbra | Faculty | Economics | Erasmus code (if applicable) | P COIMBRA01 | DepartmentAddress | University of Coimbra Av. Dias da Silva, 165 | Address | | Country, Country code | 3004-512 COIMBRA, PORTUGAL | Contact person name | Filomena Marques de Carvalho | Contact person e-mail / phone | dri@uc.pt | [Additional contact persons that the sending or the receiving institution wants to introduce can be added in this box.] ------------------------------------------------- * For Guidelines, please look at Annex 1, for end notes please look at Annex 2. * Section to be completed BEFORE THE MOBILITY I. PROPOSED MOBILITY PROGRAMME Planned period of the mobility: from 15.09.2014 till 07.02.2015 Table A: Study programme abroad. Component code (if any) | Component title (as indicated in the course catalogue) at the receiving institution...
Words: 3384 - Pages: 14
...Service Strategy provides guidance on how to view service management not only as an organizational capability but as a strategic asset” (Cannon, 2011). It helps in designing, development and implementation of IT services that aligns with the business strategy and thus allowing service providers to think and act in a strategic manner. Service Strategy Principles Utility and Warranty Value of service consists of two components: Utility (fitness for purpose) and Warranty (fitness for use). According to Cannon (2011), Utility is the functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. It refers to those characteristics of a service that contribute to tasks associated with achieving business outcomes. It is used to improve performance of these tasks and/or to remove constraints that prevent the task from being carried out sufficiently. Warranty is an assurance that a product or service will meet its agreed requirements. It refers to the ability of service to be available when needed, to provide the required capacity and to provide required reliability in terms of continuity and security. Figure 1 Service designed, built and delivered with both utility and warranty Thus Utility is what the service does (purpose of service) and Warranty is how the service is delivered which can then...
Words: 1575 - Pages: 7
...- Limitations of Report 3 - Sources/Methods of Data Collection 3 - Report Organization 3 DISCUSSION OF REFERENCES 5 - Walton M. (1989) 5 - Lussier R. (2003) 5 - Marshall D. (1999) 5 - Fandt P.M, Goodman S.H & Lewis P.S. (2004) 6 - Robbins S.P, Bergman R, Stagg I & Coulter M (2003) 6 - Collins R.R, McLaughlin Y (1996) 6 - Schermerhorn J.R (2004) 7 - Schermerhorn J.R (1993) 7 CONCLUSION 8 REFERENCES 9 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION Research Problem To understand the concept of performance based rewards, other consideration had to be given to other topics related or connected to performance based rewards such as motivation, expectancy theory, performance appraisal, etc. Without relating to the other topics it would be hard to explain or understand the full concept of performance based rewards. Limitations of Report The researcher found that the time limit to be insufficient to view many aspects, the different point of views and full underlying of performance based rewards. The researcher also found that some information sources were too old to be used in the report and some journal articles were unable to be used as it had to be sourced from other library catalogues such as the Edith Cowan University Library. The researcher was unable to interview a business that practices performance based rewards, as it is required for the researcher to place an application form and wait for approval from University Board as there is...
Words: 1268 - Pages: 6
...Page | 1 | Question 1 | 2-3 | 2 | Question 2 | 4-5 | 3 | Question 3 | 6-7 | 4 | Bibliography | 8 | 5 | CD | 9 | 6 | Turnitin report | 10 | Question 1 Mrs. Sally runs a bakery business, Sweet Delight which caters to both individuals and businesses. However, there are some flaws found in her current sales system that caused a loss of significant amount of money. Hoping that she’s able to improve her cash flow, there are some weaknesses highlighted in her current practice. i) Poor online ordering. Having an online catalogue is beneficial for businesses today. It gives the owner slight edge and greater opportunity against their competitors. Most customer nowadays prefer online catalogue as they can easily scroll the items they wanted without the hassle of going to the stores. Mrs. Sally initiative of developing an online catalogue which shows her products is a very good effort in expanding her sales. However, her online catalogue is not equipped with ordering process. The only way to get her products is by email or telephone. Problems may arise when the customer cannot place their order due to the telephone line is busy or when they cannot reach her after the business hours. This gives the company a bad reputation in terms of customer service experience. They might change to other shops which provide better services and Mrs. Sally will lose her potential and loyal customers. ii) Improper customer orders. Mrs. Sally ways of taking customer orders are considered...
Words: 1938 - Pages: 8
...49316 materials handling System design for transport of limestone to feed a cement plant at the foot of the Himalayas | Assignment 3Parviz Raminzad | 49316 materials handling System design for transport of limestone to feed a cement plant at the foot of the Himalayas | Assignment 3Parviz Raminzad | Contents Q2) Relevance of System Engineering to bulk materials handling and this project 3 Q3) Alternative Systems 4 Rail and Road 4 Aerial Ropeway 4 Building the Cement Plant near the Mine Site 4 Pipeline 4 Q4) Discuss the purpose of the items in Figure1 5 Q5) Discuss the purpose of Rheological and Flow test 15 Purpose of Rheological and Flow Tests. 15 Importance of Pilot Plant Tests 16 Q6) Design Selection 17 a. Delivery Pipeline 17 Quantity to Be Pumped 18 Size of Pipeline 19 Friction Head Hf for the Pipeline 19 Loss in Discharge Pipe Enlargement 20 Loss at Pipe Discharge 20 Loss of Head at Entrance to Suction Pipe 20 Total Dynamic Head on the Pump [Hm] 21 Equivalent Water Total Dynamic Head [Hw] 21 b. Warman Pump Selection 21 Piston Pumps and Pipe Validation 22 a. Piston Pumps 22 b. Pipe Design Parameters 23 8) Design Parameters of the main pipeline 23 Q9) Alternative Systems...
Words: 3188 - Pages: 13
...IKEA brand and inspire people to come to the stores” (IKEA, 2013). The marketing mix is a combination of items that work together; it is often referred to as the four p’s in marketing. Price, Promotion, People, and Process are the four p’s that IKEA has embraced. Price is within their controls, they offer quality home goods at low affordable costs. They are able to keep costs low with designing from within, sourcing raw materials for production, and selling in their own stores. Promotion is achieved with iconic bold blue and yellow colors signifying a brand with value. IKEA uses many forms of media in their promotional marketing strategy; the annual catalogue is the most popular. The catalogue highlights many new home goods and accessories with interior suggestions that are attention grabbing and captivating. The catalogue has become a staple of what is new and trending in the homes of many customers. IKEA’s website is another interactive way it reaches a distinct local market, along with brochures, television advertisements and public relations (IKEA, 2013). People are at the foundation of what IKEA’s brand has become, customers are the focus of designing, functionality, value, and the global impact on people. The green initiative is something IKEA has pioneered in the beginning of the company, and is continuing that level of commitment to its communities. Processes are...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
