...Cover Story Renovating Home Depot; Skip the touchy-feely stuff. The big-box store is thriving under CEO Bob Nardelli's military-style rule By Brian Grow, with Diane Brady in New York and Michael Arndt in Chicago 6 March 2006 BusinessWeek 50 Volume 3974. Don D. Ray is one tough hombre. The 39-year-old Kentucky native spent three years with the 82nd Airborne Div., one of the U.S. Army's elite units, serving at the head of a maintenance crew during the first Gulf War and an additional seven years on active duty. Then, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Ray suited up for service again, this time as the commander of a special forces A-team that followed the U.S.-led invasion into Afghanistan. His 12-man squad of snipers, demolition experts, and communications specialists hunted renegade al-Qaeda and Taliban. Combing mountain villages, he grew a thick beard, wore traditional Afghan garb, and rode on horseback to blend in with local Muslims. Ray and his men never killed anyone, he says, but they arrested dozens of suspected militants. Nowadays, Ray commands a different kind of operation. He has replaced crack-of-dawn physical training and green Army fatigues with sunrise store openings and an orange Home Depot apron. A store manager in Clarksville, Tenn., Ray runs a 110,000-square-foot box with 35,000 products and a 100-member staff, 30 of them former military. Many days start at 4 a.m. That's when he wakes, eats breakfast, catches some CNBC news, then heads to the store, where...
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...the companies and 35.2% of the revenues of Fortune’s then brand-new Global 500 list. By 2000 their share of revenues had fallen to 20.8%, and by last year it had shrunk to 11.2%, with only 68 Japanese companies making the list. During the same period, U.S. firms’ portion of Global 500 revenues, which was 28.4% in 1995, grew slightly, to 30%. Firms from the European Union and Switzerland, meanwhile, increased their portion from 31% to 36%. Much of Japan’s loss has been a gain for firms from emerging markets. Since 1995 companies from the BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) have seen their combined share of Global 500 revenues leap from 0.9% to 10.4%. But will those countries lose their edge in the years ahead, as Japan did? Or will they find ways to remain globally competitive and protect their share—as the U.S. and Europe have done? To answer those questions, we first need to understand why Japan was unable to continue the meteoric rise it saw in the 1970s and 1980s, because the new generation of emerging-country multinationals bears a disturbing resemblance to corporate Japan in the 1990s. Over the past quarter century, we have tracked the rise and fall of Japanese business, and our research reveals that the very factors that enabled Japan’s early success led to its later failure. What gets you to the top is not what keeps you there. The problem for Japanese companies is that they’ve been unable to transform the cultures and processes that propelled their early exportled...
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...for eight months, though he had been with RIM for five years. Lo was successful in signing new partners throughout Asia, but China remained a difficult market to crack. One holdup was an impasse with regard to RIM’s use of encryption technology and the Chinese authorities’ desire to monitor e-mail traffic and content. Here the technical and political concerns were entangled. Even calling in Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to pay the Chinese federal authorities a visit (during a trade mission) provided no resolution. To further complicate things, the entirety of RIM had until recently been preoccupied with the legal settlement with NTP in the United States. There was much concern that NTP’s patent infringement claims could sink or substantially stymie RIM’s economic progress. Even as the NTP matters were settled, additional distracting infringement suits arose. Those holding patents thought they could get rich just by having a lawyer knock on RIM’s door. The study shadows Norm Lo trying to bring BlackBerry’s entry into mainland China to fruition. Should he “play hardball?” Is slow and steady going to do it? Is RIM getting walked all over in China, or is this what an outside firm should expect? Wishful thinking and a great product are not enough. Incentives must be properly aligned with the local partner China Mobile. Meanwhile, China Mobile moved to introduce products that compete at the low end—which may be the best point of entry into this market. RIM...
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...CASE STUDY 129 BlackBerry in Red China: Research in Motion Navigates Institutional Barriers in an Emerging Market By Prescott C. Ensign Nicholas P. Robinson Research in Motion’s (RIM’s) entry into the Chinese market during a time when many distractions—principally a patent dispute with NTP—occupied management’s attention was not a foregone conclusion. China remained a difficult market to crack. One holdup was an impasse with regard to RIM’s use of encryption technology and the Chinese authorities’ desire to monitor e-mail traffic and content. Here the technical and political concerns were entangled. To further complicate things, the entirety of RIM had until recently been preoccupied with the legal settlement with NTP in the United States. Issues in this study highlight real-world dilemmas in a thriving firm. The founders are still in charge, and new markets present themselves regularly. A very real challenge is divided attentions. The standstill over market entry calls for integrative thinking—bringing together disparate and contradictory elements for resolution. RIM’s way out will invariably involve embracing complex relationships in order to find a resolution to the various conflicting institutional forces. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Correspondence to: Prescott C. Ensign, University of Ottawa, Telfer School of Management, 55 Laurier Avenue East, Ottawa ON, K1N 6N5, Canada, 613.562.5800 x4925 (phone), ensign@telfer.uOttawa.ca. Published online in Wiley InterScience...
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...Chapter 1 The Nature of Negotiation Fill in the Blank Questions 1. People ____________ all the time. Answer: negotiate Page: 2 2. The term ____________ is used to describe the competitive, win-lose situations such as haggling over price that happens at yard sale, flea market, or used car lot Answer: bargaining Page: 3 3. Negotiating parties always negotiate by ____________. Answer: choice Page: 6 4. There are times when you should _________ negotiate. Answer: not Page: 6 5. Successful negotiation involves the management of ____________ (e.g., the price or the terms of agreement) and also the resolution of ____________. Lewicki/Barry/Saunders, Negotiation, 6/e 1 Answer: tangibles, intangibles Page: 8 6. Independent parties are able to meet their own ____________ without the help and assistance of others. Answer: needs Page: 9 7. The mix of convergent and conflicting goals characterizes many ____________ relationships. Answer: interdependent Page: 10 8. The ____________ of people’s goals, and the ____________ of the situation in which they are going to negotiate, strongly shapes negotiation processes and outcomes. Answer: interdependence, structure Page: 10 9. Whether you should or should not agree on something in a negotiation depends entirely upon the attractiveness to you of the best available _________. Answer: alternative Page: 10 – 12 10. When parties are interdependent, they have to find a way to ____________ their differences. Answer:...
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...Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions .......................................... 1 ~ A ~ ..................................................................................................................... 1 ~ B ~ ..................................................................................................................... 3 ~ C ~ .................................................................................................................... 8 ~ D ~ .................................................................................................................. 11 ~ E ~ ................................................................................................................... 14 ~ F ~ ................................................................................................................... 15 ~ G ~ .................................................................................................................. 17 ~ H ~ .................................................................................................................. 19 ~ I ~ .................................................................................................................... 22 ~ J ~ ................................................................................................................... 24 ~ K ~ ...............................................................................................
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...9-708-480 REV: SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 DAVID B. YOFFIE MICHAEL SLIND Apple Inc., 2008 In January 2007, three decades after its incorporation, Apple Computer shed the second word in its name and became Apple Inc.1 With that move, the company signaled a fundamental shift away from its historic status as a vendor of the Macintosh personal computer (PC) line. Mac sales remained vital to Apple’s future, but they now accounted for less than half of its total revenue. A year and a half later, in June 2008, the company posted results that ratified the success of its leap beyond the PC business: In its third quarter, Apple earned a net profit of $1.07 billion on $7.46 billion in revenue, for a 38% increase on year-ago quarterly sales. Annual results were also impressive. Sales in the 2007 fiscal year topped $24 billion, up 24% from the previous year. (See Exhibit 1a—Apple Inc.: Selected Financial Information, plus Exhibit 1b and Exhibit 1c.) Investors, meanwhile, sent Apple’s stock to new heights: Despite a sharp drop in early 2008, its share price had risen more than 15-fold since 2003 and now hovered near its all-time high. (See Exhibit 2—Apple Inc.: Daily Closing Share Price.) Non-PC product lines drove much of Apple’s financial performance. The company’s iPod line of portable music players, together with its iTunes Store, had upended the music business. With the iPhone, a multifunction handheld device released in June 2007, Apple aimed to do the same for the mobile phone market....
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...Understanding Cost Dy namics Management Accounts and Metrics Bang f or Buck Slice and Dice Understanding Natural Cost Trends Cash Cost Not P&L Cost Best Practice (and Lev el Play ing Fields) Competitiv e Analy sis Toolkit – Techniques and Tactics 4 PEOPLE Why Is People Cost So Problematic? Hiring Pay ing Technology and Productiv ity Firing Managing the Av erage Perf ormer Minimizing the Core Organization Toolkit – People 5 SUPPLIERS Who Manages Supplier Costs? Understand the Balance of Power Consolidate to Fewer Better Suppliers Negotiate Intelligently Don’t Get Locked In Manage Total Cost of Ownership Get Tough on the Costs of Serv ices Toolkit – Suppliers 6 COST CUTTING CASE STUDY Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 7 WIRED AND GLOBAL The Internet Globalization Toolkit – Wired and Global 8 LATERAL THINKING Indirect Cost Generators Let the Customers Do the Work Cost into Rev enue Toolkit – Lateral Thinking 9 COST MANAGEMENT AS STRATEGY Deliv ering Value v ia Acquisitions Underpinning Pricing Strategies Discov ering More New Growth Opportunities Creating an Ef f ectiv e Center in a Large Corporation Toolkit – Cost Management as Strategy 10 COST IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR The Size of the Problem What Constitutes Public Spending? Why Managing Public-Sector Cost Is Tough Y es, It’s...
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...American Holidays The following are holidays that we celebrate in the United States: New Years Eve and New Years Day New Years Day is the first day of the year, January 1st. it is a celebration of the old year and the new one to come. People make New Years Resolutions each New Years and promise themselves that they will keep this resolution until next year. New Years Eve is a major social event. Clubs everywhere are packed with party-goers who stay out all night and go nuts at midnight. At midnight it is a tradition to make lots of noise. The traditional New Years Ball is dropped every year in Times Square in New York City at 12 o’clock. This event can be seen all over the world on television. Valentine’s Day Saint Valentine’s Day is a day that is set aside to promote the idea of “love”. It is celebrated on February 14th. People send greeting cards or gifts to loved one and friends to shoe them that they care. Easter Easter is a major Christian holiday that commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated on Sunday between March 22 and April 25. The 40 days leading up to Easter are observed as Lent. Besides the religious aspects of Easter, people also celebrate spring or the sign of the new life. Flowers are seen everywhere. There are often Easter Parades such as the one in New York City where people dress up in their new spring clothes. Children receive Easter baskets filled with candy Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies and jelly beans! The dying...
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...BN2004/0601 Briefing note: IT IS TIME TO ACT ON BURMA 2 SHOULD THE SPDC BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH LIES? Patience & Flexibility 3 WHY ACT NOW? SPDC’s Broken Promises Lack of Democratic Progress Continuing Human Rights Abuses Releases from international pressure Security Concerns, Military Threat 4 PRESSURE WORKS Archbishop Desmond Tutu Daw Aung San Suu Kyi U Lwin, NLD Spokesman Asian Activists Malaysian Parliamentarians Sen. John McCain & HE Madeline Albright Sanctions Take Time Engagement is not working 6 WHAT THE REGIME IS BEING URGED TO DO 6 WHAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CAN DO 6 A BAN ON FINANCIAL REMITTANCES – THE PRACTICAL OPTION 7 A LIFELINE FOR THE DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT 7 A NON-VIOLENT BARGAINING CHIP 8 TAKING AIM AT SPDC’S ECONOMIC LIFELINES 9 CREATING DOMESTIC PRESSURE FOR CHANGE Undermining Moderates? 10 INSTIGATING REGIONAL ACTION 11 SPDC – FEIGNING REFORM & ROLLING OUT THE CHARM 11 DAMPENING EFFORTS Relabeling Enabling Remittances Business Diplomacy 13 SANCTIONS & SEX WORK Burma’s biggest pimp Increasing since 1988 Jumping the Gun Low Factory Wages Insufficient evidence Numbers of job losses disputed Job losses from capital flight Reforms needed 14 PEOPLE OF BURMA SUPPORT SANCTIONS 15 PREDICTIONS : Brief Chronology of ‘Predictions’ by the Thai Government 17 RECENT ARMS&...
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...CONNECT FEATURES Interactive Applications Interactive Applications offer a variety of automatically graded exercises that require students to apply key concepts. Whether the assignment includes a click and drag, video case, or decision generator, these applications provide instant feedback and progress tracking for students and detailed results for the instructor. Case Exercises The Connect platform also includes author-developed case exercises for all 12 cases in this edition that require students to work through answers to assignment questions for each case. These exercises have multiple components and can include: calculating assorted financial ratios to assess a company’s financial performance and balance sheet strength, identifying a company’s strategy, doing five-forces and driving-forces analysis, doing a SWOT analysis, and recommending actions to improve company performance. The content of these case exercises is tailored to match the circumstances presented in each case, calling upon students to do whatever strategic thinking and strategic analysis is called for to arrive at a pragmatic, analysis-based action recommendation for improving company performance. eBook Connect Plus includes a media-rich eBook that allows you to share your notes with your students. Your students can insert and review their own notes, highlight the text, search for specific information, and interact with media resources. Using an eBook with Connect Plus gives your...
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...1. INTRODUCTION The horrors of Somalia, Angola and the Congo (present day Democratic Republic of Congo) made the new challenges that the present day United Nations faces easier to confront, as they highlighted the glaring weaknesses that riddled the early days of peacekeeping. The UN was portrayed as a vulnerable institution without a spine which could not enact strong and effective policies to deal with interventions, and it was this view which led me to look at the three most decisive UN interventions conducted on the African continent since its inception. The interventions in Angola , Somalia and Congo , were all conducted at different stages of the UN’s reign , and as such they help paint a clearer image on how far the organisation has come from post-World War II , through the Cold War to the present day. A major tool of the UN in its unprecedented efforts has been its UN Charter , within which it manifests its principles and goals clearly and concisely, and it is through this framework that it has conducted itself in every UN peacekeeping mission. The Charter is the working document of the UN as it follows its guidelines in a diligent and stringent manner. However, this stance has led to it being exploited by more cunning leaders, or even finding itself in the complex situation of being tempted to disobey the Charter, due to its limiting and constraining nature. In this essay, I will focus primarily on a combination of all the approaches used in writing essays .As such...
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...The Distribution of Value in the Mobile Phone Supply Chain Jason Dedrick, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Greg Linden* Personal Computing Industry Center (PCIC) University of California, Irvine 4100 Calit2 Building 325, Suite 4300 Irvine, California 92697-4650 October 2010 *Authors are listed alphabetically. The Personal Computing Industry Center is supported by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation, industry sponsors, and University of California, Irvine (California Institute of Information Technology and Telecommunications, The Paul Merage School of Business, and the Vice Chancellor for Research). Online at http://pcic.merage.uci.edu. The Distribution of Value in the Mobile Phone Supply Chain Jason Dedrick, Kenneth L. Kraemer, Greg Linden* Personal Computing Industry Center, UC Irvine 4100 Calit2 Blgd. 325, Suite 4300 Irvine, CA 92697-4650 October 2010 Abstract The supply chains of the mobile phone industry span national and firm boundaries. To analyze how value is distributed among the participants, we apply a novel framework for analysis based on financial measures of value capture to three phone models introduced from 2004 to 2008. We find that carriers capture the greatest value (in terms of gross profit) from each handset, followed closely by handset makers, with suppliers a distant third. However, the situation is reversed in terms of operating profit. Carriers shoulder the burden of network installation...
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...How Sugar is Made - the History It is thought that cane sugar was first used by man in Polynesia from where it spread to India. In 510 BC the Emperor Darius of what was then Persia invaded India where he found "the reed which gives honey without bees". The secret of cane sugar, as with many other of man's discoveries, was kept a closely guarded secret whilst the finished product was exported for a rich profit. It was the major expansion of the Arab peoples in the seventh century AD that led to a breaking of the secret. When they invaded Persia in 642 AD they found sugar cane being grown and learnt how sugar was made. As their expansion continued they established sugar production in other lands that they conquered including North Africa and Spain. Sugar was only discovered by western Europeans as a result of the Crusades in the 11th Century AD. Crusaders returning home talked of this "new spice" and how pleasant it was. The first sugar was recorded in England in 1099. The subsequent centuries saw a major expansion of western European trade with the East, including the importation of sugar. It is recorded, for instance, that sugar was available in London at "two shillings a pound" in 1319 AD. This equates to about US$100 per kilo at today's prices so it was very much a luxury. In the 15th century AD, European sugar was refined in Venice, confirmation that even then when quantities were small, it was difficult to transport sugar as a food grade product....
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...MANAGING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES SIXTHEDITION MANAGING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES SERIES Managing Cultural Differences: Global Leadership Strategies for the 21 st Century, Sixth Edition Philip R. Harris, Ph.D., Robert T. Moran, Ph.D., Sarah V. Moran, M.A. Managing Cultural Diversity in Technical Professions Lionel Laroche, Ph.D Uniting North American Business—NAFTA Best Practices Jeffrey D. Abbot and Robert T. Moran, Ph.D. Eurodiversity: A Business Guide to Managing Differences George Simons, D.M. Global Strategic Planning: Cultural Perspectives for Profit and Non-Profit Organizations Marios I. Katsioulodes Ph.D. Competing Globally: Mastering Cross-Cultural Management and Negotiations Farid Elashmawi, Ph.D. Succeeding in Business in Eastern and Central Europe—A Guide to Cultures, Markets, and Practices Woodrow H. Sears, Ed.D. and Audrone Tamulionyte-Lentz, M.S. Intercultural Services: A Worldwide Buyer’s Guide and Sourcebook Gary M. Wederspahn, M.A. SIXTH EDITION MANAGING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES GLOBAL LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES ST FOR THE 21 CENTURY 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION PHILIP R. HARRIS, PH.D. ROBERT T. MORAN, PH.D. SARAH V. MORAN, M.A. JUDITH SOCCORSY Editorial Coordinator Elsevier Butterworth–Heinemann 200 Wheeler Road, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Copyright © 2004, Philip R. Harris, Robert T. Moran, Sarah V. Moran. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a...
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