Advantages of Internet Essay

Science and technology play a very important role in our life. Most of our daily activities are greatly associated with science and technology. One of the contributions of science and technology to mankind is the invention of Internet. With this invention being so widely used, it has both advantages and disadvantages. In this essay, I shall discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. The first advantage of the internet is that it provides us with leisure. This is because the Internet can provide us with various endless entertainment. For example, we can watch videos in YouTube which has millions of videos from comedy to romance and horror to suit our mood. Not only that, some television networks have their own websites. These enables us to catch up on movies or television programmes on television which we have missed. Radio channels such as Class95 and Perfect10 also have their own sites to listen to radio programmes for those who do not own a radio set. There are also many sites that enable the users especially youths to watch anime or read manga online. This is good as this enables us to save money as the cost of a manga or anime DVD can be quite expensive. These different from of online entertainment will not only gives us leisure but also provide a medium in which we can relieve the daily stress from school and work. The second advantage of the internet is E-commerce which is growing rapidly and becoming more popular. Examples of e-commerce include online shopping and e-banking. Through online shopping, we can buy many things over the net which provides a range of products from all over the world with just a click of the mouse. Examples of famous online shopping sites are Yahoo!, Amazon and e-bay which sells various products from books and furniture to electronic devices and office supplies. Doing shopping online is indeed convenient as we do not need to travel to do our shopping. As a result, time is saved.

Dirt Bike Usa

TABLE OF CONTENT I. DIRT BIKES USA COMPANY I. IS REQUIREMENT AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE II. COMPETITIVE STRATEGY III. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: 1. rent or buy decision for hardware and software 2. CUSTOMER DATABASE 3. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOLUTION 4. E-COMMERCE STRATEGY 5. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT 6. COMPONENT PRICE CHANGES. I – DIRT BIKES USA COMPANY: Dirt Bikes USA is Dirt Bikes production company based in California.It was founded in 1991 by Carl Schmidt and Steven McFadden, two young but experienced bikers with engineering backgrounds who saw that dirt bikes were becoming very popular in the United States as both sporting and racing motorcycles. 1. Goals and Culture * Culture: Carl Schmidt and Steven McFadden founded dirt bikes USA. They noticed that Dirt bike was becoming popular in the United States. They were founded on a friendly, family type atmosphere, attention to detail and quality, and continual learning and innovation.With these values Dirt bikes has excelled to one of the top companies, competing with the likes of Honda, Yamaha, and Kawasaki. * Goals: Dirt bikes goals are very ambitious, and if fulfilled will bring them to the top of the list. They want to improve on their services, and products, and innovate cutting edge technology that will hopefully propel them to the top. They want to increase sales in both the domestic and international market. 2. Products and services: * Dirt Bikes does not sell directly to retail customers, relying on a network of 40 distributors concentrated in the Western and Midwestern United States.A small percentage of Dirt Bikes are sold in Europe using independent distributors that sell other brands of dirt bikes and motorcycles as well as Dirt Bikes. Dirt Bikes motorcycles, parts, and service, including warranty repairs, can only be obtained through an authorized Dirt Bikes dealer. All motorcycle and spare parts sales, shipping and set-up must be handled by a certified dealer. If a potential customer lives more than 50 miles from the nearest authorized Dirt Bikes dealer, the customer can purchase a Dirt Bike or Dirt Bike parts through a certified independent motorcycle dealer.Retail customers can purchase spare parts directly from Dirt Bikes only by verifying that they live more than 50 miles from an authorized Dirt Bikes dealer. The engines for Dirt Bikes are Rotax engines from Austria and tires are from Dunlop, but many of their parts, such as shock absorbers, front wheel forks, exhaust pipes, and headlights, are from the United States. Dirt Bikes currently produces four models: the Enduro 250, the Enduro 550, the Moto 300 and the Moto 450. The two Enduros are endurance racers, while the Motos are for motocross racing.All four are very modern, with such technology as both kick and electric starters, steering stabilizers, and liquid cooling 3. Organization: Carl Schmidt is the CEO of Dirt Bikes USA and Steve McFadden serves as President and COO. The employees of this company are involved in the design, engineering and production aspects, and include 3 full-time designers, 3 full-time engineers, 4 full-time parts specialist, and a 10-employee service department. There is also a marketing manager whose job is to oversee 5 sales representatives. Overall, the company employs 120 people and has expanded greatly since the early 1990’s.The strengths of this organization is that production department is divided effectively in smaller parts, they can easily control the operations. However, the weaknesses of organization is moderately hierarchical & small, there are no separate managers for service, shipping & receiving, parts and design & engineering and manufacturing. II – INFORMATION SYSTEM REQUIREMENT AND FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE: Dirt Bikes USA relies heavily on database software such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access. This is to keep track of sales, inventory, and employee matters.The best selling product of Dirt Bikes USA has been the Enduro 550 and th e worst selling product has been the Moto 450. Sales by Model| Model| 2003| 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| Enduro 250| 1201| 1663| 2291| 2312| 2195| Enduro 550| 2832| 3290| 3759| 4078| 3647| Moto 300| 1755| 1932| 2454| 2615| 2627| Moto 450| 463| 598| 661| 773| 823| TOTAL| 6251| 7483| 9165| 9778| 9292| In the first three years, international sales were consistently rising from 2003 – 2005, and then started to fall during the last two year. They have never contributed more than 10% of the total sales.International sales have grown relative to Domestic sales, however, in 2006, there has been a decrease in international sales while domestic sales have also increased. Domestic vs. International Sales| | 2003| 2004| 2005| 2006| 2007| Domestic| 5723| 6843| 8254| 8889| 8530| International| 528| 640| 911| 889| 762| TOTAL| 6251| 7483| 9165| 9778| 9292| % International| 8. 4%| 8. 6%| 9. 9%| 9. 1%| 8. 2%| | | | | | | Figure 2: Domestic vs International Sales from 2003 to 2007 Consolidated State ments of Income (in thousands)| | 2007| 2006| 2005| Revenue| | | |Net sales| 60,144 | 64,063 | 61,529 | Cost of goods sold| 45,835 | 43,155 | 41,072 | Gross profit/(loss)| 14,309 | 20,908 | 20,457 | Gross margin| 23. 8%| 32. 6%| 33. 2%| | | | | Operating expenses| | | | Sales and markering| 4,733 | 4,537 | 3,944 | Engineering and product development| 3,141 | 2,992 | 2,339 | General and administrative| 1,913 | 1,601 | 1,392 | Total operating expenses| 9,787 | 9,130 | 7,675 | Operating income/loss| 4,522 | 11,778 | 12,782 | | | | | Other income/expense| | | | Interest income/expense| 1,747 | 175 | 80 | Other income/(expense)| (6,254)| (2,914)| (3,080)|Income before provision for income taxes| 15 | 9,039 | 9,782 | Income taxes| 1,459 | 1,729 | 535 | Net income/(loss)| (1,444)| 7,310 | 9,247 | Net margin| -2%| 11%| 15%| | | | | Summary Balance Sheet Data| | | | | At December 31| 2007| 2006| 2005| Current assets| | | | Cash and cash equivalents| 6,994 | 7,197 | 6,891 | Accounts reveivabl e| 13,083 | 12,981 | 12,872 | Inventories| 6,315 | 5,931 | 5,843 | Total current assets| 26,392 | 26,109 | 25,606 | | | | | Property plant, and equipment| 36,920 | 34,515 | 32,002 | Other assets| 1,765 | 1,903 | 1,834 |Total assets| 65,077 | 62,527 | 59,442 | | | | | Current liabilities| | | | Accounts payable| 8,943 | 8,694 | 7,592 | Accrued expenses and other liabilities| 10,877 | 9,382 | 8,654 | Total current liabilities| 19,820 | 18,076 | 16,246 | | | | | Long-term debt| 9,772 | 9,338 | 8,890 | Total liabilities| 29,592 | 27,414 | 25,136 | | | | | Shareholders' equity| 35485| 35113| 34306| Total liabilities + shareholders' equity| 65,077 | 62,527 | 59,442 | The income statement and balance sheet are the primary financial statements used by management to determine how well a firm is performing.The income statement, also called an operating statement or profit and loss statement, shows the income and expenses of a firm over a period of time, such as a year, a quarter, or a month. The gross profit represents the difference between the firm’s revenue (or sales) and the cost of goods sold. The gross margin is calculated by dividing gross profit by net sales. Revenue is not growing steadily, from 2005 to 20046 the revenue increases at rate of 4. 12%; from 2006 to 2007 the revenue decreases at rate of -6. 12%.Cost of goods sold increases steadily from 2005 to 2007, while revenue just increases from 2005 to 2006, and decreases from 2006 to 2007. Gross margin and net margin decreases from 2005 to 2007 Operating expense increases from 2005 to 2007 A company has more current assets than current liabilities, firm has enough working capital to fund investments in new products and information systems. Firm has assets to pay for expenses and to finance the development of new products and information systems. III – ANALYZING COMPETETIVE STRATEGY 1. VALUE CHAIN OF DIRT BIKE USA:The company provides value to its customers by designing and manufacturing high qu ality custom motorcycles, and by servicing those motorcycles. Dirt Bikes choose top components from different famous suppliers around the world to make sure that each component of their product perform the best quality to customer. This activity make it become a unique spirited style for which company is noted. Moreover, all of Dirt Bikes’ product are warranty repaires, shipping and set-up must be handled by a certificate dealer, if the customers living within 50 miles from the nearset athoritizedDirt Bike dealers, they can purchase a Dirt Bike or Dirt Bike parts through a certified independent motocycle dealer, and so forth. The fact showing Dirt Bike’s concentration on providing the best products and services to its customers is that the company’s parts and service department is responsible for 15% of the total revenue. Furthermore, the most significant evidence to prove that Dirt Bike has provided the best quality products can be seen in the numbers of races that this brand wins each year. Besides, focusing on diversity of products is also a reason create value for Dirt Bike in the high competitive market.The company has produced many forms of racing dirt bike such as racing specifically for different size bikes, for short distances, long distances, and even for up to six days. Currently, Dirt Bike produces the highest value product is the Enduro 550, which is the top selling bike focused toward the dedicated beginner and semi-professional racer. By products lines that represent the needs and request of customers, Dirt Bike has gained the satisfation and trust from its customers. One of the most activities creating the most value for Dirt Bike is advertisement.Most of its advertisement is at racing event or racing magazines. Although known as one of the supplier selling the highest quality to customer, Dirt Bike use a very competitive level of price to against others competitors. Honda :2012 Honda CRF ® 450R $8,440| Dirt Bike 2012:Mot o 450 $8,995 The Enduro 250 $3,250The Enduro 550 $7,600The Moto 300 $4,295| Yamaha motocross :2012 Yamaha YZ 250F $7,290| | KTM: 2012 KTM SX 250| $6,899| | | | Kawasaki2012 KX450F US MSRP Price: $8,399| | Other ways to provide value to customers are the policy of listening to customers’ feedback on how to improve the product, sharing their experiences and informing the newest products to them through Dirt Bikes USA Owner Group. In addtion to adding value to its products and customers, Dirt Bikes also have a professtional employees who communicate with customers and show up the high quality as well as the differences of Dirt Bike directly. 2. RIVALS There are many company which produce and sell dirt bikes in the world.Among of such a huge competitors, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha represent as Dirt Bike’s primary competitors. Those companies are known for completely custom in-house design. Besdides that, they not only sell products but also the parts of their bikes ,which allow them to expand theirs business and control the quality as well as the revenue of company. Furhermore, Having a large Expenditure budget on advertisement helps them build a significant image in customer’s trust, gain a strong loyalty with long-term customer, appear popular on other retailers’ websites.Four brands shoould have been consider as the â€Å" big four† threaten Dirt Bikes USA. Honda Advantages: * Slimmed -down fuel tanks * Wide-ratio gearing * Electric starting Suzuki Advantages: * Loads of mid-range * Lightweight handling Yamaha Advantages: * Lightweight frame * Lightening- quick handling * Smooth power delivery 3. FACTORS INFLUENCE DIRT BIKE INDUSTRY: * Internet: the fast development of Internet is always a good sign for society and all manufacturing process whole the world. However, it is also considered as a potential threat of any industry, not except dirt bike.The ease of access allows Dirt Bike as well as other competitors to search the information of lower price supplies, high quality but cheaper parts as well as labor or advance advertisement. There is the same source for all compaies, therefore, it is hard for Dirt Bike to make the differences from other exitsting competitors as well as new potential competitors who are going to step into this segment. * Economy situtation: There is no exactly prediction about the world in the future, especially the current economy in Europe is not a optimistic view for Dirt Bike when its the largest market is almost in those Western countries.When there is a recession, people tent to reduce their demand in leisure activities; as a result, the revenue of dirt bike industry will steadily decrease. * The policy of goverment: It can not deny the relationship between economy and politic. Lower tax on import goods and service as well as afforable tax income, so forth are factors can determine the supply and demand of dirt bike industry. When governemnt carry out the tighten poli cy, selling those products will get the big trouble. * Taste of customer: Taste is also an important factors influent on dirt bike industy.It is very simple to see that switching hobby from using dirt bike to other vehicles will cause a headache for producer to motivate their customer to spend money on unnecessary procucts. * Quality: When Dirt Bike came into this industry, it made a promise on providing high quality and services to its customerl; therefore, it must keep its promise as its competitive advantage against others rivals. * New competitors: a market with many competitors will also cause some problems to existing company in dirt bike market. The organization as well as strategy will change along with behaviors of new enterprises. . COMPETITIVE STRATEGY: The most suitable strategy that Dirt Bike USA should follow is Low-cost Leadership. As we know, it has 4 big competitors who make Dirt Bike have to apply the most attractive strategy to gain more loyalty, interest from cus tomers as well as keep its market segment in long term. Others set the higher prices for their products as the claim on the quality. If Dirt Bike could produce such high quality products but sell at an attractive price, this competitive advantage would help Dirt Bike become unique in this industry.Moreover, Dirt Bike should apply some methods to improve its business besides the Low-cost Leadership: * Firstly, Dirt Bikes is known as one of the highest quality suppliers in the world. Its warranty on satifation of customer with Dirt Bikes’ products is its competitive advantage and it should continue to make use of this advantage to expand its business to others segment or others countries. It can do the same as other rivals by selling the parts to satisfy full demand of customers or expand its business to ATV or road motorcycles, which will help Dirt Bikes’ revenue as well as gain a better profit. Secondly, Dirt Bikes alsmot sell its products through its distributors. The information they keep is just information about those distributors not its customers. Another way to improve its business is develop its information system. Set up a large source of information about about all customers not only help Dirt Bike with managing customer profile more easily, spreading out needed information faster but also create a great bridge to build a long-term relationship with customer. * Finally, it should spend more money and time in advertisement, especially E-commerce.Its website should be redesigned to make customer as well as employees has a clearly look at all products it is selling. Providing more detail, technical information, comparision to others same line products. Those essential information has to be uploaded on the Website, beautiful and clear design to help customer more knowledgeable about products they would like to buy and support employees when they talk about products customers would like to know or they would like to sell. What is more, Dirt Bikes should invite famous riders to ride advertise for their products. This method will raise the trust in customer more. . INFORMATION SYSTEMS WOULD BE SUITABLE FOR THE CHOSEN STRATEGY: * CAD/CAM: technology allows engineer and draftspeople to design systems. * Communication and collaboration systems: allows all employees to communicate effectively and efficiently via e-mail, voice mail, call center and others. * Data warehouse: allows managers and knowlegde workers store huge amount of data that can be easily accessed and manipulated for decision support. * Mobile computing systems: supports mobile employees who work with cusomer or business partners outside the physical boudaries of the organization.Supply Chain Management System: This system may allow the company to manage their inventory levels more efficiently. * * IV – OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: * Developing a website privacy policy: developing a web site privacy policy There are some kind of personal information the web site can collect in order to serve customers well such as name, address, email, phone number†¦these database can be collected through: Order form If customers order products, the company requires personally identificable information. With these database, the company will deliver products exactly and on time.Email is very useful to provide services for customers. For example, a customer has a problem about his product, he can send email to service center to get the help instead of going to the company, or when the company has promotional campaign, it will send information to customers to announce about the news and encourage customers to buy new products. Surveys or contests: Participation in these surveys is completely voluntary. The requested information certainly includes contact information. Clickstream, web bacons: he company can use information collected from clickstreams to well understand about what customers are interested in, what they need; since the company set up pl ans to satisfy customers or provide services they needs. Although the website collects customer information and uses them as marketing and business purposes, it is ensured that security is very important to the company. When customers enter sensitive information such as social security number or credit card number on order forms, the company always warrant that information is encrypted by using secure socket layer technology (SSL).Additionally, not share personal information to the third party is a goal of the company. 1. Improving decision making: Making the rent or buy decision for hardware and software a. Rent or purchase software | | 2 tables above shows that the cost of purchasing software is less than the cost of renting hosted software. Thus, purchasing software is the best solution | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | b. Strengths and Weaknesses of renting vs purchasing | Rent| Purchase|Strengths| -cheaper cost -alternative new software easily-having most of the required features-minimal IT staffs| -free management to deal with product's core competence forever-have guaranteed appreciation over a time period time-minimal IT staffs| Weaknesses| -limited time using-limitation on the software customization-uncomfortable when the software is out of date-frequent software updates-long term reliance on vendor support| -expensive cost-expense when alternative new software-limitation on software customization-incompatible with company needs-frequent software updates-long term reliance on vendor support|If the company rent software, it can change into another software when the old one doesn’t fit company needs. The cost paid for rented software is cheaper than purchased software, so the cost for changing does not take much as well. Suppose the rented software is not out of date, the company also does not waste available resources as well as the money spending. Software is usually sold in a package. The c ompany has to buy full package even though it may not use all the functions. Thus, the company will waste the big money for spending useless functions of the software which is going to be released.Otherwise, the company has free management to deal with software’s core competencies forever. The company do not need to concern about time using as renting. That is uncomfortable when someday the software is out of date but the company still need to use it, the manager will have to sign a new contract for continuously using. That affects to company’s operations and waste time. Renting and purchasing need to be updated frequently to ensure that they always fits to company demands, hence both of them rely on vendor support in long term. Additionally, limitation on the software customization need to be considered as well.The company rent or purchase any software, it just has authority to use this software for helping the business to run effectively. It is not allowed to transfe r or copy into many versions to sell. However, minimal IT staffs is a strong point of both renting and purchasing. Software helps the company to handle well with a large information that human can not do although amount of staffs is large. c. Other factors need to be considered (beside cost): * Duration of need (long term or short term) If the company want to use in short term (usually under 6 months), then renting is optimal solution.In contrast, purchasing will be the best solution if time using is over 6 months (long term) * Compatibility Software run on iphone can not run on android. That is example about compatibility. Similarly, Microsoft 2010 can not run on window XP SP1, SP2, rather than they are window XP SP3, win 7 or later * Friendly interface Software that is easy to use will increase efficiency for the company. * Efficiency Microsoft 2007 is better than Microsoft 2003 because Microsoft 2007 has more functions than Microsoft 2003:colorful interface, beautiful templates.F urthermore, office 2007 can open XML files which are files of older office version†¦More functions are shown on ribbon. That helps users manipulate quickly. * Supporting The software should provide support for common tools used for the volume digitization of paper documents and integration with other devices that generate digital documents such as fax servers. 2 – CUSTOMER DATABASE: Dirt Bikes USA does not sell its products directly to retail customers; however, these transactions are primarily made through its distributors’ network.The information of a customer will be collected by the company’s distributors when this sale is made. This database is then forwarded to Dirt Bikes. Figure 1: Customer Database collected from distributors. Figure 1 shows the customers’ information that distributors forwarded to Dirt Bikes. This table includes many kinds of information: customer name, address (street, city, state, and zip code), telephone number, model pur chased, date of purchase, distributor, customers’ interests and tastes (their ages, level of education, and favorite sport), and their attentions to racing events.Storing all the information at only one place is so complicated and when it develops into thousand-record table, it is difficult to manage all information effectively. Moreover, it may take a lot of time to withdraw a piece of data as needed. To be able to market aggressively, therefore, the database needs to be redesigned. The new database will include tables and reports that allow the company to know certain information about the customers. The Marketing department would also like to be able to keep the customers updated on certain events, such as races and sales, depending on their ages, education level, and their previous purchases.Using Microsoft Access program (version 2007), the database that we designed is very simple to use, yet very effective. From the main database (Figure 1), 3 sub-tables are adding and each table manages 1 kind of information withdrawing from the main data. Figure 2: Distributor table The table shows the list of distributors’ names and their IDs. Managing distributors’ information by their IDs can avoid confusions and help looking up this information easily and quickly. Figure 3: Model table This table shows the models of dirt bike that the company produces and sells in the market.Each model is managed by 1 ID. Figure 4: Purchase table This table show previous purchases. Each record comprises Customer ID (the customer that made this transaction), Model ID (model ordered), date purchase of such transaction, and Distributor ID (distributor that made the transaction with the customer). Purchase ID is the primary key of the table. Figure 5: Relationship between 4 tables. This figure shows the relationship between 4 tables: Customer table (main table), Purchase table, Model table, and Distributor table.Specifically, Customer ID is the primary key in Custo mer table and in Purchase Table; Customer ID is the foreign key. Model ID is primary key in Model table and the field with the same name in Purchase table is foreign key. Distributor ID in Distributor table is the primary key and is the foreign key in Purchase table. All these relationships above are in one-to-Many type because the primary keys of tables of Customer, Distributor, and Model can appear many times in Purchase table. It means that one customer can make many transactions with many distributors and buy many models as well.Figure 6: Identify repeat customer by query. This table shows the way we design query to count the number of transactions that customers have made so far with source is Purchase table. Based on the result of this query, we can report frequent customers of Dirt Bikes USA. Figure 7: Repeat Customers. This figure shows the process that we create report of frequent customers. Customers that bought more than 1 product of the company will be reported with thei r names, phone number, model they ordered, dates of purchases and the distributors they bought dirt bikes from.Besides knowing who are valuable customers that the company needs to take good care of, Marketing department can also recognize effective distributors to give them acknowledgements for their good jobs (rewards, bonus, etc. ). Additionally, more reports can be added to better suite the needs of the company. Several reports that may be of need to Dirt Bikes USA are Racing events report, which show customers are avid racers, as well as the ages of the customers. Below are some examples of the reports needed by the Marketing department of Dirt Bikes USA. Figure 8: Racing events.This figure shows the way we made report of Racing events. The report shows customers that will attend racing events. This information is useful to Dirt Bikes USA because it enables the company to notify customers of when certain racers are being held. This way, the customers are aware of races and event s that they are interested in attending or racing in. Figure 9: Customers’ ages, Education levels, and favorite sports This figure shows the way we design the report of Customers ‘Ages, Education Levels, and favorite sports. The report allows the Marketing department to see their customers’ tastes.It can also help the company know which group of customers they are serving. From this information, Dirt Bikes USA can improve their performance in Customer services as well as improving its products’ designs and quality to fit customers’ interests. 3 – SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT SOLUTION: A supply chain is defined as a network of organizations and business processes for procuring materials, transforming raw materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing the finished products to customers. Fulfilling orders on time is becoming increasingly harder for Dirt Bikes.This is due to the delays of obtaining certain parts to the motorcycles , especially their fuel tanks. This is a serious issue because this could lead to loses in sales because customers do not want to wait so long for their orders to be filled. Finding a different fuel tank supplier is very necessary. In response to the supply chain problems that Dirt Bikes USA searched for alternate suppliers on the internet. There are three possible alternative suppliers that were found: Company| Location| Cost of part| Cost of shipping| Motosport. com| Gresham, OR 97230| $247. 9| Fedex: free 2days| Motocyle-superstore. com| Medford, OR 97204| $273. 99| Free ground| Xrsonly. com| Hesperia, CA 92345| $249. 95| UPS 3 day: $26. 39| The suitable choice is motosport. com. They have the cheapest price and their website guarantees 30 day price matching. The shipping is not only free but 2nd day by Federal Express. The motosport. com website also looks more professional, and has a contact page that shows a picture of their administration offices, and the address of their war ehouse. It is possible that Dirt Bikes USA could be aided by implementing supply chain management software. Logility: Voyager SupplyPlanning| Wolin Design Group: da Vinci| Features| – Maximize probabilitycost for effective solutions- Optimizing sourcing and decision making. – Helps balance resources, constraints and customer service levels. – Analyses of customer orders-Evaluate costs and revenues| – Easy to report cost of effective solutions- Free training- Allows implementation of all or one applications- Optimizing resources. – Helps balance resources, constraints and customer service levels- Analyses of customer orders| Dirt Bike USA should also invest in good supply chain management software.The figure below compares the features of The Logility Company’s Voyager Supply Planning software with Wolin Design Group’s da Vinci software. The suitable option is the da Vinci software. There are some reasons for this, first of all, the co mpany does not require the purchase for all the components of the software; a company can choose to buy only certain applications. There are even add-ons to the standard software package. Before the company purchases the product, they are allows to do a demo with employees from Wolin Design Group.If the company is not satisfied with the product, the company will not have to purchase the software. Once the demo is complete and the company purchases the software, the implementation process begins. There is a Help Desk that can answer any questions or fix any problems that may arise. The actual software package itself provides Dirt Bikes with great services. Da Vinci is a whole database where every part of the ordering, financing, and inventory side of the company can be kept. It allows tracking of the products and shipping aspects.Inventory Management and other reports are easy to access because of the tracking. There are reports for the profit, revenue and costs of Dirt Bikes, as wel l as management reports. The reports help with the decision making and the everyday success of the company. The software also tries its best to minimize the cost of building the bikes and the all around costs in general. Voyager Supply Planning software is a great option, but da Vinci provides services that are more suitable for Dirt Bikes USA. 4- E-COMMERCE STRATEGY: Internet is becoming more and more popular in modern life as well as in business.E-commerce is an useful application for seller and buyer to reach their willingness.. Almost everyone has a computer with internet connection. By having a website, Dirt Bikes would be able to expand its business better because it will reach out to many people. Customers will also find it more convenient to do their shopping online. The customers have more time for choosing products and the shopper has a chance to read about all the different kinds of bikes. It also enables them to compare bikes to one another, as well as see pictures of al l of them. E-commerce allows the company to be more competitive.Dirt Bike should sell not only motorcycle but also parts on the Web, the customers will have more option when looking its website. Advertisement about the new products, popular product on the front page of the website is also a good way to attract customer. Although there are many benefits from E-commerce, Dirt Bike has to face with risks that derive from online trading. * Buyers from all over the world may use fake or stolen credit cards and online payment accounts or they outright lie about delivery. Many claim non-delivery or damaged goods in order to get refunds.This is turn makes it costly for sellers, as they are faced with the reality that now they have lost both their inventory and money. * Sellers may take money without ever sending any product or forwarding inferior goods to the customers. * When a company accepts a customer's credit card and personal data, unless the business takes measures to protect that in formation, data is easily stolen through hacking, making both the seller and the buyer vulnerable. Solutions for better E-commerce strategy: One e-commerce company that provides excellent services is NetSuite.It allows a small to medium company to be managed completely on this one software. Some of the services : website and web store building and hosting, built-in analytics and reporting, low-cost customer service, and superior e-commerce marketing tools. In order for the e-commerce software to be a profitable investment for Dirt Bikes, the cost savings need to increase. The increase should be more than the company has made in the past, and then some because of the cost of the e-commerce software. Advantages: * Managed Completely on on Software. Website and Web store building and hosting * Built-in analytics and reporting * Low-cost customer service * Superior e-commerce marketing tools 5 – KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: The most important explicit knowledge of Dirt Bike USA assets a re its engineering designs, its customer relations management, and its sales/marketing processes. This is the explicit and tacit knowledge, most of the knowledge can be documented. The engineer can graph his or her design and the customers or sellers can save their information in their documents.There is also tacit knowledge, the designers have to think about the new ideas to refresh the products and attract people, the engineers have to think about the techniques to deal with employees and customers as well, they have to think the ways to increase the employees’ productivity, some tricks that can be used by the sellers to persuade the customers to buy their products. However, the knowledge assets of Dirt Bike is not only internal asset but also external assets. The Dirt Bike use outside engine manufacture so it has be knowledgeable about the engine products that are produced and developed by their engine suppliers.The marketers also use outside media to know about the market trend, the customers interest to increase the investment from outsiders to expand the company. Knowledge management system is the system that would contain as much information as possible that can be documented and organized, from raw data to data studies. The system brings many benefits for employees and company itself. The engineers can use the data from this system for the correct engine designs and knowing whether the engine products from the suppliers are qualified are or not. The designers can use the data and get the materials for the products.The marketers can use external and internal data for making marketing plan and getting investment. The sellers can use the data for market segmentation, and determine the time for selling suitable kind of product. The managers can know the information quickly to update about the new plan, new economics trend to have better react. Finally, the company can get the products’ feedback from customers, make the survey about the custom ers’ interest. With many benefits from the Knowledge management system Dirt Bike need to use it but the problem here is how can they find he Knowledge management system company that suitable for them? The appropriate knowledge management system for Dirt Bike is Safeharbor (http://www. safeharbor. com/solutions/knowledge-management-services/) it has almost everything that suitable for not only Dirt Bike but also many different companies. Its Knowledge Engineers work directly with the company’s teams to help with some or all of the following: Content assessment, Content creation and testing, Analysis and reporting, Contact center alignment, Taxonomy, Best practices.It has some functions that other companies do not have like multi-language which is necessary for the company to have agencies in different countries, multi-currency for faster transaction and Boolean search for faster searching. The company has 3 competitive advantages: simple and intuitive, powerful and cust omizable, cost effective. It provides: Internal Knowledge base: * Powerful Search Engine. * Easy Article Creation and Content Management. * Powerful Knowledge Base Management Tools. * Improved Agent Effectiveness * Moderator Controls. * Reporting & Analytics * Cloud Mobility. External Knowledge base: Extremely Customizable. * Intuitive Self Service. * User Feedback. * Community Forums. Component| Component No. | Source| Unit Cost| Quantity| Extended Cost| | Brake cable| M0593| Nissin| 27. 81| 1| 27. 81| | Brake pedal| M0546| Harrison Billet| 6. 03| 2| 12. 06| | Brake pad| M3203| Russell| 27. 05| 2| 54. 10| | Front brake pump| M0959| Brembo| 66. 05| 1| 66. 05| | Rear brake pump| M4739| Brembo| 54. 00| 1| 54. 00| | Front brake caliper| M5930| Nissin| 105. 20| 1| 105. 20| | Rear brake caliper| M7942| Nissin| 106. 78| 1| 106. 78| | Front brake disc| M3920| Russell| 143. 80| 1| 143. 80| | Rear brake disc| M0588|Russell| 56. 42| 1| 56. 42| | Brake pipe| M0943| Harrison Billet| 28. 52| 1| 28. 52| | Brake lever cover| M1059| Brembo| 2. 62| 1| 2. 62| | | | | Total cost| | 657. 36| | | | | | | | | * Integrated Help Desk and Call Center. 6. COMPONENT PRICE CHANGES The table above shows the cost when it is not affected by any impacts. However when the front brake caliper increased from $103 to $107,the extended cost would increase, too and if the brake pipe increases from $27 to $30 the extended cost increases. The brake system represent 30 percent of the total materials cost for one complete Moto 300 motorcycle.Therefore, not only does the cost of the brake system increase, but the whole motorcycle price. | | | Brake Pipe| | | Total Cost| 657. 36| 27| 28. 00| 29| 30. 00| | 103| 653. 64| 654. 64| 655. 64| 656. 64| | 104| 654. 64| 655. 64| 656. 64| 657. 64| Front Brake caliper| 105. 00| 655. 64| 656. 64| 657. 64| 658. 64| | 106| 656. 64| 657. 64| 658. 64| 659. 64| | 107| 657. 64| 658. 64| 659. 64| 660. 64| The table shows the total cost increase when the price of the brake pipe and front brake caliper increase. Finally when the front brake caliper and brake pipe increase up to $ 107 and $30 the total cost increases to $660. 64. REFERENCES:

Divorce Is Always Bad for Children Essay

One of the most frequently asked questions â€Å"Is divorce harmful to children? †. There are numerous discussions about the effects of divorce on children and most people and researches say that divorce has a negative influence on children. These children have more psychological and behavioral problems than children who live in married two-parent families. I agree with that because I think that normal psychological development and well-being of children are directly connected with whether the children grow up in divorced families or in married two-parent families. There are many factors that account for why children in divorcing families may have difficulties, but I would like to focus on some of them such as parental loss and life stress. Firstly, both parents are important for children, giving emotional support and practical assistance. Children who grow up in two-parent families are happier and have a greater well-being because they live in the atmosphere of love, care and attention from both parents. Each parent gives their children their knowledge, skills and nurture that are important for the formation of children’s personality. Divorce often results in the loss of contact with one parent and therefore a loss of the knowledge, skills and emotional support of that parent. Secondly, divorce of parents is a big stress for children. They knew only one world where their mother and father was a unit. But after divorce life is changed, their world is destroyed and as result they feel pain and further carry painful memories. There are other psychological problems connected with changing residence, conditions of living, changing the school, loss of friends. As a result, children need to adjust to a new life that is obviously a big emotional stress for them. Moreover, children may be faced with inadequate attitudes of other children who live in two-parent families. Children may feel a stress from understanding of such inequality that may lead to a problem when they may became an asocial. All of the abovementioned factors usually may lead to aggressive behavior of children or their depression, and parents may be faced with difficulties how to manage this. In summary, it is apparent that divorce has a negative influence on children, not only in their childhood but also on their future; because some researches have proved that most adults who grow up in divorced families often keep the painful memories in their mind for many years. The risk of negative influence on children may be reduced, if both parents try to keep the friendly relationship between them and maintain the level of support for their children before divorce. Both parents should participate in their children’s nurture equally and show them their love and care.

Global Enterprise and Innovation individual report Essay

Global Enterprise and Innovation individual report - Essay Example This report will have various segments such as the analysis of main features of business environment within the US, role of government in promoting innovation, credit facilities and resources to the firms, scientific and technological capacity of the nation as well as general analysis of the national innovation systems within the US. Discussion Science and technology has increasingly been sighted to be a direct or indirect factor influencing the living of people within US. Various features define the business environment within the US with innovation as well as job creation being the major. Sustained investments within scientific research as well as strong system of education have been commended for great influence on general economic performance of the country. However, according to a 2011-2014 public policy statement by the ACS specific policies are critical in ensuring favorable business environment. Such policy recommendations include that appropriate tax and trade policies in ta rget of innovation and research should be adopted, encourage innovations through patenting as well as property rights and efficient commercialization and transfer of technological innovation within the country. Besides, the report shows a business environment that is in need of proper framework to encourage investment in research and innovation by small and large firms through such incentives as credit facilities and ensuring favorable business environment by the government (American Chemical Society, nd, 1-2). On the other hand, environmental awareness and conservation is a critical feature within business operations in the US where the government and other agencies increasingly regulate business operations on matters of environmental policies. According to a report by Esty and Charnovitz innovation is increasingly being influenced by policies and rules that are being adopted on environmental management and conservation. The report points to the poor performance of the government i n US to implement policies that are favorable to innovation concerning the environment effectively. This has therefore been a hindrance to operations of many firms, which are dependent on environmental policy frameworks (Esty and Charnovitz, 2012, para 1-4). Other factors that continuously have a direct impact on business performances within the US are social, political as well as economic factors. The social impact on business environment in the US is emanating from such aspects as the development of social platform and media, which all business operators must be aware of. Despite the great benefits that arise from social media, equally many shortcomings result from the improper application of the media into the business world within the US. Economic influences in the business environment within US are best examined from the perspective of economic growth of the country. Political factors on the other hand come in as political set up defines policy formulations as well as legal fra meworks within the nation (Sviokla and Gutstein, 2012-2013, para 1-5). Increased productivity through innovation by firms lead to improved standards of living of people. Through the design of appropriate policies and effective decision-making, the US government has continually created innovative environment, which has been attractive to such firms as Sony, which wholly rely on

Individualized Education Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Individualized Education Program - Essay Example From the report it is clear that  the program depicts and portrays the aims and objectives along with the exceptional assistance that a child may need during the school curriculum. When a child necessitates with special care as he faces complexity and trouble in learning, implementing and executing task or activity, he is likely to fall under the category where a child needs IE program.As the discussion highlights  when the child’s unique and distinctive needs come under inimitable observation by the parents, teachers, school team and even the child himself, the productive and persuasive IE program is probable to develop that plays a great deal of assistance for the student to progress rapidly. The plan and the structure of the program entail deep awareness and understanding, practice and familiarity, and dedication from the declared people that will make the student engage, engross, improve and grow from the designed course of action. The goal setting come under preparati on as a foundation stone of IE program and has an aim to have targets that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time restricted.  The reflection and the picture that a person views, is created by the lens on the retina that gathers, assemble, concentrates, examine, consign and disseminate the light into the lens of the human eyes.  In other words, eyesight or the vision is one of the unique and beautiful gifts from God that a person has. The retina transforms the light that enters into the eyes of the humans into signals that travels to the brain via the optic nerve. When the signals do not reach up to the brains to communicate with the eye or a part of them come under damage, the person falls in the visual impairment disease. With the advancement of technologies, several medical treatments and surgeries come under performance to repair or bring back the vision of a person. The severe congenital visual impairment refers to the loss of eyesight that is present from birth; however, there can be various reasons that can cause this disease that may include inheritance or may have originated via some infection that the fetus catches during the mother’s pregnancy (Moore &  Graves & Patterson, 1997). The visual impairment transports few disabilities as well. Inadequate and narrow leaning skill or the incapability of learning from the surroundings is one of the side  effects and distinctive attribute that the children with visual impairment administer and experience. According to the studies, the evidence has come under the fact that much of the learning of students come under occurrence through their vision and the students who are disable with this gift gain knowledge through the signals of image (Roman-Lantzy, 2007). However, this impairment encompasses several complications to the children as an outcome of the injury. Students may have hindrance and interruptions in their growth and progress due to the reason that their brain may have had some injury. They may demonstrate signs of lacking in their concentrations to sight stimulus. These students when examine, search and seek for any material entity or things, their top priority changes to the sense of touch and feel over their sight. The consequence of the congenital visual impairment may have oscillation to the general health of the child, and may experience and may affect by the diseases

Term assigement Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Term assigement - Case Study Example 2. Assume the Qatari government is pursuing an expansionary fiscal policy by increasing government purchases. Show the short run and long run impact of this policy on the macroeconomic equilibrium point using AD and AS model (assume that Qatar’s economy initially operates at the potential level of GDP). You need to draw a graph and briefly explain the short run and long run impact of this expansionary fiscal policy. Pursuing an expansionary fiscal policy through the increase of government purchases will increase budget deficit or smaller budget surplus. The Qatari fiscal budget will be affected by the policy through its spending and taxes. It will also address the business cycle instability that gives rise to unemployment. This is called closing the recessionary gap. The aggregate market illustrates the recessionary gap as well as the short run and the long run effects of this policy. SRAS is the short run aggregate supply curve. Equilibrium in the short run occurs when price level and real production corresponds to the intersection of the SRAS and the aggregate demand curve. Short run real production is therefore less than full employment production and their difference is the recessionary gap. The recessionary gap is what the increase in purchases or expansionary fiscal policy is designed to close. This happens when there is a rightward shift of the demand curve. It will therefore increase demand and employment in the short run but not necessary in the long run. This is shown below. 3.In December 2014, the international price of oil has dropped to almost half of its level in June 2014. What do you think the expected impact of this drop on the US economy using the AD and AS model? Hint: Think of the impact on aggregate supply in the US and assume that the US economy initially operates at the potential GDP level. If the prices of oil drop by half, oil producers will decrease production in

Organization Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Organization Development - Essay Example This institution was founded in 1979 as a social service agency in St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1987, the agency opened an office in Bamburg, South Carolina with the executive director serving as the only staff person. This company does not have a merit system in place. There are enough employees now and the organization wants to implement an appropriate merit system. Within a few months of operation in South Carolina, the first child was placed in one of our foster homes and this institution have consistently grown since. By 1994, the need for serving a special population of foster youth was identified and the agency began providing a medically-fragile program. In March, 2005, Growing Home Southeast acquired the programs of Family Resources, Inc. of Beaufort, SC, increased its staff size to nearly fifty employees statewide, managed services for more than 200 clients and entered the home-based services market. Analysis of the organizational status of the Growing Home Southeast was conducted. Various aspects of the organization were studied such as the management of the organization, projects, supervision of the institution, management of client relationships and strategies. The researcher also performed extensive analysis of database and system response times with custom realtime diagnostic tools, and designed optimizations to address performance, bottlenecks, and increasing database capacity fourfold. According to Choo (2001), scanning or browsing behavior is influenced by external factors such as environmental turbulence and resource dependency, organizational factors such as the nature of the business and the strategy pursued, information factors such... This essay stresses that environmental scanning is the acquisition and use of information about events, trends, and relationships in an organization's external environment, the knowledge of which would assist management in planning the organization's future course of action. Thispaper makes a conclusion that organizations scan the environment in order to understand the external forces of change so that they may develop effective responses which secure or improve their position in the future. They scan in order to avoid surprises, identify threats and opportunities, gain competitive advantage, and improve long- and short-term planning. To the extent that an organization's ability to adapt to its outside environment is dependent on knowing and interpreting the external changes that are taking place, environmental scanning constitutes a primary mode of organizational learning. Environmental scanning includes both looking at information (viewing) and looking for information (searching). It could range from a casual conversation at the lunch table or a chance observation of an angry customer, to a formal market research program or a scenario planning exercise. A sound business practices in place at the Growing Home Southeast will allow clients to meet their b asic necessities of living in addition to being able to save for more costly nonessential items. In addition, the organization may implement an electronic time keeping system to better manage overtime and payroll costs of its employees.

Ancient European Civilization Compared to Ancient China Essay

Ancient European Civilization Compared to Ancient China - Essay Example The other similarity is that both civilizations were ruled by selfish leaders who did not care about others but only about satisfying their goals. This therefore contributed to the numerous wars and change of leadership that was experienced by these two civilizations (Hause and Maltby, 2004). Despite the similarities, there were numerous differences between the two civilizations in discussion. The Chinese for example concentrated more on art and culture while the Europeans concentrated more on trade and religion. The Chinese lacked concentration in trade and religion because they had not started developing industries, the dynasties were very different and would not unite and hence development like that in Europe was not present (Schirokauer and Brown, 2012). As a result of concentration in trade and religion, European civilization had no time for art and this came to develop later on. The other difference is that the different dynasties ruling China were concentrating on inventions and hence many inventions were developed during Chinese civilization. In Europe, development of different classes brought about competition and migration to other areas and hence inventions were not there but there was development of telecommunication systems to serve the different classes (Einsenstadt,

Personal Ethics Development Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Ethics Development - Personal Statement Example For an individual to attain a good character which will enable them to live harmoniously with other members of the society, they need exhibit a moral and ethical character that is ideally embodied in being honest, trustworthy, responsible, fair and showing care for others as well as citizenry (Josephson Institute, 2009). Owing to my Christian upbringing in the Episcopal Church, my ethical system has been predominantly influenced by my faith in God and my belief that I should strive to do only what is sanctioned by Him. The ethical system can be defined as the underlying ethical principles, which a person uses to make decisions, I subscribe like most Christians to deontological ethics also known as duty based ethics or non-consequential ethics. I believe that an action is either right or wrong, and my perception of the differentiation is based on biblical teaching, thus regardless of possibly good consequences resulting from a wrong action, the action remains untenable in my opinion. From another theological perspective I would say that I fall into the Absolutist category in terms of ethics and moral responsibility; under this category, the underlying principal is that there is an absolute and objective standard of what is right and wrong, and this is based on biblical teachings. Whenever I am faced with a decision or action, I always pause to ask myself if a Christian should act in such a manner, I do not look first at the benefit that I may gain or the pain I may suffer as a result, but simply aspire to know if it is right and that is all the motivation I need to act or desist. I work as a hospice nurse in addition to being a member of the National Palliative Care and Oncology Nursing Association, my training and experience have on many occasions brought me face to face with the extreme human suffering more with certain death. Working as a nurse, I have found my ethics and beliefs instrumental in making me an efficient nurse since I believe that protection and preservation of human life come before all other things. I admired the compassion of Florence Nightgale who put aside her life purists to ensure that the sick and dying were cared for in a compassionate and caring manner. To a large extent my becoming a nurse was influenced by my admiration of her since I felt that it was both my Christian and moral duty to care for those who are in pain and alleviate their suffering. It may not be as financially rewarding as some other careers I may have opted for, but the fact that it is the right thing to do supersedes the opportunity cost. Others who influenced me included mother Teresa who was in many ways just Nightgale in her selflessness and willingness to risk being infected with disease by living and working with the poor and lepers in Calcutta. My Christian ethics for instance does not allow me to lie or be dishonest even though I may stand to gain and possibly get away with immoral actions, this has sometimes brought me in conflict with some of my friends who think am too timid and rigid. Sometimes in the past I went out with my friends for a party and although I was not drinking like everyone else seemed to be doing, I had a great time. On the way home, one of my friends was driving, I only realized after we were on the highway that he had clearly gone over his alcohol limit when I

Article Review #2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Article Review #2 - Essay Example The writer is the author of several books on German and Soviet history during the World War II period, so he draws upon a thorough knowledge of the history of the region and period concerned but does also make use of some other valuable sources such as foreign affairs documents. In On August 22, 1939, Adolf Hitler directed his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to go to Moscow for a nonaggression pact with Soviet Union involving the signing of a treaty and a secret protocol for immediate effect. The German delegation conversed with Stalin and his commissar for foreign affairs at the Kremlin, and â€Å"an agreement was reached on all points†. The pact, to initially last ten years, and the secret protocol were both signed, and this occasion was celebrated as it marked a new era of German-Soviet friendship. The terms stipulated that neither country would attack the other subject to certain conditions. The secret protocol carved Europe into German and Soviet spheres of interest. Some remaining details were settled a month later along with another friendship treaty, â€Å"later supplemented by a boundary protocol†, â€Å"a confidential agreement on the exchange of populations across the borders separating the Soviet and German spheres in Ea stern Europe†, a secret protocol pertaining to non-tolerance of Polish agitation, and extensions of several economic agreements. These agreements were seen as providing â€Å"the Germans with a green light for an attack on Poland†, and whereas previous nonaggression pacts signed by the Soviets were invalidated in the case of either party attacking a third country, this was not the case in this pact. Moreover, the economic agreements were designed to maintain the German war effort through acquisition of raw materials, and enabling Germany to concentrate all its forces on the western front. It is pertinent to note that the friendship was actually â€Å"cemented with blood† given that both had attacked and divided Poland

Religions of the World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Religions of the World - Essay Example lieve that the reason behind the decline in the Protestant membership in America can be traced back to the problems in the separation of church and state. While there are still devoutly religious Americans, they draw the line when the church begins to use the pulpit as a political mouthpiece aimed at furthering the cause and beliefs of the church. We also have the fact that there seems to be an influx of â€Å"designer† religions that people seem to be willing to try out just to see how it fits. Religion is not an outfit that one can try on and take off but the people seem to think that religion should be exactly like that. In fighting among the church leaders have also caused a decline in the church membership as each leader seems to believe that he is the one with the right answers to lifes questions. Whenever the disagreement cannot be resolved, one of the parties more often than not opts to spin off into his own religion in order to promote the values that he believes to be true. Not to be forgotten is the fact that the modern 21st century person simply does not have the time to spare when it comes to fulfilling their religious obligations that they did not ask for in the first place. It was thrust upon them when their parents had them baptized as a baby. Since the modern person is more of a thinking individual now, and does not generally believe in blind faith, they begin to question their religion and often times end up seeking the answers to the questions they have elsewhere. The modern person thinks of religion as a part of a lifestyle that can be picked up and set aside depending upon their need. Since the religion has yet to catch up with the modern ideals of the average American, one can expect that he will not be practicing the religion, if he has not converted yet or simply convinced himself to stop being a follower of an organized cult, then the generational gap between the church and the individual will continue to create a divisiveness between

Physics And Engineering In I.T. Power Management Essay Example for Free

Physics And Engineering In I.T. Power Management Essay The cost of energy continues to increase with shrinking in corporate budgets and need for more energy input. At times like this, even IT industry is affected and the stakeholders are starting to look for new ways of cutting down the cost as they keep the quality of work high and efficiency maximized. Implementation of a good energy policy in an organization’s premises can lead to reduced costs of ICT infrastructural costs in terms of capital required in setting up servers and cooling systems. If the right energy saving and proper utilization habits are adopted and effective construction and installation ideas implemented in natural air flow optimization and proper heat insulation can lead to less cooling facilities requirements, cutting on costs (Greenguard, 2009). Efforts of energy conservation in IT infrastructure have been initiated through: †¢ Technologies like PoE (Power over internet) and midspans; this is a technology that enables gadgets like phones to receive power together with data through the Ethernet connection. Midspans are stand alone gadgets that are used to interface the Ethernet switch with the power sources for optimized power distribution to the ports as required. †¢ Implementation of Smart energy and lighting technology in huge company premises with many workers using ICT equipments. †¢ Efforts of IEEE-the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, to set standards for manufacturers of electronic and electrical gadgets (IEEE 802. 3-at) to ensure optimized energy utilization at the design level. †¢ IT technology in energy auditing and virtualization of power management †¢ Use of Integrated circuits (ICs) to control magnetic and pulse width modulators for external power connection in devices. †¢ Use of Power Source Equipment (PSE) and Power Devices (PD) in network classification during powering of new connections to ensure only PoE connections are powered in wireless and telecom devices. Electrical Power With the introduction of Power over Ethernet (PoE), many electronic devices that work in direct connection with computers through Ethernet cables have shifted from use of external power cables to reception of power together with data on the Ethernet connection. The (IEEE) has established some standards (IEEE 802. 3-at) for such technology, contributing to encouraging the manufactures of electrical and electronic products to contribute in efforts of making ICT infrastructure environment friendly, through less energy consumption. This is a strategy which if adopted can lead to very improved efficiency in power delivery in devices’ interconnection. The manufacturers of such devices, for example Texas Instruments, are manufacturing devices with power capabilities of choosing either to use PoE or switch to standard mode when the option is not available. This is in the effort to become compliant with the IEEE 802. 3-at. Even when PoE is a better option than external cables, a more detailed power saving strategy can be applied through use of midspans, which interface the switches with power sources, injecting power to the ports using way much better technology and hence more efficient. Such consciousness is needed in order to contribute to the overall infrastructure. According to (Conner, 2008), for the manufacturers of the gadgets, the design of PoE can contribute to making of smaller boards and reduce the cost of inputs on large scale. The technology shift there in the physics of electronic gadgets is the replacement of impedance power reduction through dissipation with the magnetic and switching methods in pulse width modulators, controlled through ICs. In efforts to increase power efficiency, the cost of production is also bound to reduce in the long run. The application of PSEs and PDs in network in power control centers gives an option to do power budgets and determine the proper management strategies to be applied. These are such refined levels of control that give the way to streamline and generally control power use. With the current state of globalization in online business, the ICT infrastructure has grown to very complex networks, especially with emergent of mobile devices. Power systems for these networks are as huge as the extents of the networks while management is done manually at physical points of contact. The samples provided in the cases of Highmark and the University of Minnesota (Greenguard, 2009) form a small part of the global business ICT infrastructure that interact with the environment. Educating people/employees A huge effort should go to changing the habits of power use in a working environment. The employees can too contribute to the efforts of a greener ICT infrastructure by ensuring proper use of power. Switching off devices when not in use can help accumulate huge power savings with time. This is not a common thing in most IT departments and will take the initiative of the management to organist fro training of the power users on good use of energy sources. When organization becomes too huge with thousands of employees, energy efficiency becomes a major issue. Such a high number of users of the infrastructure can accumulate a high energy demand and proper management for cost effective and sustainable operation. An example of such a firm is the Highmark with 11000 employees. Energy Computations and Software Virtualization Right from the Physics hardware, the availability of interfacing in ports control to enable remote power on and power off (Ronen, 2009) in PoE makes complex networks manageable. In the Highmark case the Company strategized on extra careful management method on using software technology like energy auditing tools and virtualization as well as new technology in smart energy and lighting systems (Greenguard, 2009). According to the report, there has been increase in need for organizations to use power consuming ICT infrastructure with new technologies to do business as compared to the traditional methods. This has led to ratings of about â€Å"61 billion kilowatt-hours in 2006† by data centers (Greenguard, 2009). The figures could even increase with more ICT use, alarming the corporate to strategize on conservation and efficiency. Owing to this, there have been numerous instances of application of IT solution in power management. Highmark installed a system for collecting rain water and using it in a datacenter cooling system and virtualized the servers to monitor PC usage by employees. This strategy helped adopt the method of remote powering down of equipment not in use, to minimize wastage. The company consulted with IBM to do computations of server spacing for maximum utilization of cooling systems. It appears clearly that many organizations have massive equipments powered up even when not in use because of poor management policy. From these results, it is important to carry each of these computation and software analysis methods with weigh while considering efforts to manage such massive data infrastructures. In many cases, the companies rely on employees to be reliable in implementing the energy conservation policies but even that cannot be enough. If software methods are used to monitor use of powered resources and power them down remotely, a great deal of energy could be saved. A perfect example here is the IT organization of the University of Minnesota which could â€Å"switch off about 25,000 devices each night† (Greenguard, 2009). Conclusion The IT infrastructure comprises of billions of gadgets that use electrical power to operate and network equipment to keep them connected. Power consumption is therefore starts from a single device’s design and connection to the system and spans to the networking level. The physical electronic power consumption can be managed and through standardization methods such as those by IEEE. It is at such low levels that interaction with the environment can be analyzed and energy consumption optimized. The physical arrangement of power consuming data facilities is also of significance importance as clogging them closely together reduces the ability of natural air flow to take care of cooling done by electrical motors in fans. The relationship between IT and these physical sciences is so direct when it comes to practical application fields. The application of software power computation, management and control also helps ICT fit into the practical idea of conservation and greener infrastructure. From the cases analyzed, there is enough evidence that application of technology from the physics and engineering of devices and systems, software tools and ICT infrastructure can be managed in away that can lead to more environment friendly use. References Conner, M. (2008). PoE for high-powered applications. Electronics Weekly, (2263), 18 Retrieved from: http://search. ebscohost. com/login. aspx? direct=truedb=cphAN=36122010loginpage=Login. aspsite=ehost-live Sani Ronen, (2009) Midspans for next-gen PoE,An inside look at technologies and standards, Tech update, Available: www. networkworld. com Samuel Greengard, (2009), Building an Energy-Efficient IT Infrastructure, Baseline Magazine Available: http://www. baselinemag. com

Cooperate And Strategic Management At Asda Commerce Essay

Cooperate And Strategic Management At Asda Commerce Essay This essay will critically analysis and evaluate the strategy of ASDA. With the analysis I will evaluate what strategy they are using, with the purpose and what type of intention they looking to develop for the future of the supermarket. ASDA is a supermarket that is owned by an American company that is called Wall-Mart. I choose this company because firstly I am a loyal customer and secondly Ill be a good company to evaluate the business analysis on it. It is a big company that requires different types of marketing strategy analysis for it to be as successful as it is today. First am going to be concerned with the role of the external environment of the business. The environment of the business includes PESTLE, five forces and the opportunity and threats strategy. These tools will show us the competitive side of the company to create competitive advantage in ever more crowded markets and with increasingly demanding customers. (Graham Hooley 2004). The second part of this essay will be on cultural analysis. Culture analysis is the way the management assembles combinations of values, rituals, languages and myths. This tool is used as a key factor in successful commitment and passion of employees of the business. These factors are found in corporate culture, will show how they improve their performance of management and as a whole by looking in detail the culture of the surroundings of the business. For the third part of the essay I will look into the portfolio analysis to see weather or not the business is looking attractive, in growth and has substantial profit margin for the size of the company. The most basic and importance of being in business is making profit and this will show us the situation of the company in the market place. Finally I will conclude my essay with a conclusion on how the business will be changing in the market for future strategies based on the firms ability to adopt the market and take benefit of the nature of the company to optimise their growth and attractiveness. External Analyses Lets start with the first strategy management that gives full detailed and creative assessment on the environment of the company, which is called PESTLE. The analysis was done and shown below. Social forces Branding advantage for company, it brings trust to companies. Disadvantage may be a dislike of a product and may not buy it again. Lifestyle changes disadvantage for company, as it can be costly to change like cloths. Advantage would be that keeping with fashion could bring more money for the company. Political forces Employment law can be seen as good view to employees as ASDA needs to be aware of health and safety and other laws but can be source of complications for the business. Taxation disadvantage for company, it can be costly for business like ASDA because they need there individual accountant and as a whole. The benefit would be the provision of the public goods. Economic forces Inflation disadvantage for company, people will have less money to spend on luxury goods. Economic Growth is an advantage for the company as living standard is higher however interest rate will be changed that will cause to be more volatile and susceptible to change. Technological forces Web site for company to keep it up-to-date can be costly but the benefit will make people buy online which will decrease manpower. Stock control can automatically count the stocks sold and reorder however the disadvantage would be unable to count the stolen/broken goods. Legal Current legislation is important for the companies to know the status of the environment it is situated to keep its benefits and drawbacks in check for the future. Environmental Environmental issues is required for the local, national, and international to keep commitment in environmental protection. The benefit will increase loyalty of brand as they seek increase better environment. Customer values -can target a segment of a market for the company to guide towards and is a key to sustainable competitive advantage. A PESTEL analysis considers the most important external factors that impacts ASDA. This analysis will reflect on ASDAs brand name by merging all the factors in one to create a guide strategic decision-making. If the PESTEL analysis done correctly and accurately, it would make the organisation of ASDA to keep up with the change of the environment and it will be better placed than its competitors to respond to change. For example Wal-Mart decided on a smart decision by merging with ASDA as both company benefited from it by having more leverage on each other. As ASDA has many franchises in Briton every single one of the PESTLE analysis are different to each other as they are located in a different region. This means that every single franchise companys manger would use this tool for their area to create value for money, loyalty and trust. Although the environment is different in each location, the main goals and objectives of the original company stays, and managers aim to achieve. One of the ways managers seek in achieving their objectives is using another analysis on the external environment. This will plan and helps ASDA to focus on key issues of the external environment. The two key elements are opportunity and threats of the company, which is shown below. Opportunity -The opportunity ASDA is able to do is to expand globally by strategic alliances with other retailers. -Second market share leader has the opportunity of reduction of effective food prices for consumers through economies of scale. -Consumers are likely to change and trends endlessly change so there is always opportunity for ASDA to act upon the next trend which requires good strategic marketing. Threat -As shown in the market share graph in the next page, it shows that ASDAs market share comparison to Sainsbury is not that much far apart (0.5 share difference) an Tesco in the lead. -Technological are also highlighted as threat as cheaper products can be found online or better quality by competitors. -Tescos advertisements on television, communicates about how many products it has cheaper than ASDA. Supermarket shares Identifying theses forces for ASDA are simple and it will be hard to plan the correct strategy with just these to guide the company. To be able to understand better of the external environment of ASDA I need to introduce another analysis to conduct a plan of good strategy for the company, which is called Porters five forces as shown below. Porters five forces element focuses on the circumstance of other elements. For example the supplier power would be increased if there were a high scale of rivalry between companies trying to obtain the supplies. This analysis would show the bargaining power it has upon the elements to increase awareness and create a better business potential for the company. Using this analysis it will look at ASDAs power in the market and allows you to see the gap between where the company is and where it should be, and furthermore, what strategies should be applied. This helps the bottom line of the company as it considers profitable rivalry to be a base significance and it should concentrate on the factors affecting the companys profit. With the combinations of the three analyses shown above, the external environment should be kept equal or increase competitive advantage over their rivals. Cultural web analysis The name of ASDA on its own represents different behaviour and values for people. The relationships all people have with ASDA are different depending on their situation or cultural point of view. Corporate culture is the way people do things in an organisation, which sets beliefs, attitudes, core values and behavioural patterns that is shared by the people in the company. The culture of web is used to analysis the elements that influence the performance and determine the future of the change. Analysing the culture as it is now in ASDA, then look what Ill be in the future and to find the differences in between them to calculate the change in tomorrow will achieve the high-performance culture that any business wants. Below is the cultural web diagram and each section is described in appendix 2. (Johnson and Scholes (1999); P. 74) IT will be imposable for Multi-national Corporation like ASDA to have no conflicts between the local national culture and the imported corporate culture. These conflicts are hard to manage as there are to many to please or have a skilled manager to multi-cultural management. For the ideal strategy for ASDAs culture should be multi cultured and managers should have an open mind when working with employees to manage the organisation more effective and efficiently as culture differ. For example in the middle east family values are very important and an employee wouldnt dream of staying late to finish work if this conflicted with a family duty. This does not mean that their work ethic is poor, it is just expressed differently and a western manager would find it offence by suggesting otherwise. ASDA has large group of people to identify across the whole organisation. Instead managers tend to identify the culture with smaller sub-groups. So ASDA would have a mixture of sub-cultures some th at may even be abnormal. Again there is a high certainty of conflict between the different sub-cultures as business is rarely simple. It is said the collection of beliefs, expectations and values shared by the corporations members and transmitted from one generation of employees to another (Wheelen and Hunger, 1986) which will bring prosperity and growth of the company. Portfolio analysis Next is the portfolio analysis of ASDA as it represents the attractiveness, balance, fit, manageability and synergy of the company. The business portfolio is the collection of products that make up the business. The best portfolio is one that fits the companys strength and helps develop opportunity. ASDA will need to do a set of analyses and decide which businesses needs more or less investments, and conducting growth strategy for adding new products/services and businesses to the portfolio. Additionally work out the time limit of a product or businesses should no longer be retained. There are three types of portfolio planning however the two best known ones are from the Boston consulting group that the description been added to appendix 3 and by General Electric. In each method the company needs to identify the various strategic business units. The Strategic business units have all have separate mission and objectives and that can be planned independently from the other businesses. The strategic business unit can be dividing the business, for example a product line or individual brands. When ASDA classifies its strategic business units in the portfolio, then it must decide what to do with them. The diagram in appendix 3 shows a cash cow, a dog, starts and question marks. New strategic thinking indicates there are four types of strategies, which is shown in appendix 3. Depending on the strategic business units it will have a different type of strategy as explained before to suit its needs. Conclusion Finally to conclude my essay I would start of saying that at this moment that cultural web is essential for ASDA as Culture is something which makes members of an organisation behave more like each other than non-members! ASDA uses culture to hunt for steady growth within the market, through very detailed planning and control systems. It is good for ASDA to understand culture as they can implement new strategies and adopt culture with them. I will explain the reasons and do a summary of how environment analysis affects on ASDA. Any company must seek to understand the nature of its competitive environment in order to be successful in achieving its objectives and in setting up appropriate strategies. If a company fully understands the nature of the environment analysis it will be in a stronger point to defend itself against any threats and to influence its strategy. By strategising through how each force affects the company it will identify the strength and direction of each force that will provides opportunity to identify the strength of the situation and the ability to make a continued profit (Mind Tools, 2006). To broaden my analysis feather I could have used STEEPLED which allow for a dedicated Ethical section however they can be included in the original four. It is the shape and simplicity of a four-part model is also somehow more strategically appealing and easier to manipulate and convey. There is also the sixth forces (relative power of other stakeholders) that I could have analysed however is not as popular. If I had more time I could have been able to do more analysis to find new and more of competitive advantages for ASDA. Although using strategic planning it is not always precise. No tool is fixed. Its a matter of practical choice as to what helps best to identify and explain the matters at hand. Neither resources nor market are fixed and keep changing every day. The new processes of marketing will require us to learn new ways of doing business in unfamiliar organisations. We may by now be well used to the idea of market needs changing over time and the need to monitor those changes for the success of the business. For success of growth for ASDA they need to constantly to examine and develop their resources and capabilities over time to be able to have a completive advantage in the long run. At the same time it should look at their current set of capabilities and assets to create new opportunities for the short run. Fundamentally ASDA needs to widen its resources to increase profit and deeper relationship with customer to ensure long-term value through the relationships between them. With the new millennium, there is infinity number of ways of competing with rivals. It is an exciting period for competitive marketing. PESTLE analysis is used to measure the growth or decline of a marketplace, as such the position, potential and direction for the business. References Haberberg, A. and Rieple, A. (2001) The Strategic Management of Organizations, Essex: Pearson Education Limited. Kippenberger, T. (1998) Strategy according to Michael Porter, The Antidote, Vol. 3 Issue 6, pp. 24-25. Luffman, G., Lea, E., Sanderson, S. and Kenny, B. (1996) Strategic Management, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc. Porter, M. (1980a) How Competition Forces Shape Strategy, Harvard Business Review, September-October, pp.137-145. Porter, M. (1980b) Competitive Strategy, New York: Free Press. Porter, M. (1998) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, New York: Free Press. Sanderson, S. (1998) New approaches to strategy: new ways of thinking for the millennium, Management Decision, Vol. 36 issue 1, pp.9-13. Thurlby B (1998) Competitive forces are also subject to change, Management Decision London Wheelen, T. and Hunger, J. (1998) Strategic Management and Business Policy, 6th ed., Reading: Addison-Wesley. Johnson G. and Scholes K. (1999), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th Edition, Prentice Hall, London. Greenley G.E. (1989), Strategic Management, Prentice Hall, London Certo S.C. and Peter J.P. (1997), Strategic Management, 3rd Edition, Austen Press / Irwin, Illinois.

Assessing Macro And Micro Environment Analysis Commerce Essay

Assessing Macro And Micro Environment Analysis Commerce Essay Downturn in national or world economies and rising of inflation which is being experienced current period, are the most common factors that can affect businesses. Conversely, what cause an adverse effect for many companies, has had a constructive effect for Dominos Pizza UK, Ireland, the most leading delievery franchise. Keeping in view the current economic situation Dominos Pizza sales had increased up to 11% in the first six week of 2008 than that of same period of last year, due to, mostly people preferred for delivery at home, instead of going for eat outs, Like-for-like sales rose 14.7% last year, despite a price rise across Dominos menu last autumn. (The Times, 20th February 2008) According to Cheif Executive, The Chris Moore, The results are proof that our price point is resilient in these economic times and that we are benefiting from the downturn in the restaurant sector. Instead of eating out three or four times a week, we are seeing real signs that [people] have cut that to once or twice. They are filling up that gap with pizza instead. (The Times, 20 February 2008) His comments came soon after the company announced plans to move up to the main market in order to obtain funds it has been unable to attract in the nine years it has spent on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). Dominos shares have climbed 14-fold since the company floated in November 1999 and the group now has 501 sites across the UK and Ireland, with plans to open 50 more this year. Its aim is to have 1,000 by 2017. (The Times, 20th February 2008). Dominos said, sales had been enhanced, due to these new pizzas, like wise, Meateor and the rugby-themed Scrummy, and by offering new ways of ordering, like wise e-commerce salesorders taken electronically either online or through text messages, due to which sales have been intensified to 60.5%. According to Dominos prediction, the drift for ordering-in food would continue this year. At present the external environment shifting rapidly. The external environment consists of everything outside the business. Even in the present crtical economical situation, dominos continues to succeed which is due to dominos remorseless emphasis on the quality of dominos pizzas, penetrating commitment to service and by publicizing to dominos customers to whenever and wherever they are willing to order. It is their frevency that has brought profit growth of 27.8% to  £29.9m (2008:  £23.4m) and that will persists to get-up-and-go dominos business in years to come. PEST ( Political, Economic, Social and Technological) i. POLITICAL ISSUES: Political issues include regulatory frame work operating in judicial system which may distress the business in diverse ways. In UK, there isnt as such factors that might embrace dominos business. While factors like, laws on business employment, pollution and taxation apply on the organization which it should follow according to rules. ii. ECONOMIC FACTORS: If the countys economy is better so the GDP of the country will be good, it is the initiative for business as the per capita income increases people will spend more money. According to dominos survey, it came to know that mostly people spend more and visit more often, during or start in on of months. Moreover, rise in inflation rate, leads to increment of cost of raw material which also leads towards higher prices for goods and vice versa iii. SOCIAL FACTORS: Dominos is a multinational and it is basically inaugurated from America, therefore, the organization is snowed under by dominos western culture. There are different social forms of society which consists of, upper class, middle class, middle upper class, and lower class. Moreover, every single nation, state has their own cultural norms, beliefs, religion, values which might affect the organization world wide. iv. TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS: At the present time, technology is improving, so as baking and heating ovens will be of new and efficient technology and will provide efficient service. Due to these innovative technology there are many latest ways of publicizing like wise, through internet; telemarketing through which organization can advertise their products in much more rapidly than ever before. Computer based customer data that is MIS (managing information system) helps in collecting customer data, daily transactions, future forecasting and decision making. New vehicles will make their service more efficient. SWOT Analysis: Every organization has its own strengths and weaknesses as well as threats and opportunities, As far as dominos swot is concerned its swot analysis is as under. Strengths: Currently Dominos is the market leader in providing wide range of pizzas, in a manner that there are no competitor in this sector. There admireble image has made the organization more worthfull. Moreover, Dominos is render pleasing taste, quality products with qualified staff, splendid ambience and hygienic surroundings. They are specialized in pizzas. Moreover Motivation level of staff is very high which make the organization more prosperous. They are ISO (International Standard Organization) certified. They have equipped with plenty of resources for operating different activities of the organization. They are providing free home delivery service. They have created monopoly in this sector. Another big Strength and even a Competitive Advantageis the fact that they have a full service restaurant as well as delivery services. Most of dominos competitors do not have restaurants. Because of the restaurant, Dominos can market too many different segments that other pizza chains cannot. For example, Dominos can market to families much easier than Dominos or Little Caesars. Dominos weaknesses: The fact that Dominos does have a restaurant to run is also a weakness. Dominos has higher overhead costs, due to the restaurant that other competitors dont have to deal with. Another result of higher overhead costs is higher prices Dominos must charge. Obviously, Dominos is not the low cost producer. They rely on their quality pizza and good service to account for their higher prices. They are providing less range of products comparatively with high prices. They are more focused on western taste instead of Eastern. Very few outlets have dine-in facilities The menu is limited and pricey, and there are very few budget items on the menu. Opportunities: New markets can be explored and new opportunities they can gain. Dominos can come up with the new products considering the Eastern taste of the people as like McDonalds. Diversification of new products can increase their market share. They can reduce their prices because of more dominos. Threats: Dominos number one threats are from their competitors. Currently, their closest competitor is pizza hut who is working to open their Branch rapidly. Dominos main competitive advantage over Pizza hut is their Lower price. Evaluate dominos company strategies with other different companies: Dominos has succeeded in expanding over continents and observed spectacular achievements, but in efforts to develop globally it has not been able to manage the domestic market with full efficiency and as a result, is losing grounds in the domestic market. Dominos has raised the standards of pizza industry to great heights, but in current economic situation, rising commodity prices and decrease in peoples purchasing power, it is struggling to balance between profitability and maintaining its standards. The increasing competition in the fast food industry adds to its array of challenges. A critical factor in Pizza Huts success has been a menu that has constantly evolved and expanded to cater to the changing needs and specific preferences of customers in different parts of the world. In having understood the pulse of the customers, Pizza Hut has clearly established itself as a brand with a Britain heart and Dominos need to learn that. Benchmarking: For many years as a private company, Dominos really benchmarked against itself, without looking at the outside world. We were proud of the fact that for many years we had positive same-store sales, which is a big financial indicator of growth and success in the retail world. Well, that was the good news. The bad news was that during those same years our competitors were growing at a faster rate. Dominos were actually giving up market share. At the same time, dominos were hosting internal celebrations of the fact that against our own internal matrix dominos were doing well. Dominos not only had to look at what had been our past results and reconcile how dominos were performing against that benchmark, but also dominos needed to look at the world around us, look at our competitors, and in many instances, I really wanted us to look at the very best in class. Who is out there doing the best possible job in this particular area of business? Dominos need to find out what their results are and start to hold ourselves accountable for that particular level of performance. Dominos accept mediocrity because dominos can choose a lot of people around us who are just as mediocre as dominos are. I want to find the very, very best, and I want to benchmark against them, and I want to get as good or better. I think if I lead that expectation and I get my team and my organization to embrace it, thats how dominos were going to become world-class performers. Takeaways When an organization is successful, people tend to believe that they can stop improving. But things never stay the same: either you get better, or you get worse. The minute companies become complacent and apathetic is the minute they begin to fail. To have a high-performance organization, you must foster a culture of continuous improvement. Dont accept mediocrity. Instead, look to your competitors, and benchmark yourself against them to achieve world-class performance. Organisation strategy: A businesss strategy is the pattern of decisions and actions that are taken by the business to achieve its goals. A business has a variety of goals and objectives. All businesses need to organize their business activities in order to achieve their business objectives. Running a business involves planning the current as well as future activities. Hence, in order to achieve the business objectives, all business organizations adopt different strategies. Similarly, Dominos has adopted many strategies which help achieve the targets set by the main office to the local store opened at Peshawar. Changes are the external as well as internal environment has led Dominos rethink their past strategies and has therefore designed new strategies after noticing the changes in the environment. These environmental changes are seen through the PEST and SWOT analysis. After considering all the factors Dominos has decided upon the strategies and their current strategies are divided into five main categori es and further have sub-parts. These strategies are: -Functional Strategies: These are strategies designed to improve the efficiency of a businesss operations. They often focus on an area, such as marketing, human resources etc. All business organizations adopt strategies at functional level as once the functional objectives are achieved, corporate objectives become easy. In order to make the functional strategy efficient, Dominos has made all the functional departments co-operate with each other. Effectiveness of international strategy: It reaches geographically dispersed buyers. Dominos vision is focused on Exceptional people on a mission to be the best pizza delivery company in the world! . Dominos is committed to bringing fun and excitement to the lives of dominos customers by delivering delicious pizzas to their doorstep in 30 minutes or less and all its strategies are aimed at fulfilling this commitment towards its large and ever-growing customer base. Its all advertisement are image of core competencies. They also should have a variety of combinations of menu items which a customer can choose so that both the customer and the company can have a win-win situation. The company can have the maximum of the consumer surplus at the same time the consumer might feel that this was the best offer. From the menu card one can see the family size variants and the different pizza combinations in the same one pizza are all the different ways of pricing. The company attains the maximum profit in the meat items, so they give the selection of pizzas slices of different varieties and they are clubbed together to form a single pizza. Once the customer dines / orders @ home, normally discount coupons are given to the customer so that there is an incentive for the customer to order from Dominos . Thus customers are forced to maintain loyalty towards Dominos . Sustaining, building relationships and Exploiting Changing Conditions Over the years dominos has also developed and successfully introduced a range of products especially suited. What has also given dominos a competitive edge is that in addition to an extensive range of internationally renowned pizzas like The Italian, the proprietary Pan Pizza and Stuffed Crust, in the menu offers the option of a complete meal. It includes appetizers, a Salad Bar where the customers can make their own fresh salads, a range of soups, pastas and desserts etc. Dominos should also a community called as VIP- Members joining this club should be at no extra cost one can avail greater offers. Meanwhile Dominos are not behind Pizza Hut in introducing local tradition. Dominos believes strongly in the strategy of Think global and act local. Thus, time and again Dominos Pizza has been innovating with delicious new products such as crusts, toppings suitable to the taste buds of Consumers Firm market entry strategy: Dominos Pizza was able to gain ground by positioning Pizza as a snack and supporting it with its efficient home delivery system. For Dominos direct selling and interactive selling is not needed though they are involved in internet and cable TV promotions. Dominos always search for ways to gain efficiency by replacing one communication with others. The sustainability among communication tools explains why marketing function need to be coordinated. Growth strategies: Pizza hut targeted market defines them as a family product. This is because they dont really directly market their customers. They are target everyone whereas their competitors target a certain gender or age. But pizza hut targets a wide range of customers. This is because they want to make the most money and who blames them. They have many competitors and they are bound to try everything to cope up tops. Their competitors are everywhere. There are just a few that are main competitors and pizza hut will always try to be the best and get the most money by making their products better quality but also cheaper. They try to offer something different with their product. They offer a range of stuffed crusts to try and attract customers. They also do vegetarian options with meet free pizzas and a salad and pasta bar. Not a lot of restaurants offer a salad and a pasta bar. This is another competitive idea to attract or customers. Potential development over 10 to 20 years: senior executives at Dominos are missing a key thought process about change, growth and innovation though. They didnt understand that every product, team, organization and individual goes through a process of birth, growth and decline that is similar to the shape of an elongated S.   You cant avoid this process. At the beginning of every growth curve, you make investments with little or no reward. Its only through squeezing out operational inefficiencies, gaining and or growing market share that companies recover their initial investments and grow the bottom line and pay dividends to their stakeholders. Dominos rested on the part of the S-Curve where the maximum profit are being realized without understanding that decline, death, and decreased profit arent just probable, but are inevitable. Dominos is trying to jump the curve and are at the beginning of a new S-Curve time will tell as to whether they embrace team development and leadership development, which will ultimately determine whether they  grow or die. Appropriate justified recommendation for improvement, development and international : à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Increase varieties in Pizzas. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Focus on location of the outlets. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Increase the quality of Pizzas. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Make good ambiance in outlets. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢Should focus more on marketing itself confidently. Conclusion: Dominos Pizza constantly strives to develop products that suit the tastes of its consumers and hence delighting them. Dominos believes strongly in the strategy of Think global and act local. Thus, time and again Dominos Pizza has been innovating with delicious new products such as crusts, toppings and flavours suitable to the taste buds of Consumers. Further, providing value for money at affordable products to the consumers has been Dominos motto. Initiatives such as Fun Meal and Pizza Mania have been extremely popular with consumers.