Macro factors affecting business strategy Essay

The external environment of a business includes a variety of factors such as competitors, suppliers and regulations that influence major strategic decisions. Scanning and assessing the external environment is a vital part of strategic decision-making in entrepreneurial ventures. This helps small-business managers locate factors that pose opportunities or threats to their businesses. A better understanding of the ramifications of external environmental factors can improve success and survival for small businesses. Strategic Decision-Making In formulating strategic decisions, managers need to consider present and future environmental opportunities and threats. Entrepreneurs develop a basic business idea with a target customer base. Then they proceed to scan the environment for opportunities and threats and analyze the results in the light of company’s resources and strengths. This analysis gives the managers the information to decide on the feasibility of the business idea. Oversight in identifying opportunities or threats can lead to misguided strategic decisions and business failure. Task Environment The task environment of a business includes the components of the environment that the company deals with directly, such as customers, suppliers and competitors. Customers are the central stakeholders in strategic decision-making. Any decision that sidelines the needs of the customers can potentially lead to loss of business. Suppliers provide inputs for the value-creation process of the company. Any lapse in the quality of their products and services can affect the operations of the company and eventually trickle down to the customer. As a result, the management works with suppliers to ensure they provide timely and quality service. Any strategic decision should consider the reaction of competitors. Strategic decisions may strengthen the position of the company in relation to competitors or may leave the company vulnerable to competitor attacks. General Environment The general environment comprises those components of the environment that impact the business indirectly, such as the government, socio-cultural, technological and economic conditions. For example, the company should  comply with taxation, labor market and industry-related regulation. Additionally, technological advances pose new opportunities as well as threats. For example, new online music sharing formats threaten to alter the entire recording industry, and the advent of the Internet made e-commerce a reality. Sources of Innovation The environment holds potential sources of innovation for an entrepreneurial venture. An unexpected success or outside event can indicate a business opportunity. For example, Don Cullen of Transmet Corporation spilled fine aluminum flakes onto the company’s parking lot and later observed that the asphalt did not turn sticky in high temperatures. This discovery led to the idea of producing aluminum chips for roofing. Sales doubled every year since the commercialization of the product.

Restructuring of Sales and Marketing

Restructuring of Sales and Marketing HRM/531 2010 MEMORANDUM To: CEO, Kathy Kudler From: Date:2010 SUBJECT: Restructuring of Sales and Marketing The purpose of this memorandum is to inform the CEO of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler on the restructuring of the sales and marketing team in alignment with the new initiatives the company is striving for. The restructure will consist of five new positions to support the restructure of the sales and marketing departments. I will explain the job descriptions and qualifications of the five new positions. Secondly, I will explain the training program to enhance the skills and qualification of the new and current employees. Thirdly, I will explain methods for evaluating employees and team performance, including a progressive discipline process. Fourth, challenges for team performance will be evaluated using several factors. Fifth, a comprehensive incentive and benefits packages will be addressed. Strategies for managing employees’ career will be offered by promotions and educational opportunities. Lastly, a fair and appropriate compensation plan will be addressed. Job Description and Qualifications The first-level management position leading the sales and marketing team will be a Program Manager. Max James, PM, will research, develop, and implement a new marketing program for Kudler Fine Foods. The position requires him to define problems, develop a research plan, collect relative information, develop findings, scheduling and then take marketing and sales action. The new sales team will have a Marketing/Sales Manager. The manager must be able to identify problems, develop course of actions, analyze the course of actions, make a decision based on the analyzed courses of actions, and implement the decision. He or she will be responsible for planning, organizing, directing, and controlling the personal selling functions. He or she is to manage the marketing resources of Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must maintain a reliable, competent, dependable, and customer oriented department through training, supervising, directing and delegation of responsibilities of four team members. The manager must provide recommendations and feedback to the Program Manager on a bi-weekly basis. A Marketing Analyst will also be needed to support the Marketing and Sales Manager. He or she will be responsible for planning and executing the marketing strategy for products, services or ideas to create and enhance sales for Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must demonstrate the ability to work effectively under pressure and within a collaborative team oriented environment using sound judgment in decision-making. A Marketing Analyst must possess a strong relationship management skill with external and internal customers; He or she must possess excellent communication skills both oral and written and have strong presentation skills with the ability to translate analytics to reports. A bachelor's degree in marketing, mathematics, statistics, a related field or equivalent education required. Two or more years of analytics experience including applying statistical tools and techniques to analyze consumer and market research required. A Marketing Communication Coordinator is another position needed to support the Sales and Marketing Manager. He or she will manage phone book, radio, newspaper, and television advertisement for Kudler Fine Foods. This position requires bachelor's degree with 2 years experience in Marketing Communications environment. A Marketing Communication Coordinator must be able to execute multiple, time-sensitive projects at once for Kudler Fine Foods. He or she must have extensive knowledge of layout, design, print, photography, and website best practices. He or she must have familiarity with budgets and understanding of the importance of budget management. He or she must be proficient with all Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Exceptional communications skills are required. The position also requires maintaining inventory of advertisement products and ensuring adequate supply of brochures and other materials are available upon request. Lastly, the department will need an Implementation Specialist. The specialist will support Kudler’s managers prioritize and launch new products by implementing new plans for upcoming/future years. The position requires excellent written and oral communication skills and presentation skills, including the ability to address a wide range of audiences. He or she must demonstrate success in product launches and history of initiative planning/organizing and implementation accomplishments. He or she must have strong problem solving skills. He or she must have a minimum of 2 years experience with new product implementations or experience in a product support role. The position requires a bachelor's degree in business or marketing. Training Program The five new hired employees all will have some level of marketing and sales experience, but will need to go through training to become familiar with Kudler Fine Foods products, prices, current operation procedure, and organization structure. The training will outline current competitors based on current and previous market analysis. The training program will enhance sales and marketing knowledge in order to facilitate quantifiable achievement. The training will assist the new hired team in their duties and responsibilities as it’s relate to Kudler Fine Foods. The objective of the training to prepare train, support, and guide the new team professionally in accordance with Kudler Fine Foods policies and procedures. Method for Evaluating Employee and Team Performance After much consideration, the method of evaluating employee and team performance will consist of performance appraisals and feedback. Timely feedback is a crucial part of a successful performance appraisal system. The feedback from the performance management program can be used in setting performance goals. The employees will receive an initial appraisal to set the goals and objectives. The employees will receive a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual feedback to measure performance based on his or her responsibilities. The team will receive a performance appraisal each quarter. Employees that do not meet his or her responsibilities will be put on a stringent re-training discipline program. The employee will be affixed with a pre-determined employee who will mentor and assist the employee in the areas he or she is failing. The employee will be re-evaluated after 30 days on his or her performance. â€Å"From an employee’s perspective, lack of regular feedback about performance detracts from his or her quality of work life. Most people want to improve their performance on the job, to receive constructive suggestions regarding areas they need to work on, to be commended for things that they do well. The cost of failure to provide feedback may result in the loss of key professional employees, the continued poor performance standards, and a loss of commitment by all employees. In sum, the myth that employees know how they are doing without adequate feedback from management can be an expensive fantasy† (Casio, 2005). Challenges of Team Performance Evaluation One type of appraisal system to be used by Kudler Fine Foods is the individual appraisal system. The system is designed to set goals, objectives, measure, and provide feedback. The individual appraisal system is to reward, and recognize the performance of an employee. The other type of appraisal is a team appraisal system. The team appraisal system is designed to allow the team to be evaluated as a group or whole. It becomes difficult to measure the team performance based on job description that may not apply to each member of the team. When designing a team appraisal system, the evaluation must be based on a measurable standard established for the entire team. The appraisal system must also be developed in a manner that offers a specific standard of performance for the entire team that can be applied to each member of the team individually. The individual evaluation to achieve a team goal makes a team appraisal system unique in itself. The motivation and expectation is clearly defined as such; employees need to feel valued in their position; an employee will consider that he or she is treated fairly if he or she perceives the ratio of his or her input to his or her outcomes to be equivalent to those around them. Thus, all else being equal, it would be acceptable for a more senior colleague to receive higher compensation, since the value of his experience (an input) is higher. The way people base their experience with satisfaction for their job is to make comparisons with themselves to the people they work with (Wikipedia, 2010). Expectations by employees from management are an important part of a team success. The team needs to know what, when, where, and how the task or goal should be accomplished or completed. By knowing the expectations will motivate the team and the individual employees to work hard at accomplishing the task. Some key expectations that are set in place are attendance, quality of work, teamwork, priorities, and individual work performance required. The goal is to balance team equity. If team equity is balanced, it motivates the employees to compete and work harder to do quality work. If equity is not balanced, employees will not be motivated to do their best work. When employees fail to do their best work, the company suffers tremendously from this effect. If pay levels of team members are unknown to one another, then individual equity would have no impact on team performance because individuals would only assume what others make. If a team member feels he or she is not rewarded properly or acknowledge for his or her input and stress or disappointment could impact the performance of the team or group. In order for Kudler to prevent loafing in the team setting, individuals will be assessed on all levels, as a team and an individual, which will help to ensure individual contribution. According to (Cascio, 2005), the two steps to take in order to prevent â€Å"free riding†, are to conduct individual performance evaluations and to encourage individuals’ behavior and skills that contribute to team performance. For a team to succeed, team members should either have different roles and or possess different skills to support the team. Different skills must be required to achieve goals of the team, (Clark, 2010). Individual employees shall be held accountable for contributions to the team effort. Individual employees shall help other members of the team believe their effort is important to the team success. Lastly, individual employees shall make members of the team fell each of his or her job is of equal valuable and important. Incentives and Benefits Packages Kudler Fine Foods Compensation Plan is established to attract qualified employees, to retain employees, and to motivate employees to direct their efforts towards achieving the goals assigned by the company. The five new employees will be on salary plan. A pay band will be established for each position title. The salary will be based on education and experience. To maximize the effectiveness of the compensation plan, Kudler Fine food will provide employees with benefit packages that include: Retirement Savings Plan 401(k), health insurance, vision care, dental care, life insurance, one week paid vacation, paid holidays. â€Å"While money is a powerful tool used to capture the minds and hearts of workers and maximize their productivity, don’t underestimate the impact of non-financial rewards† (Casio, 2005). Strategies for Managing Employees’ Career Development At Kudler Fine Foods employees are their greatest asset. The structure of the positions allows for career growth of all employees of the sales and marketing department. Managers must annually conduct an individual career development plan for its employees. The plan will identify tools necessary to help an employee develop knowledge and skills needed for his or her current position as well as future job opportunities. Managers will support requests for flexible work schedules for its employees. Each employee will receive a development plan during its initial job orientation/counseling and periodic reviews throughout the year. Feedback will be given semi-annual and one year performance appraisal. A Fair and Appropriate Compensation Plan Employees within the sales and marketing department are diverse in gender, culture, sex, ethnicity, age and much more. Diversity within the workplace affects directly the performance and results of the organization, thus, it is important to acknowledge people’s differences and recognize these differences as valuable assets to the company; it enhances good management practices by preventing discrimination and promoting acceptance inclusiveness. Thanks. References Cascio, W. , (2005). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, (7th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill, Ch 9 Cascio, W. , (2005). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits, (7th ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill, Ch 11 Clark, R. (2010). Research-Tested Team Motivation Strategies. Retrieved March 28, 2010, from http://www. cogtech. usc. edu/publications/clark_team_motivation. pdf Wikipedia, (2010). Motivation and Expectation. Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Special%3ASearch=motivation+and+expectat ion=Search

Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Annotated Bibliography Example Notable discipline problems recorded in the article include but not limited to bullying, violence, vandalism and disruptive classroom behaviour. Such problems have been identified for creating unsafe academic environment, posing threats to entire population in the learning environment. As such the authors have emphasised on the need of reinforcing positive behaviour among the students to curb antisocial and indecent behaviour. This article is intended for instructors engaged in educating students. This article is highly important because it exposes school stakeholders to a new form of behaviour intervention strategy particularly Web-Based Behaviour Intervention. This piece of literature describes the rate at which the Web-based intervention is growing with respect to behavioural change. A review of the methodological issues pertinent to successful implementation of web based behavioural intervention has been widely covered by the authors. For instance the author covered methodological issues associated with the engagement, recruitment and social validity of the participants. The authors insist on appreciating the value of web based intervention from a broader perspective of behavioural change research. As such the authors suggested that web based needs to be applied in the public health to assist in dealing with behavioural disorders among adolescents and children. This article sheds light on the effectiveness of effective classroom management especially instruction strategies applied by teachers in influencing the behaviour of students to attain positive results. According to the authors, the ability of teachers to attain positive academic results relies heavily on their ability to organize classrooms and effectively manage student behaviour. The article also emphasises on the ability of the new teachers to remain in their career for long taking into consideration that resilience in teaching career is highly influenced by

SWOT Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

SWOT Analysis - Essay Example Valley National Bank (VNB), as one of the leading regional banks, offers better opportunities for professionals in banking for building their career. In the context of opportunities available in Valley National Bank, there are diverse job opportunities such as Benefit Specialists, Branch Sales Manager, Consumer Loans Quality Analyst, Loan Review Manager, Secondary Marketing Manager and Senior Attorney. Valley National Bank presently employs over 56 staff members in a variety of positions. The bank also provides salaries and package benefits to permanent employees. It can also be observed that Valley National Bank provides certain permanent and wide ranging employment positions. Valley National Bank is considered as one of the recognized leaders in financial services due to its outstanding performances, enhanced customer services and diversified products. The bank offers wide ranging products having an asset of over US$16 billion and 211 branches along with a diverse set of customers. There are different benefits offered by the bank in the sector of health and welfare. Moreover, Valley National Bank provides high priority on customer offering services through commercial and wealth management (CareerBuilder, LLC, â€Å"Overview†). ... An association with the bank in a wide range of functionalities and positions would help an individual to growth his/her future by a considerable extent (CareerBuilder LLC, â€Å"Overview†) With these considerations, the paper intends to prepare a SWOT analysis of the organization and comprehend the prevailing employment opportunities for an individual within the premises. SWOT ANALYSIS OF VALLEY NATIONAL BANK Valley National Bank is an association of banking that has been chartered in 1927, within the laws incorporated in the United States. It is headquartered in New Jersey. The bank is operating in around 198 full service offices all over central and northern along with central part of New Jersey and city of New York in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The bank facilitates a variety of commercial, retail and wealth management services. Other services that are offered by the bank are internet banking, telephones, automatic teller machines facilities of safe and night deposits, letter of credit, foreign exchange and foreign banking account maintenance. The bank provides various affluent services to the customers for 24 hours in a day and for 7 days in a week (Form 10-K, â€Å"Business†) With regard to strengths of the organization i.e. Valley National Bank, it can be stated that the staff and managers in the organization are skillful and the operational activities are handled according to the guidelines of the organization. The managerial skills that are persuaded by management facilitate in maintaining efficiency in the activities performed in the bank. Moreover, it can be observed that the employees who are employed in the bank possess a great learning experience as valuable

Cosmopolitanism Must Be Left as an Individual Choice Essay

Cosmopolitanism Must Be Left as an Individual Choice - Essay Example New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Los Angeles as well as London are basic examples of "cosmopolitanized" cities around the globe embracing an eclectic mix of people with various cultures and traditions in a seemingly harmonious way. But this does not mean that there are no concerns being raised. In fact, elsewhere, discrimination still permeates even in highly cosmopolitan cities like New York where "cosmopolitan" lifestyle has been a trademark as against "other" cities. There exists a stark idiosyncrasy on perception of being a "cosmopolitan". Either one has embraced and integrated the word to one's own lifestyle or "tolerate" the existence of this culture, if it may be considered as such. The United States, for one, in trying to protect and allow all the Constitutional privileges of its citizens, which at present vary in their "origin" or nationalities has its scholars and thinkers argue on which must come first: the individual which is associated with liberal rights, or the group which also exercises their rights to organize as provided for by their liberal rights. Barry (2002) aptly argued in his "Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of Multiculturalism" book that "What we might find out by experience is that institutionalizing group representation offers opportunities and incentives for political entrepreneurs to whip up intragroup solidarity and intergroup hostility in the pursuit of power. And indeed this has happened all over the world virtually every time group representation has been introduced." Backed with empirical case studies as well as theories that made his presentation and argument not only convincing but powerful, his insights explored in depth religious and educational issues such as the case of Sikhs in Britain, Amish, and Quebec separatism. Without neglecting the rights of the members of minority groups, he calls to attention the reader to the concept of universal rights as "(universal) rules define a choice set which is the same for everybody; within that choice set people pick a particular course of action by deciding what is best calculated to satisfy their underlying preferences for outcomes uniform rules create identical choice sets, then opportunities are equal," (Barry, 2002). This goes to say that individual rights come first before group or collective choices. He implied that "rule and exception" approaches to public policy must encompass a universality that is applied equally among all citizens to remove the danger of protectionism and that the best way to help the least advantaged is by avoiding politics of difference and guaranteeing the full benefits of citizenship. Barry went on to add that "within a liberal state all groups are free to deploy their energies and recourses in pursuit of culturally derived objectives on the same terms." Likewise, The Wilson Quarterly (1995) quoted Dr. Samuel Johnson, who famously said "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Liberals were hailed to have gone further by embracing "all humankind " scoring on patriotic pride as "both morally dangerous and, ultimately subversive of

Analysis the case Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Analysis the case - Assignment Example Getting new workers requires the company to advertise for positions, interview candidates and also train successful candidates in the business of the organization. It would be less costly to the organization if a manager talked to the incumbent workers about what deliverables the company expects and how to improve their performance to meet the targets. Shaer explains that reprimanding employees regarding their performance may erode their morale and ego (27). Managers must thus navigate these scenarios in a professional manner. Counselling is one of the ways that managers can â€Å"fix† underperforming workers. However, they have to consider several issues so as to maintain the integrity of the results of the exercise. While counselling workers, managers must assure employees that they are an important part of the organization and that their performance is acceptable. The point means that managers should approach the issue as a mere act of enabling an employee reach the optimal performance to avoid demoralizing workers. Managers must be willing to go extra miles to ensure that employees benefit from counselling (28). They must also offer support and understanding as the employees try to adjust to the changes. The workers need to know the importance of the exercise and an assurance of support in the process. The managers should explain to the employee the nature of the exercise, the areas they need to improve, and the period that they are required to make the changes. The workers need to understand the consequences of not adapting to the new conditions. All these aspects must be outlined with absolute clarity (27). Acceptance with a â€Å"but† is a common response. Employees admit that they may not be performing in one area, but claim to contribute more in other sectors in the organization (Shaer 23). The claims are often unsubstantiated and may not be measurable. Thus, they cannot be used to show the performance of

MacDonald's and Its Critics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

MacDonald's and Its Critics - Essay Example The company implemented various promotional planning in order to increase competency of the company (McDonald’s Restaurants Limited, 2008). The company is also known as the â€Å"Penny Cost† business. It usually means to control cost and on the other side, to increase sales. McDonald’s implementation of penny cost in their marketing strategies helped increasing the sales and profitability of the company. Presently, the company is dealing with 30,000 restaurants all over the world (McDonald’s, 2011). The main aim of this paper is to recognize the competitive advantages attained by McDonald’s through the implementation of effectives strategies related to marketing, human resource as well as other organizational aspects. The discussion of the paper further emphasize on the evaluation of sustainable growth, profitability and the rapid growth achieved by the company through its performance over the past years. The Key Strategic Decision of McDonaldâ€⠄¢s Establishment of Competitive Advantages To gain competitive advantages, McDonald’s has implemented various strategic decisions into practice. Competitive advantages are known as the reward gained over the competitors by contributing towards customer values and perceptions along with other fundamental aspects of business management. Competitive advantages tend to mark the performance level of a firm in a highly competitive market that can be gained through the generic strategies as proposed by Michael Porter, i.e. cost leadership, differentiation and focus (Porter, 1998). McDonald’s adopted the theory of expansion to offer customers with highly efficient services. Their main target was to attain customer satisfaction and also attain competency through expansion. McDonald’s executed various strategies in order to expand the business and attain sustainable growth through competitive advantages. In 1940s Ray Kroc started the business with milk shakes and few oth er items. In 1968, when Mr. Turner was the president of the company, he implemented changes in its organizational structure. Regional offices were established, in different countries and market regions. At that time quality control was not quite significant in the fast food industry, but McDonald’s implemented the quality control strategies which assist to improve the company’s brand image (Bartone & Wells, 2009). McDonald’s provided high quality services to its customers and planned the business structure in a systematic order and attractive manner. McDonald’s implemented strategic alliances which majorly intended differentiating the products, increasing the sales along with the profit. McDonald’s also introduced â€Å"happy meal† chart, which included new recipes. The execution of this procedure attracted new customers. The company also focused on increasing its sales with an addition of 1,200 restaurants in its worldwide chain (Bartone & Wells, 2009). All these factors, such as expansion of target market area, customer base and increase in the customer satisfaction along with increased sales rewarded the company with greater competitive advantages. Sustainable Growth McDonald’s implemented strategic plan such as differentiation, and quality control. This assisted the company to gain competency and long term profitability in the market. McDonald’s executed differentiation of the products, as these strategies were expected to help gaining higher profit along with increasing

Literary Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Literary Analysis - Essay Example The two passages that I have selected to highlight the two forms of writing include passage four and ten. Therefore, from both passages, I have highlighted the incidences where the form of mystery and suspense is evident. The first incidence is when Mr. Oke character of shyness from the way she behaves in front of his wife. For instance, he could not talk properly in the presence of his wife but in the absence of his wife he was a fluent speaker. Nature defines that a man in a family should act as the head. It is contrary to Mr. Oke could not express the manhood in front of his wife. On the other hand, Mrs. Oke is so superstitious that she is completely obsessed with a ghostly tale that encompasses her family and ancestors. She often told stories about her ancestors who are long dead. The stories about her long ago dead ancestor bring the sense of mystery as to how her ancestor’s situation of love could reflect her. Additionally, it is mysterious to see that the same Lovelock that her ancestors went through is the same position she was facing. She tells her stories in a queer way that culminates to give an unusual atmosphere. The reasons for cherishing such stories are not highlighted giving a sense of mystery. Close relations between Mrs. Oke and her past is, therefore, evident, and it’s mysterious how she remembers the ancestral stories so vividly (Lee 130). The two passages are related because both are explaining the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Oke is also very mysterious. Unlike the expected husband wife relationship, Mr. Oke is full of inferiority complex before her wife. He looks lowly and do not fully take the role of the husbandry. Oke inferiority complex before her wife made Mrs. Oke ever happy throughout the book while her husband remained ill and felt unease whenever his wife was present. Therefore, he started planning to kill her wife because of the strain in their relationship. Their relationship ends up according to the old

Brand Management Assignment2 Managing Price Discounting and its Essay

Brand Management Assignment2 Managing Price Discounting and its possible impact on Brand Equity - Essay Example Price is the ingredient of the marketing mix that has been subjected to the most intensive analysis -- particularly by economists. But as an aspect of the mix, it cannot be divorced from other ingredients. It must incorporate and reflect them. Optimal prices cannot be established, and pricing remains an art with a host of factors to be evaluated for which there are no precise measures and weights. Price discounting is the main strategy used by managers to attract customers and popularize a product. Consumers do not respond to price discount alone; they respond to value. A lower price does not necessarily mean expanded sales. Moreover, marketing activities influence price. For example, governmental agencies have investigated advertising as a cause of higher prices. In microeconomic theory it has received great attention; in marketing, the significance of price varies among industries, competitive situations, and products (Baker, 2006). Pricing is significant where the market impact, profit results, or both, of price variations is great, and where firms have considerable discretion over the prices charged. In many instances pricing decisions are severely constrained and are sometimes relatively unimportant. Large purchasers of industrial goods, for instance, may specify prices at which they will buy, determine product specifications, and send specifications to suppliers for co mpetitive bids (Philips, 2005). For other products price may not be a relevant factor. In some technical areas where products require much research and development and involve much uncertainty, a cost-plus scheme may be used. In other situations, sellers may be almost completely free to set prices, while in still others, they may only be able to decide whether or not to sell at a price. In an economy of scarcity, price is accorded more attention than any other marketing factor. In an economy of abundance, non-price factors assume increasing marketing importance and products are differentiated on other bases than price (Marn et al 2004). Price Discounts and Marketing Objectives The main considerations for pricing discounts decisions involve market objectives and organizational considerations, costs and marketing mix strategies. Also, it is important to take into account market demands and psychographic characteristics of the target audience, competitors' prices and market position of the company. Pricing is a sensitive and complex decision area affecting sales, costs, and profits for both industrial and consumer goods. For consumers, price reductions and increases have symbolic meanings. A customer may associate a price reduction with a reduction in quality, the anticipation of new models, or even lower prices or poor market acceptance (Philips, 2005). Higher prices may indicate better quality, a good image, and good value. Customer perceptions of price are important. Whereas pricing is usually perceived as a short-run action, its implications can be long-run, even to the point of shaping industry structures. Markets that may be viewed as systems of informa tion on cost and demand determine the appropriateness of prices (Marn et al 2004). They contain signals that businessmen must decode. But market information is ambiguous, fragmentary, and imperfect; it contains much uncertainty and is interpreted differently by various executives. To those who can read the signals properly, increased

Video game developer Essay Example for Free

Video game developer Essay Given the current pressures from competitors and substitutes, what should Nintendo do? (last Student ID digits = 0 – 3) Nowadays, electronic game industry has three dimensions: traditional video game console sector, PC and online game sector, and new emerged smartphone game sector. Historically, Nintendo was the leader in traditional video game console sector with highest profit margin than its competitive peers, Sony and Microsoft. As the technology developing, however, the whole electronic game industry is at a turning point. The difference among three sectors will become vaguer and vaguer. As Sony and Microsoft caught up the profit margin and smartphone sector emerged, Nintendo is on the cliff of revolution. Given the current pressures from competitors and substitutes, Nintendo should revolute follow: * Protect current customer base by keeping on positioning wider age range game player (i. e. from teenager to senor generation). * Overcome its graphic obstacle by building up alliance with graphic chip makers, such as NVidia. * Enhance its leadership in video game sector by keeping on investing in motion sensor game technology. In addition, touch screen might be a good complement. Next generation game will have more and more motion sensor elements, Nintendo must stand on the edge of this trend. * Construct game download platform website for game programmer and persuade them to sell their products on the website (i. e. mimic smartphone game sector to save cost for both Nintendo games suppliers and customers). * Change its customers shopping habit and provide game trails on the game download platform website. * Invade online game sector by persuading game programmer sell their game updates or complements on the Nintendo game platform website (i. e. mimic online game sector strategy to capture higher profit margin from updates). * Keep on supporting its royal and reliable game programmers/suppliers by sharing game and game platform website technology while monitoring programmers and suppliers royalty (i. e. keep on monitoring and examining Nintendo and its game suppliers alliance).

Key Standards in Healthcare Informatics

Key Standards in Healthcare Informatics Sion Davoudi In healthcare, interoperability is the ability of different information technology systems and software applications to communicate, exchange data, and use the information that has been exchanged (What is Interoperability?, 2017). This necessary communication between systems can be achieved if consistent standards are used, and both syntactic and semantic meaning of information are defined in clear terms. When standards are consistent and implementable, they not only reduce the risks and timelines of health technologies, but also drive down costs significantly. According to Bender and Satripi (2013), the economic cost benefit of interoperability of healthcare information systems in the USA alone has been estimated at $77.8B (Bender Satripi, 2013). One relatively new standard that has been established seeks to solve these risks and realize these cost saving potentials. FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a next generation framework created by the Health Level Seven International (HL7) organization. It combines the best features of HL7s v2 and v3 product lines while leveraging the latest web standards (Introducing HL7 FHIR, 2017). Although it closely resembles its predecessors, FHIR comes as a huge departure from previous messaging standards such as HL7 v2 and v3. FHIR was developed through an incremental and iterative approach, which allows it to reflect the contemporary standards of medical practice. The development process ensured that FHIR could adequately handle complex systems, with excellent usability that made it fit for use in the current healthcare contexts. Additionally, the system extensively uses open internet sources, making it both cheap and highly adaptable. HL7 v2 on the other hand, was not scalable and did not support jurisdictional information systems (Bender Satripi, 2013). Furthermore, it did not provide any support for any global enterprise identifiers, which made interoperability extremely difficult. The next iteration, HL7 v3 introduced the HL7 Development Framework, and used the Reference Information Model. Although it was considered an improvement over its older counterpart, the stan dard was not directly implementable and required substantial effort to generate executable software systems (Bender Satripi, 2013). FHIR supports both XML and JSON for data representation and sharing. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), XML is a set of rules, guidelines, and conventions for designing text formats for data, in a way that produces files that are easy to generate and read, that are unambiguous, and that avoid common pitfalls, such as lack of extensibility, and platform-dependency (XML in 10 points, 2017). In essence, XML is used when data is required to be share from one system to another. An example of XML code used for identification and definition of a medication is illustrated in Appendix A. Furthermore, for simplification, Appendix B illustrates how text input Hello HINF 6355! would appear in XML. FHIR in general is suitable for many times of data and contexts including mobile phone apps, cloud communications, EHR-based data sharing, and more (Introducing HL7 FHIR, 2017). While FHIR shows great promise to become a widely implemented standard, there are some criticisms of FHIR. Since FHIR creates a resource oriented environment, the implementation of its basic systems is relatively simple. However, constructing collections and interoperability relationships using base resources comes with very little guidance. The standards also use the base CRUD operations, but beyond that, there is little support for dynamic behavior (Bender Satripi, 2013). This may become a huge problem area to ensure interoperability, which is its primary task. Limitations aside, FHIR is gaining momentum and can become a widely implemented standard in coming years. Appendix A Appendix B References Bender, D., Sartipi, K. (2013, June). HL7 FHIR: An Agile and RESTful approach to healthcare information exchange. In Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (pp. 326-331). IEEE. Introducing HL7 FHIR. (2017). HL7.org. Retrieved 13 January 2017, from https://www.hl7.org/fhir/summary.html What is Interoperability?. (2017). HIMSS. Retrieved 13 January 2017, from http://www.himss.org/library/interoperability-standards/what-is-interoperability XML in 10 points. (2017). W3.org. Retrieved 13 January 2017, from https://www.w3.org/XML/1999/XML-in-10-points-19990327