Business

The textbook, Information Technology in Business – Principles, Practices and Opportunities, defines the purpose of information systems as, “An (IT) Information system is a system which data and information flow from one person or department to another. ” (Senn, 1998, p. 643). The books continues with Business Information Systems and identifies these operating systems as, “IT applications that underlie the activities of running and managing a business. ”

This paper will discuss how Mrs. Fields Cookies uses these two interchangeable accessories, will explain how these systems have impacted the roles that the Information Age – those of assistance, adviser, and communicator. In addition, this paper will address how Mrs. Fields can function as an organization using a small-scale ratio of management to employee. “ Debbi Fields, a young mother with no business experience, opened her first cookie store in Palo Alto, California in 1977.

Humble beginnings launched Mrs. Fields into a worldwide celebrity and made her company the premier chain of cookie and baked goods stores. ww. MrsFields. com. In order to become one of the premier chain of cookies and baked good companies, Mrs. Fields could not rely on cookie dough alone. Mrs. Fields, along with her husband, Randy, who just happened to be a computer programmer with IBM, designed and implemented an Information Technology system to serve the vast managerial needs of the organization.

“The system created by Ms. Fields is a Paper-less Management System; this system is currently being used at other franchise operations, including Burger King. Senn, 1998, p. 650). The computer system of Mrs. Fields is extremely streamlined and centralized throughout the company. The system accounts for a large percentage of Mrs. Fields success. “Sales information is immediately processed by the computers and is available for the managers’ use. The system has the ability to track the volume of sales, the amount of cookies that need to be baked, and sales quotas, among other things, so that waste is educed, time is used efficiently, and immediate and future plans can be made by Mrs.

Fields headquarters. ” www. MrsFields. com. The system also has the capabilities of linking in store personal computers, and is made up of 20 software modules – the five most important being: #1) Daily Production Planner, #2) Sales and Reporting Analysis, #3) Labor Scheduler, #4) Interviewing, and #5) Skills Assessment and Computer-aided Instruction The Daily Production Planner is a “to-do-lists” and forecasting system. The system monitors the daily progress and transactions of Ms.

Fields franchise locations and suggests alternative approaches should sales fall below target. The Sales Reporting and Analysis System is a actual to budget comparison, and suggests corrections should the organization fall behind. The Labor Scheduler provides employee work schedules and assists in the minimization of overtime and maximizes schedule alternatives. The Interviewing System provides an unbiased hour interview, which is provided to every applicant of Mrs.

Fields, and The Skills Assessment and Computer Aided Instruction Program, detects employee weaknesses and supports those weaknesses with corrective training. All of this, along with the management techniques of Ms. Fields, supports the success of the organization. The Managers of Mrs. Fields, which currently employees 5,000 employees within 700 stores-and only 130 head-quarter employees, are freed from the constraints of doing paperwork and therefore have more time to manage both the operational efficiency of Mrs. Fields and the employees therein.

The result is a maximum amount of freshly baked cookies with a minimum amount of waste. This proves that companies that use a system, whether the Paper-less Management System or a similar system, can operate in a more flat-lined organization. It also allows companies, such as Mrs. Fields, to have a stronger grasp on the operations of the company. The saying that backs Debbie Fields is, “One Smart Cookie. ” This statement supports this paper and “details how she (Debbi) and her husband (Randy), built their cookie empire. ”

“The funding gap” is always quoted as a major issue for dstart up and developingh small businesses. What evidence is there to support this view and what measures have relevant organisations taken to overcome the problem? Executive Summary This report critically examine concerned with how young small businesses and start up business fund themselves externally. Firstly we look at the funding ga,p what it is and evidence of its existence. Secondly, how organisations that fund new and small usinesses have done to help this problem and finally a reivew of their usefulness. This is done in a report style

Abbreviation list BOE; Bank of England SME; Meaning small – medium enterprise. For the sake of this report it is taken here to mean both business that are new or business that are still in the developing stage. DTI: Department of Trade and Industry Part 1 SMEs are an important contributro to the economy, defined by the Bank of England as 49 employees or fewer1. In 1997 SMEs accounted for over 40% of the economys turnover and 45% of total employment in the United Kingdom 2 The chart below reveals a b akdown of industry where sme are located including area as well. Source; bvca. co. uk

Starting your own busines rasises many difficulties and raising the capital is just one of them, listed below are the main problems encountered. Throughout history, seeking external funds has remained one of the most difficult. Indeed this is not a ne problem The Macmillian Committee first regcognised the funding issue dubbing it the macmillian Gap in 1931. Today the funding gap can be defined by P Burns & J Dewhurst3 as: “where the funding requirements of a company are greater than those that can be met by the small scale providers of finance, but not substantail enough to be considered by the large equity providers”.

Source; Small Business Finance Report BOE Oct 2000 Evidence of the Funding Gap The funding gap is prevelant with start ups and new firms. Indeed it is often known that is harder to raise 50,000 for a new firm with no history or collertaal than it is to raise 5,000,000 for a established firm. Information asymmetrics is often blamed for creating the funidng gap. This is when the entreprenurer generally holds better information regarding the firms performace than the bank for making decisions. Information asymetrics can lead to two developments.

Firstly, adverse selection, The banks cannot distinguish which new firm has the highest returns relative to the degree of risk, they have trouble adopting the price mechanism to help distingusih be een firms . Secondly, moral harzard, where (in the absence of collertal) use of higher interest rates by banks to offset risk would give firms receiving loans an incentive to alter their behaviour to adopt risker projects. These two reason reveal why it is harder to obtain smaller rather than larger funds. Banks requuire collertal in responce to these problems.

However this often excludes new firms who lack funds despite viable plans. Therefore many fall into the fundi gap. The central hypothesis is that the market is not cleared through the price adjustments because of the asymetry of information between banks and SMEs. So banks have an incentive to respond to an increased demand for loans by rationing credit fur er rather than by raising intereset rates. Also with new start ups having a 50% failure rate4 with the first three years funders can be generally reluctant to fiance such a propsotion. The funding gap questioned.

The BOE report5 however states that there has been a decline in recent years of the funding gap. 1999 saw a trend away from debt reliance as new source of funding appeared. Below is a chart from6 showing the change of funding sources. Source: Bank of England see footnote 6. Empirically their is little evidence for the existence of such market imperfections. However this is only based on partial facts because it is difficult to obtain information on failed start ups . Therefore with information from only surviving firms is not easy to determine the full picture.

From a business perspective, working under government contracts can be a very lucrative proposition. In general, a stream of orders keep coming in, revenue increases and the company grows in the aggregate. The obvious downfalls to working in this manner is both higher quality expected as well as the extensive research and documentation required for government contracts. If a part fails to perform correctly it can cause minor glitches as well as problems that can carry serious repercussions, such as in the National Semiconductor case.

When both the culpable component and company are found, the question arises of how extensive these repercussions should be. Is the company as an entity liable or do you look into individual employees within that company? From an ethical perspective one would have to look at the mitigating factors of both the employees and their superiors along with the role of others in the failure of these components. Next you would have to analyze the final ruling from a corporate perspective and then we must examine the macro issue of corporate responsibility in order toattempt to find a resolution for cases like these.

The first mitigating factor involved in the National Semiconductor case is the uncertainty, on the part of the employees, on the duties that they were assigned. It is plausible that during the testing procedure, an employee couldnt distinguish which parts they were to test under government standards and commercial standards. In some cases they might have even been misinformed on the final consumers of the products that they tested. In fact, ignorance on the part of the employees would fully excuse them from any moral responsibility for any damage that may result from their work.

Whether it is decided that an employees is fully excused, or is given some moral responsibility, would have to be looked at on an individual basis. The second mitigating factor is the duress or threats that an employee might suffer if they do not follow through with their assignment. After the bogus testing was completed in the National Semiconductor labs, the documentation department also had to falsify documents stating that the parts had surpassed the governmental testing standards. From a legal and ethical standpoint, both the testers and the writers of the reports were merely acting as agents on direct orders from a superior.

This was also the case when the plant in Singapore refused to falsify the documents and were later falsified by the employees at the have California plant before being submitted to the approval committees (Velazquez, 53). The writers of the reports were well aware of the situation yet they acted in this manner on theinstruction of a supervisor. Acting in an ethical manner becomes asecondary priority in this type of environment. As stated by Alan Reder, . . . if they [the employees] feel they will suffer retribution, if they report a problem, they arent too likely to open their mouths. 13). The workers knew that if the reports were not falsified they would come under questioning and perhaps their employment would go into jeopardy. Although working under these conditions does not fully excuse an employees from moral fault, it does start the divulging process for determining the order of the chain of command of superiors and it helps to narrow down the person or department that issued the original request for the unethical acts. The third mitigating factor is one that perhaps encompasses the majority of the employees in the National Semiconductor case.

We have to balance the direct involvement that each employee had with the defective parts. Thus, it has to be made clear that many of the employees did not have a direct duty with the testing departments or with the parts that eventually failed. Even employees, or sub-contractors, that were directly involved with the production were not aware of the incompetence on the part of the testing department. For example, the electrical engineer that designed the defective computer chip could act in good faith that it would be tested to ensure that it did indeed meet the required government endurance tests.

Also, for the employees that handled the part after the testing process, they were dealing with what they believed to be a component that met every governmental standard. If it was not tested properly, and did eventually fail, isnt the testing department more morally responsible than the designer or the assembly line worker that was in charge of installing the chip? Plus, in large corporations there may be several testing departments and is some cases one may be held more responsible than another depending on their involvement.

A process like this can serve the dual purpose of finding irresponsible employees as well as those that are morally excused. The fourth mitigating factor in cases of this nature is the gauging of the seriousness of the fault or error caused by this product. Since National Semiconductor was repeatedly being reinstated to the listed of approved government contractors, one can safely assume that the level of seriousness, in the opinion of For the contractor approval committees, is not of monumental importance.

Yet one has to wonder how this case would have been different if the lack of testing did cause the loss of life in either a domestic or foreign military setting. Perhaps the repercussions would have come faster much more stringent. The fact that National Semiconductor did not cause a death does not make them a safe company. They are still to be held responsible for any errors that their products cause, no matter the magnitude.

Business Policy and Strategy: An Action Guide, by Robert Murdick, R. Carl Moor and Richard H. Eckhouse, attempts to tie together the broad policies and interrelationships that exist among the many functional areas which undergraduate students typically study. The authors intend the text to supplement the typical case book and/or computer simulations used in teaching business strategy (ix). Situational analysis is presented, as is a structure for developing strategy.

Practicality and real world experience is combined with educational theory to provide as complete a picture as possible of strategy in business. The authors have divided the text into 15 chapters with no further subdivisions. It is possible, however, to group the chapters into specific areas of study. For example, the first chapter, “Business Failure — Business Success,” examines why businesses fail, and provides the reason for continuing with the remainder of the text. The next two chapters focus on the “field of action,” including the business environment and the business system.

The fourth and fifth chapters introduce strategic management (chapter 4) and the struggle not only to survive, but to prosper using strategic management (chapter 5). Chapters Six through Nine address specific functional areas (marketing, accounting/finance, production, and engineering/research and development). Chapters 10 and 11 introduce the reader to the problems of managing human resources (chapter 10) and data processing resources (chapter 11). The last four chapters discuss the issues involved with analyzing business situations.

Multinational business analysis is the subject of chapter 12, while chapter 13 turns the reader’s attention to how to conduct an industry study. Chapters 14 and 15 focus on how to analyze a case and illustrations of case analysis, respectively. The text concludes with an appendix of symbols used by those who evaluate reports and a general index to topics within the book. The authors make good and frequent use of charts, graphs, forms and other graphic techniques to illustrate their points.

Each chapter concludes with a selected bibliography that the student may use for additional research. The book is printed entirely in black ink; the use of color for key concepts would have enhanced the book’s value as a teaching text. Visually, the book is crowded without much white space for readers to make notes. Key concepts could also have been separated from supporting text in a more clear manner. While each chapter has a summary, they do not have an introduction or a listing of key words of concepts that the student should learn as a result of studying each chapter.

Such aids would make the book more valuable and enhance the learning experience of readers. Chapter 1 examines why some businesses fail and why others succeed. The first sentence in the book states exactly where the authors stand on the issue: “Businesses fail because managers fail” (1). The authors present a chart that illustrates how businesses large and small can both have “relatively short successful life spans” (1) Reasons for the ultimate failure are presented in this chart, and the authors go into greater detail in the text.

Fundamentally, the authors find that managers in business are unable to determine what action to take, or are unable to implement the necessary action once they have identified it. The reasons for these shortcomings are many, but the authors find that managers may be unable to differentiate between problems and symptoms. To help their readers overcome this problem and successfully manage one or more businesses, Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse identify five points that they address in the remaining 14 chapters. One, they present the field of action in which managers must operate.

Two, they describe common major problems that must be identified and solved in order for firms to prosper. Three, they present a framework for determining a unified sense of direction. Four, they give a brief account of policies and problems in the major functional areas of business. Five, they give detailed case and analysis tools to enhance the reader’s ability to identify complex business problems. Chapter 1 concludes with a list of business failures and their causes of 1987, helping the student to understand the importance of strategic management in the success or failure of a company (4).

In Chapter 2, the authors move to consider the field of action, or the arena in which business executives and businesses operate. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on this field of action, with chapter 2 looking at the environment of the business system. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse suggest that a business has seven groups of stakeholders, each of which provides some level of legitimacy to the organization: customers, shareholders, general public, suppliers, competitors, governments and special interest groups (5). It is important that the business act in a manner that is morally responsible toward these groups.

However, any one of these groups may be powerful enough to force a business to close, or to support its operation even during general business downturns. Because this field of action is dynamic, it is up to the managers of individual organizations to determine the proper level of responsibility toward each of these groups of stakeholders. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse also suggest that monitoring and forecasting the business environment is vital to the success of a business. The authors divide the environment into two distinct parts: remote and immediate.

The remote environment consists of such aspects as: global economics, political factors, social and demographic features, technology and physical resources. The immediate environment comprises such areas as: customers and prospects, competitors, the labor pool, suppliers, creditors and government agencies (7). To those business managers who are of the opinion that they cannot forecast the future because they have problems in the present, the authors counter that by being mindful of what the future may hold, the managers can minimize their problems in the present.

This chapter concludes with a discussion of opportunities and threats. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse suggest that opportunities, like the environment itself, can be divided into immediate and long-term for the purpose of analysis. Immediate opportunities include new applications of existing products, new processes in manufacturing, and new and improved customer service (8). Threats that pose immediate problems may also pose extremely fragile environmental situations. Avoiding environmental threats requires long-term planning and anticipation of potential problems.

Environmental threats may include competitors, changes in customer demand, legislation, inflation, recession and technological breakthroughs. In addition to opportunities and threats, which help managers attain long-term and short-term business success, managers must also be aware of constraints. Constraints may require careful and thoughtful analysis in order to realize their full implications. Legal constraints are often obvious, but political constraints may be nebulous.

Some constraints to growth are identified by Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse as lack of natural resources, declining productivity and deteriorating transportation systems (13). In chapter 3, the authors turn their attention to the business system, which is the second field of action. Here, they suggest that the historically popular approach of studying functional areas separately without understanding their interrelationships proved short-sighted and the source of many business problems, and some spectacular failures.

The discussion of the business system begins with the identification of general management. General managers are identified as individuals “responsible for a business system” (15). It is the general manager who is responsible for profit and loss and for long-term survival. It is up to the general manager to balance conflicting objectives of subsystems, differing value systems of internal and external influences, opposing views of priorities and emphasis and conflicting proposals for criteria in all areas.

The general manager develops the concept of the enterprise, guides the development of a set of visions, goals, values and policies, and conducts the strategic management tasks of renewal and growth (16). Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse suggest that organization provides the structure of the business system. Some organizational aspects are dictated by law; sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited partnerships, corporations and joint-ventures are examples of these. While these are the legal forms of organization a business may have, the law does not dictate which form is appropriate for a given business.

Determining the legal type of organization requires careful analysis. As businesses change and strategies are modified, managers must be willing to undertake changes in the legal organization, as well, in order to maintain the most competitive and advantageous organizational structure. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse identify small firms as those that are guided by a single individual, or by two partners. Imposing the tight, formal structure of medium and large companies on small companies can be death for the smaller firm, according to the authors (18).

Instead, small companies work best with loose organizational structures that allow for maximum creativity. While managers of small firms that are growing into medium-sized firms are well advised to avoid hiring managers from other medium-sized firms, and instead, seek to teach the individuals who are already associated with the company the skills they will need in the now-larger organization. In all cases, the goal is to keep the owner-manager occupied in the areas in which the company benefits the most from his expertise.

This may mean delegating some responsibilities in order to allow the owner-manager time to focus on strategic planning. Turning their attention to medium-sized firms, Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse first acknowledge that there are no clear-cut rules for differentiating between medium and large companies, except through examining assets, sales, equity and number of employees. They suggest that medium-sized firms can be differentiated from some companies in that medium-sized companies require a functional manager for each functional area.

Small companies may have one manager for several functional areas. Full-time specialists, such as lawyers or treasurer, may also be found in medium-sized firms, but not in small ones. Medium-sized companies are best served by “flat” organizational charts; that is, few hierarchical levels, with functional managers reporting directly to the president. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse recommend a span of management of at least six people without crossover responsibilities (22-23). Large companies usually have complex organizational structures that may have any one of several hundred forms.

Large companies are characterized by “staff” and “line” personnel, with staff personnel providing support services to line personnel, who are responsible for the company’s products or services. There are increased layers of management in large companies when compared to medium and small firms, and there are often subdivisions or subsidiaries that are grouped under one large parent organization. Organizations may follow one of the six “pure” forms identified by the authors: people, product, geographic area, process, function or phase of activity (33).

Large companies are likely to combine several of these forms. Organizational policies (as opposed to personnel and staffing policies), identify information such as the principles to be followed in organizing the parts of the company, relationships among major organizational components, guidelines for position titles, functional descriptions of components and spans of management. The authors end this chapter with a discussion of decision problems. Such problems are identified as situations that require action based on executive decision to pursue a given course of action (41)

Chapter 4 formally introduces and explores a concept that has been central in the text so far, but which the authors have not defined until now: strategic management. Murdick, Moor and Eckhouse identify seven major tasks that form the strategic management process: formulation of the philosophy of management, corporate purpose and goals; environmental analysis and forecast, internal analysis of strengths and weaknesses; formulation of strategy; evaluation of strategy; implementation of strategy; and, strategic control (45).

Starting out as a government and research network, the Internet became available to the public in the early 1990’s attracting millions of users. Since then, the Internet has become the largest and most important network. In 1998, the Internet had 100 million users; that number is doubling every year. The Internet has revolutionized the businesses of today. Instead of having physical stores, companies can sell their products right off of the Web.

There are millions of electronic businesses on the Web; some companies have been a huge success and some have been a huge failure. In order for an e-business to survive a company must understand the market in E-Business, the importance of E-Intelligence, understand the failure of other businesses, and develop an E-Readiness plan. Electronic commerce enables companies of all sizes and all market sectors to compete on the same stage. The Web slashes through the barriers of geography and time to reduce a company’s cost.

Terry Hiles, a e-businessman, says, \”With about 550 million potential customers using the Internet by the year 2000 the opportunities for electronic commerce will be massive, If you don’t wake up to what’s happening you’ll lose out to companies you’ve never heard of, based in countries you probably couldn’t pint out on a map, offering products you haven’t even dreamed of yet. How else will you be able to market 10% of the world’s population? \” Besides the vast market, e-commerce has other benefits. With a single virtual storefront instead of physical stores managing and supplying becomes cheaper and easier.

Also setting up a business is inexpensive on the Web. The barriers to enter the market are low; almost anyone can set up an e-business. However, this creates a more competitive market in which companies are forced to fine tune their profit margins and their product supply chains. One way to efficiently optimize product supply chains is to allow business users in external trading partners to tap into the internal closed-loop information supply chain. This reduces cost and increases profit margin by two companies working cooperatively and sharing business information.

Although starting an e-business might seem easy, many fail. Companies must realize the importance of e-intelligence in running their business smoothly. E-intelligence is a system that provides e-business information, applications, and services to internal business users, trading partners, and corporate clients. The system is fast and easy, and it provides companies with vital information on the consumers’ needs. E-intelligence offers a number of business benefits: 1. It moves e-business operations into a traditional business environment.

This provides the means to look at all corporate business operations and business information. 2. It provides accurate and precise business information that helps business users make a knowledgeable decision. Using this information, business users can analyze business performance in respect to competitors. 3. It aids e-business applications in dividing e-business customers to personalize the actual Web pages exposed. 4. It enables organizations to share information with trading partners by extending business intelligence outside of the corporate firewall.

It allows external and internal users to move between different systems by linking e-business applications with business intelligence. A business intelligence system can result in changes to back-office operation. This would include the creation of a new product or changes to product pricing. The output from a business intelligence system can also be used in front-office operations. Information can be used in such activities as marketing. E-intelligence is important in many aspects of running an e-business.

Many things can cause a business to go wrong, but there are ways to avoid a failure. Many failures can be avoided with the correct mix of systems and strategies. To avoid making the mistakes many others have made, it is important to realize where they went wrong. A major part of some businesses’ downfall is caused by the lack of competent back office systems and software to support their company effectively. There are some crucial points that some dot. coms failed to recognize. First, you cannot deliver goods to an e-mail address.

Secondly, a direct sales organization must deliver quickly and efficiently to compete with more reliable companies. Customers are relying on \”self service\” customer service that is faster and more convenient. Web sites can provide customers with a quick and convenient way to shop, but in order to provide a reliable service with repeat business, it is vital that goods are delivered on time. In the real-time environment of on-line direct sales, address management can be particularly effective. Before, companies would waste time and money by dealing with incorrectly filled out order forms.

Now, companies can incorporate an address check into order forms to ensure inaccurate addresses are rejected from the start. One of the hardest steps in turning a Web site into a sales outlet is getting visitors to register. New theories of permission marketing and viral marketing are constantly developing encouraging people to register themselves and friends. However, registration must be fast and easy. The Internet creates an intensely competitive market where organizations need to beadle to react spontaneously to change in the market.

Business plays a major role within our society. It is a creative and competitive activity that continuously contributes to the shaping of our society. By satisfying the needs and wants people cannot satisfy themselves, businesses improve the quality of life for people and create a higher standard of living. It is a way for individuals to provide goods and services to consumers, and at the same time, produce a profit for themselves.

Businesses are not only important because they provide goods and services for consumers, but they also improve the economy and increase jobs for people within society which is an additional fact producing a higher standard of living. To measure our societies standard of living, we must look to our “Gross National Product”, which is the complete measure of our nations output. Unfortunately, inflation is a major problem in our nation which often reduces the Gross National Product. Inflation occurs when the goods become too high within society and spending decreases.

A central function within our economic system is satisfying the needs of the consumers with the use of limited supplies. The purpose of a business is to combine resources such as land, labor, and capital in a way that will make them more valuable. Operating in a political and economic climate that supports individual rights, American business has as its guiding principle the right to private ownership and profit. The amount of goods produced depends upon the number of resources available for use. This idea is commonly known as “Supply and Demand”.

Businesses must attempt to reach an equilibrium between the two which will directly impact the price of the products produced. If something is heavily demanded and at the same time, it’s resources are limited, the price of the product will rise. This idea of course works both ways. The easier it is to produce something, the cheaper it will be. All economic systems begin with the same resources including land, labor, capital and technology. These resources may be limited at any given time, varying within the world at large, from country to country.

This business cycle explains how business fluctuates from high to low prosperity, recession, depression and recovery over time. The major challenges faced by our nation today are the Federal Budget Deficit, international trade deficit, the Decline of Smokestack America, and the conservation of energy. The Federal Budget Deficit occurs when our expenditures are greater then our revenues. International trade deficits occur when a nation imports more then it exports. The Decline of Smokestack America is when there is a change from an industrial to a post-industrial economy.

Finally, the conservation of energy is so that there are a sufficient amount of natural resources necessary to produce goods. General economic growth or stagnation also has an important influence on business within our society. Many factors can affect it’s condition, such as war, new inventions and technology, political assassinations, the discovery of physical and natural resources, labor negotiations, government action, and many others. When the economy is strong and the demand is high, businesses can prosper.

Regardless of how great the economy may become, businesses still must compete with other firms for scarce raw materials and labor. A businesses environment creates many opportunities as well as problems for prospering businesses. The environment determines what a business can do by shaping and channeling its development. Businesses function within an environment by allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital and create profits freely. The supply of money available within a business as well as the economic stability through times of growth and recession have strong effects on businesses.

Not only is the physical environment, including natural resources, pollution and energy as discussed previously, important, but many other aspects within the environment influence business. A business must adapt and overcome consumerism and ecology, and it has a social responsibility to do so. Cultures surrounding businesses also play a major role. A business must adapt to a changing society with age, lifestyle, culture and location. When a business learns to adapt to these changes, it will be profitable for both the business and consumers. Economic systems can be classified into three categories.

These include capitalism, socialism and communism. Pure capitalism is an unrestrained freedom to buy, sell and compete. Private enterprises allow entrepreneurs to run businesses without central government control and can operate within a free market. Capitalism is a system of true private enterprise. Some aspects of capitalism are free choice, private ownership, private profit and free competition. The only drawback of this type of system is that a company can operate with no competition thereby creating a monopoly unfavorable for consumers.

Socialism, on the other hand, is a system where the production and distribution of industries are owned and operated by the government. Officials directly manage some or all of the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, communication and transportation. This system is loosely regulated by the government. Finally, communism replaces the operation of a free market almost entirely. Most of the rights enjoyed within the capitalist system are denied and private ownership is prohibited. Business are controlled by state planners and competition is almost completely eliminated.

Today our economy is made up of a mixed economic system with each one contributing but no one dominating. Communist and socialist systems seem to be adopting many capitalists views and ideas. It is up to you to decide which system you prefer, but the United States’ system of capitalism seems to be working adequately and positively. It is based on the principles of private enterprise and modified capitalism. There are many forms of business within our economic system but they are all arranged in three major categories. These three categories are sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations.

Within a sole proprietorship, one entrepreneur assumes all the risks of the business, but at the same time, keeps all of the profits. In just this one simple sentence we become aware of the obvious fact that along with it’s advantages come many disadvantages. A sole proprietor, on one hand, makes his own decisions and pays only one tax for himself and the business. In addition, setting up a business for a sole proprietor is much simpler under the law compared to the other two types of businesses. However, the sole proprietor has unlimited liability and complete responsibility to the business.

He or she must assume all of the risks and often must contribute from his own savings in order to prosper or just simply exist. A sole proprietor must also bring the natural resources, human resources and capital together by himself in order to run the business and produce goods and services. Because of it’s difficulty to raise funds and grow, sole proprietorships very often suffer from impermanence. A partnership can also start with little difficulty under the law. They have a greater chance of growing and existing because partners can pool their assets, talents, funds and borrowing power.

Similar to sole proprietorships, partnerships also pay only one tax and create a high degree of satisfaction for the partners stemming from them being their own boss. Unfortunately, however, with a partnership comes unlimited liability and personal disagreements between the partners. In addition, because of this single taxation, the personal assets of the partners are frozen which often creates major problems. As a result, partnerships also suffer from impermanence. A corporation, in my opinion, is the best option.

Although filing for a corporation can become expensive and they are heavily regulated by the state, they have the ability to raise large amounts of capital. They have a long term existence, continuing to exist even when one of it’s officers dies or resigns, large investment possibilities, easy withdrawal power and a specialized management making production easier and quicker. Best of all, corporations have limited liability, holding only the corporation itself liable to any debts or obligations and freeing all officers and their personal assets from blame and liability.

Although this may all be true, owners within a corporation, that being the shareholders, must share the total investment and divide all profits made. Because of the generally large number of owners, job satisfaction also decreases along with strong personal motivation. Shareholders have almost no privacy when it comes to their financial affairs. There is a higher taxation for corporations and the shareholders are taxed twice, once for the corporations assets and a second time for personal assets.

The role of the government in authorizing the operations of corporations creates still another disadvantage. They are often expensive to establish and complex to run because they are strictly regulated by the government. More government regulations are applied to corporations then any other form of business ownership. Just simply reporting to the government so that they know all regulations are being followed can be timely and complicated. Strict and detailed records and statements must always be kept for the government as well as for the shareholders of the corporation.

It is obvious, everything that comes with advantages must also come with disadvantages, this is why the type of business ownership that is ight for a person varies, depending on the detailed aspects of each particular business. The advantages and disadvantages must be weighed within each situation. While the main forms of business ownership include the three subsequently discussed, there are many other variations that can be used, depending upon each situation. These include limited partnerships, joint ventures, joint stock companies, cooperatives and franchises. Small business are also widespread in our nation and are growing rapidly.

They provide the most employment to teenagers, immigrants and the elderly, hereby employing a large percentage of the population. This fact is true because small business are more willing to adjust to their employees needs and responsibilities. The services industry is dominated by small businesses which require limited capital in order to establish them and run successfully. They have greater flexibility, provide greater personal attention to consumers, have lower, fixed costs, high innovation and greater motivation. Unfortunately, the failure rate of small businesses is high due to poor management and inadequate financing.

Therefore, small business owners accept many benefits as well as urdens. The benefit of being your own boss and gaining greater work satisfaction is accompanied by the burden of working long hours and dealing with high amounts of stress. However, these burdens are generally a result of many occupations, regardless of whether or not you are your own boss. This is why small businesses are on the rise. There are many aspects that go along with creating a successful business, regardless of it’s size. These include networking, planning, environmental examinations, internal control and resources.

The problem is, however, that it is up to the sole proprietor of the business o bring all of these aspects together in working order which is harder for a small business then it is for a larger business or corporation. However, there are several agencies of the federal government whose primary purpose is to offer support and guidance to small businesses. A major agency among these is the Small Business Administration. Specifically, the Small Business Administration provides guidance in the form of special courses and workshops in management problems and skills.

It publishes information on how to prepare a business plan, start up and operate a business, and helps a business obtain there fair share of overnmental contracts. Of major importance to small business owners is the fact that the Small Business Administration assists sole proprietors in obtaining loans and capital necessary in order to create a business. While they can neither guarantee nor provide these funds, they can be of great assistance. People obtaining small businesses through franchising have a much higher success rates, for obvious reasons.

They are a good choice in order to avoid the many problems of creating a small business on your own. A franchise permits an individual to own his or her own business while benefiting from a trademark, now-how and the reputation of an established firm. This enables an individual to acquire a business more quickly and receive profits rapidly. However, the individual owner must pay the parent corporation a portion of the businesses’ profits. This often becomes a problem because in some instances the financial rewards for the individual are sometimes low in relation to the time an effort that they put in to running the business.

Therefore, this a major disadvantage and often makes the idea unattractive to small business owners. Since the government plays a major role in the operation of a business, he two must learn to coexist. The main role of government has traditionally been to protect the rights of the country’s citizens. They follow this role by providing for the people police protection, a judicial system and a national defense system. The government protects individuals within our economy by protecting fair competition, consumer investments and general welfare, promotes property rights, and oversees certain administrations and industries.

During the nineteenth century many businesses’ strategy was to reach a monopoly position, and many were successful. Finally the government stepped in and egulation has been a rule ever since. The right to own property is basic to a private enterprise and it is the ultimate responsibility of the government to enforce this right. The government must also enforce limitations on property rights, one important limitation being taxation, in order to benefit the public. It is responsible for establishing many agencies to protect consumers’ health and safety.

This, of course, being another benefit of taxation. Taxation is done in order to provide public service and promote the general well being for the people. The most important source of revenue for the federal government s a tax on personal and corporate incomes. Many states and some cities depend heavily on income taxes. Noting gets done without management. Business management is central to running a business by handling resources and activities and accomplishing work through other people within the firm.

A business can be looked at as a system of related parts working together, and management is what integrates these parts to make up the system. Small firms usually have only one or two managers, but large corporations have a staff of managers all working on different levels. The level of the manager is how he or she is ranked within the company. The top level consists of executives, the middle level are known as the middle managers, and finally the lower level are commonly known as the first-level supervisors.

This is what I mean by the managers being ranked in the company. An executive will be known to have much more responsibility, plan and implement strengths and have more control of the business than the lower level managers do. However, all managers are trying to achieve the same goal regardless of the size of the company, this goal being to work effectively with the employees and consumers in order to achieve the company’s objectives. Managers have four basic responsibilities; planning, organizing and staffing, directing and coordinating, and evaluating and controlling.

Managers make plans to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities that come there way in order to help the business run successfully and profitably. They must recruit qualified workers to carry out this plan, workers who work well with others and are hard working and innovative. Some king of organization is needed to arrange each workers position within the company. A supervisor must also be selected so that each employee will know to whom they will be directly working for. All of these tasks must be brought together by the manager.

The manager must constantly evaluate the workers and coordinate the work being completed. The evaluation of results leads to control, which influences other functions within the company. One important aspect that makes a successful manager is his degree of sensitivity. Since a manager must work through people, personal interaction skills are of utmost importance. All managers use different approaches to dealing with people but it is important to treat employees with respect, flexibility, recognition, and room for ideas. You ill only get back what you give, and this is where many business fail.

No matter how intelligent or business minded you may be, if your employees or consumers don’t like or respect you as a person, you will get no where. Managers must also be innovative in order to find better ways to get the job done, good decision makers so that they may take risks in order to solve problems, good leaders in order to bind and organize the company, have good communication skills with employees and bosses so as to promote a free flowing exchange of information, and finally, have good motivational skills so as to otivate employees to add incentive and meaning to the work.

Obviously, management is a difficult job. All of the functions that a manager must perform require dedication, intelligence, the ability to deal with stress and diverse people, and most of all, the ability to deal with and accept responsibility. Today, producers must make an effort to find out what kinds of products consumers want and to make these products available for sale. They must also make an effort through advertising to inform consumers of the goods and services that are available to them. Lets face it, all businesses have the same goal, to ake consumers happy and make a profit.

The marketing concept builds profits for the consumers’ needs and interests. Marketing requires as mixture of production, development, pricing, placement and promotion. All of these functions must be implemented on a continuous basis in order to improve sales. Product planning concentrates on determining which goods and services consumers want to design them and meet their needs. Pricing is an important aspect of production because it ultimately determines whether a product will be purchased and if, at the same time, it will be profitable to the company.

Product distribution involves decisions about warehousing and transportation that will be cost effective, timely and safe. At this point, the company will also determine whether they will be selling products directly to the public or to an intermediary. Finally, product promotion includes personal selling and promoting the products available, advertising, and direct sales promotion, such as free samples and discount coupons. Business income depends entirely upon the sale of products, including goods or services.

Successful companies must introduce there products in a way that works consistently with the changing market, economic conditions, ompetition, and changing company goals so as to benefit both the consumers and the company through a high percentage of sales. The main role of marketing managers is to insure to the best of their ability that the product will be sold in quantities necessary to benefit the company. This role entails expert knowledge about the product and knowledge of consumers’ wants and needs.

It will almost always include designing the specifications of the product in order to produce its precise functions and abilities. An important aspect of planning and designing a new product is differentiating it form other similar products on the market. Packaging and presentation can help to achieve this goal in some ways, however, specific features must be present within the products themselves in order to achieve this differentiation. A trademark or brand name is an important way of differentiating products by creating buyer loyalty.

Brands are important in production because they make it easy for consumers to distinguish one product from another. Buyers feel confident buying certain brands that they feel they can trust and are assured of consistent quality. Brands are normally at the center of advertising. Even if a consumer is convinced about buying a product, hey would be more able to identify and more apt to purchase it if it had a brand. Advertising is an important aspect of marketing. It provides the presentation of good available to the consumer through communications vehicles such as the media.

It present informative and persuasive sales messages through the newspapers, television, magazines, etc. Advertising stimulates interest in and demand for specific products, and thus supports sales promotion and personal selling. It is often used to create a favorable public view toward a company, industry or other institution. The main purpose of advertising is to help sell oods and/or services. It supports personal selling by informing the potential buyer of a products features and encouraging a favorable attitude towards it before the product has actually reached the selling stage.

It reaches people sales personnel cannot since it rarely possible to have a sales force large enough to reach every potential consumer and will sometimes motivate people to seek out representatives on their own. Advertising improves personal relationships with dealers by increasing demand and sales. And finally, advertising promotes goodwill by proving to be reliable, interested in the ublic good and a good citizen. This advertisement will do this by concentrating on the business itself rather then the product so that consumers trust it and feel safe by using the companies products.

Setting the right price for a product is essential to it’s success. The major factors that effect product pricing are demand and competition. Demand is closely linked to price. If the supply of a product is constant, greater demand will allow higher prices. At the same time, however, higher prices will tend to reduce demand. Competition also affects pricing. Free competition tends to drive prices down ecause competitors will increase the supply of the product in the market and new competitors often purposely sell at lower prices in an effort to cut into the sales of an established producer.

Therefore, marketers have an important choice to make when pricing a product. They can establish high prices with the expectation of selling fewer units with higher profits on each unit, or set low prices in an effort to achieve voluminous sales even though the profit on each unit may be small. They must then attempt to find the right price in order to maximize profits by balancing a sales volume with profit per unit. Federal and state governments have passed laws influencing the fair pricing of gods by companies.

These Fair Trade Laws prohibit retailers from selling goods at a price lower then that set by the producer, so as to prevent unfair competition. They are supposed to protect small retailers from the competition of large stores who can afford to set lower prices because of their voluminous sales. Marketing management includes more then just buying and selling. It includes a wide range of activities and duties, all being of great importance to the business. Nearly every firm is concerned with buying, selling, transporting, toring, risk bearing, standardizing, grading and labeling, financing, and gathering and using information.

What all of these aspects have in common is that they must all be done with enough appeal and innovation necessary in order to sell products and at the same time make a profit for the company. Running a business is costly, therefore every idea must be carefully though out and implemented so as to satisfy consumers, while at the sale time, satisfying the business by creating a profit. Market research is of equal importance to a business. As discussed previously, our economy is very diverse and constantly changing. A business must study the environment and population so as to comply with the consumers buying patterns, needs and wants.

A company can do this through market segmentation, demography, and by the use of questionnaires and surveys. Market research can be carried out by the use of market segmentation, which is the dividing up of the market into similar groups so that each group may be studied and carefully examined. Demography is the study of the population as a whole through the use of statistics. Finally, questionnaires, surveys, consumer test panels, and the observation of shopper behavior in stores can also aid in dentifying and characterizing a market within the economy.

This will surely keep a business up to par on the changing economy in the present, as well as forecasting future trends which has also proven to be necessary in order to operate as a successful business. In conclusion, it is obvious from my brief discussion that the term “Business” is very complex. When discussing it, one must consider many important sub-categories such as economic systems, the business cycle, business environments, types of businesses, government, management, marketing and advertising, each of which in and of itself is also very complex.

Mounting competition between Coca-Cola (Coke) and Pepsi Cola (Pepsi) had a very long standing in the American history. Both cola have thus made themselves a household name in the global market, almost 200 countries since their introduction at the turn of the 19th century. The history of beverages industry begins in May 1886, when Atlanta chemist Doe Pemberton developed a drink mix with caramel coloured ingredients, coca leaves, kola nuts and cocaine. The drink was first designed as a drug to help people feel better. Some time later, carbonated water was added to the syrup and that is how Coca-Cola was invented.

Caleb Bradhem, a New Bern, N. C pharmacist, created Pepsi in the late 1890s almost ten over years after Coke was introduced into the beverages industry. Since then, these two cola company had been vying for the market share in its birthplace and also globally. Being the world leading manufacturer, marketer, and distributor of the non-alcoholic beverages, the Coca-Cola Companys and its subsidiaries employs 31,000 people around the world. PepsiCo, Inc. is among the most successful consumer products companies in the world had a workforce of 151,000. It was founded in 1965 through the merger of Pepsi Cola and Frito-Lay.

Tropicana was acquired in 1988. The workforce of PepsiCo, Inc consist of: Pepsi-Cola Company, the worlds second largest beverage company Frito-Lay Company, the worlds largest manufacturer and distributor of snacks chips Tropicana Products, Inc. , the worlds largest marketer and produces of branded juices With the potential of 6 million customer globally, these 2 companies had strive hard to compete against each other with the marketing campaign and strategies. When Roberto Goizueta took it helms in 1980, the Coca-Cola Company was in a mess, especially in responding strategically opportunities and threats.

The corporate-wide culture of risk avoidance and passiveness had limited the growth opportunities of the company. Pepsi introduce its campaign in Dallas, Tex, 1975, the Pepsi Challenge. Around the nation, both cola were brought to the street for consumer to taste and Pepsi had emerged as the winner of this campaign. Even the soft drink market was dominated by these two cola company, the onslaught of the Pepsi Challenge in the seventies and eighties had left coke battered and weary. The environment factors of marketing

In the competitive world of marketing, the forces of environment factors governed the success of the company. These environmental factors are generally referred to the physical forces such as air quality, water pollution, disposal of solid waste and conserving natural resources, which are term as external environmental forces to the organisation and is uncontrollable. However, within the organisation, there lie the external and internal environmental forces that are controllable by the organisation itself. The two distinctive external environmental forces are macroenvironment and microenvironment.

The task of raising money for a business is not as difficult as most people seem to think. This is especially true when you have an idea that can make you and your backers rich. Actually, there’s more money available for new business ventures than there are good business ideas. A very important rule of the game to learn: Any time you want to raise money, your first move should be to put together a proper prospectus. This prospectus should include a resume of your background, your education, training, experience and any other personal qualities that might be counted as an asset to your potential success.

It’s also a good idea to list the various loans you’ve had in the past, what they were for, and your history in paying them off. You’ll have to explain in detail how the money you want is going to be used. If it’s for an existing business, you’ll need a profit and loss record for at least the preceding six months, and a plan showing how this additional money will produce greater profits. If it’s a new business, you’ll have to show your proposed business plan, your marketing research and projected costs, as well as anticipated income figures, with a summary for each year, over at least a three year period.

It’ll be advantageous to you to base your cost estimates high, and your income projections on minimal returns. This will enable you to “ride through” those extreme “ups and downs” inherent in any beginning business. You should also describe what makes your business unique—how it differs form your competition and the opportunities for expansion or secondary products. This prospectus will have to state precisely what you’re offering the investor in return for the use of his money. He’ll want to know the percentage of interest you’re willing to pay, and whether monthly, quarterly or on an annual basis.

Are you offering a certain percentage of the profits? A percentage of the business? A seat on your board of directories? An investor uses his money to make more money. He wants to make as much as he can, regardless whether it’s short term or long term deal. In order to attract him, interest him, and persuade him to “put up” the money you need, you’ll not only have to offer him an opportunity for big profits, but you’ll have to spell it out in detail, and further, back up your claims with proof from your marketing research.

Venture investors are usually quite familiar with “high risk” proposals, yet they all want to minimize that risk as much as possible. Therefore, your prospectus should include a listing of your business and personal assets with documentation—usually copies of your tax returns for the past three years or more. Your prospective investor may not know anything about you or your business, but if he wants to know, he can pick up his telephone and know everything there is to know within 24 hours. The point here is, don’t ever try to “con” a potential investor.

Be honest with him. Lay all the facts on the table for him. In most cases, if you’ve got a good idea and you’ve done your homework properly, and “interested investor” will understand your position and offer more help than you dared to ask. When you have your prospectus prepared, know how much money you want, exactly how it will be used, and how you intend to repay it, you’re ready to start looking for investors. As simple as it seems, one of the easiest ways of raising money is by advertising in a newspaper or a national publication featuring such ads.

Your ad should state the amount of money you want–always ask for more money than you have room for negotiating. Your ad should also state the type of business involved ( to separate the curious from the truly interested), and the kind of return you’re promising on the investment. Take a page from the party plan merchandisers. Set up a party and invite your friends over. Explain your business plan, the profit potential, and how much you need. Give them each a copy of your prospectus and ask that they pledge a thousand dollars as a non-participating partner in your business.

Check with the current tax regulations. You may be allowed up to 25 partners in Sub Chapter S enterprises, opening the door for anyone to gather a group of friends around himself with something to offer them in return for their assistance in capitalizing his business. You can also issue and sell up to $300,000 worth of stock in your company without going through the Federal Trade Commission. You’ll need the help of an attorney to do this, however, and of course a good tax accountant as well wouldn’t hurt. It’s always a good idea to have an attorney and an accountant help you make up your business prospectus.

As you explain your plan to them, and ask for their advice, casually ask them if they’d mind letting you know of, or steer your way any potential investors they might happen to meet. Do the same with your banker. Give him a copy of your prospectus and ask him if he’d look it over and offer any suggestions for improving it, and of course, let you know of any potential investors. In either case, it’s always a good idea to let them know you’re willing to pay a “finder’s fee” if you can be directed to the right investor.

Professional people such as doctors and dentists are known to have a tendency to join occupational investment groups. The next time you talk with your doctor or dentist, give him a prospectus and explain your plan. He may want to invest on his own or perhaps set up an appointment for you to talk with the manager of his investment group. Either way, you win because when you’re looking for money, it’s essential that you get the word out as many potential investors as possible. Don’t overlook the possibilities of the Small Business Investment Companies in your area.

Look them up in your telephone book under “Investment Services. ” These companies exist for the sole purpose of lending money to businesses which they feel have a good chance of making money. In many instances, they trade their help for a small interest in your company. Many states have Business Development Commissions whose goal is to assist in the establishment and growth of new businesses. Not only do they offer favorable taxes and business expertise, most also offer money or facilities to help a new business get started.

Your Chamber of Commerce is the place to check for further information of this idea. Industrial banks are usually much more amenable to making business loans than regular banks, so be sure to check out these institutions in your area. insurance companies are prime sources of long term business capital, but each company varies its policies regarding the type of business it will consider. Check your local agent for the name and address of the person to contact. It’s also quite possible to get the directories of another company to invest in your business.

Look for a company that can benefit from your product or service. Also, be sure to check at your public library for available foundation grants. These can be the final answer to all your money needs if your business is perceived to be related to the objectives and activities of the foundation. Finally, there’s the Money broker or Finder. These are the people who take your prospectus and circulate it with various known lenders or investors. They always require an up-front or retainer fee, and there’s no way they can guarantee to get you the loan or the money you want.

There are many very good money brokers, and there are some that are not so good. They all take a percentage of the gross amount that’s finally procured for your needs. The important thing is to check them out fully; find out about the successful loans or investment plans they’re arranged, and what kind of investor contacts they have—all of this before you put up any front money or pay any retainer fees. There are many ways to raise money—from staging garage sales to selling stocks. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the only place you can find the money you need is through the bank or finance company.

Start thinking about the idea of inviting investors to share in your business as silent partners. Think about the idea of obtaining financing for a primary business by arranging financing for another business that will support the start-up, establishment and developing of the primary business. Consider the feasibility of merging with a company that’s already organized, and with facilities that are compatible or related to your needs. Give some thought to the possibilities of getting the people supplying your production equipment to co-sign the loan you need for start-up capital.

Remember, there are thousands upon thousands of ways to obtain business start-up capital. This is truly the age of creative financing. Disregard the stories you hear of “tight money,” and start making phone calls, talking to people, and making appointments to discuss your plans with the people who have money invest. There’s more money now than there’s ever been for a new business investment. The problem is that most beginning “business builders” don’t know what to believe or which way to turn for help.

They tend to believe the stories of “tight money,” and they set aside their plans for a business of their own until a time when start-up money might be easier to find. The truth is this: Now is the time to make your move. Now is the time to act. the person with a truly viable business plan, and determination to succeed, will make use of every possible idea that can be imagined. And the ideas I’ve suggested here should serve as just a few of the unlimited sources of monetary help available and waiting for you!

Dillons newsagents is a late closing local shop with a ‘Mini-Mart’ service. The ‘Mini-Mart’ side of the business is franchised from Dillons to a registered partnership: Mr Charles Pettifer and Mr Marc Devis. Full services are provided in the shop, a paper delivery service is also available along with the full complement of groceries, fresh sandwiches, confectionery, videos, cigarettes and alcohol etc.. The newsagents is located in Stratford upon Avon, on the Birmingham road, approximately half a mile from the town centre and situated within a very residential area.

Tesco’s are the immediate traders to the newsagents. Nine years ago, the newsagents was expanded with the intention of providing the local inhabitants with a friendly convenient service. Lack of competition at the time provided excellent stability and potential for expansion which was enjoyed until two years ago when a superstore was opened nearby offering a major threat to business. Business growth, structure, strategies and competition are to be addressed in the following document. Entirety of information sources and research are obtained from two year’s part-time employment at Dillon’s newsagents.

Growth of Dillons: In 1988, Dillons employed Mr Charles Pettifer as the operational manager, from this date the shop solely provided newspapers and magazines for approximately eighteen months. During this period Dillons were developing their own Mini- Mart’ theme and as such decided to expand the facilities to supply a range of groceries and other common consumer goods as well as the usual news literature. The shop opening hours were also increased from the regular evening licensing hours of 5:30pm, to a more substantial one of 11pm.

At this point, Mr Pettifer decided to take on the shop franchise offered by Dillons with the help of a silent partner Mr Devis. Mr Devis has shares in the business, but does not have authority to make unsupported decisions. The franchise resulted in Mr Pettifer being able to obtain many goods for the newsagents at discounted prices. The entirety of the shop was responsibility of Mr Pettifer provided that Dillons’ standards were not infringed. At the stage of development outline here, it can be seen that Dillons newsagents is akin to stage one of the business growth cycle.

Key Issues: Mr Pettifer strongly believed in providing a personal and friendly service to ll customers and from the outset instigated this within the shop environment. Recognition within the local community and attraction of regular customers resulted from this and thus so did a modest, small shop turnover. Management Styles: The style of management was very individualistic; only Mr Pettifer’s wife, Fatima was employed initially in running the shop (issues in employing family friends and relatives are recapitulated later).

Because of this, only limited professional management skills were required. Market Research: This was initially achieved by close relationships with the regular local ustomers, providing key information to a number of customer needs, although no formal research was carried out. Systems and Controls: Due to Dillons’ requirements, the accountancy was in advance of a role model stage-1 business, providing efficient systems and controls for Dillons’ auditing. All secondary audits were made into a fully computerised relational-database system.

Sources of finance: A great boost for the business was the initial investment by Dillons, this was followed by continued investments by the silent partner, Mr Devis, to enable increased expansion of the store. Major Investments: At this stage, no further investments were made due to the limited product range and turnover within the shop. Major investment here was therefore not justified. Products: The product range was initially limited due to floor space, and the occupying range purchased, in bulk, at a recommended cash and carry outlet.

Dillons had now become a very stable stage-1 business due mainly to the support and expertise of Dillons’ management. Also, the newsagent’s position was integral to the initial success it achieved, being the sole organisation providing the previously mentioned services in the local area. (Both businesses in the area also added tremendously to the custom in the shop. )) After one year, Mr Pettifer decided that there simply wasn’t enough room to expand the shop product range to the domains revealed by his marketing strategy (albeit a very limited one!.

A proposal was made to Dillons’ management to expand the shop premises approximately by four-fold. After the initial success of the shop and the predicted potential, Dillons agreed to finance the expansion and also improve the presentation of the shop. Again, the improved video services aided to further boost the custom to the shop. The shop now had the space to dramatically increase the product range as desired, although with this expansion, stage 2/3 considerations of the growth cycle were required at the very least to re-establish the business.

Key Issues: Now, maintaining original customers and expanding the customer base was imperative to ensure maximum stock turnover. Further resources could now be exploited due to the expansion. Increased size and stock suggests that further staff are needed. Management Styles: Due to employing more staff, a professional style of management should have been adopted. Friends’ were employed thus keeping the managerial position an informal one. Market Research: Research techniques had not improved in any way from the original methods and because of this (see later) a product stagnation was induced.

Sales representatives suggested leads and ideas, however, these ideas were instigated for other reasons. Systems and Controls: The book keeping and control records were now of a very high standard with full accounting systems in operation. The entire business system was professionally audited by Dillons on a bi-yearly basis. Suppliers also checked control and isplay systems on their relevant products. Products: The entire product range was now entering an established market in itself.

Each product was purchased from the main suppliers on a sale or return agreement (this agreement was a key principle to Mr Pettifer entering a new product into his range). The shop had an impressive product range at this stage, the customer base was well established and supplier relations were improving all the time. Bridgetown newsagents now enjoyed economic success. Personnel Structure and Culture The following tree structure demonstrates the personnel hierarchy throughout the ewsagents: [diagram of management hierarchy goes here] Explanation of the company hierarchy: Dillons enforce company policies on all sides of the business.

They deal with all supervision of goods delivered and provide regular audits. Visits from the area management are frequent and always stringent. Dillons also provide major investments throughout the Bridgetown store. Mr Pettifer works a typical day between 9am and 5pm, provided there are no anomalies. He is solely responsible for book keeping, reports, control systems and ordering of tobacco, alcohol and video supplies. Being the operational manager, Mr Pettifer is continually managing and assessing the store. Fatima Pettifer works similar hours to her husband and is responsible for all stock orders except the above mentioned.

General shop maintenance is also an ongoing task. There are shifts designated to each of the workers: 5am – 11am11am – 5pm5pm – 11pm The above shifts were maintained so that someone was constantly available to man the shop. Employees are expected to work beyond their shift time occaisionally in the event of a subsequent shift worker not being on time. Each shift is overed seven days a week, with the exception of Christmas day. The labour involves till-operation, re-stacking shelves, petroleum regulatory checks and general shop duties.

Shelf stackers are generally employed together to ensure that all stock is efficiently replaced. Both work six evenings per week and are responsible for re-stacking the enirety of the shop. Due to the individualistic style of management, problems arose when Mr Pettifer was not present within the shop (anytime between 10am and 5pm daily) since no management issues could be delegated to anyone else. Any sick or holiday leave ould result in a further backlog of paper work and reduced stock in the areas for which he was concerned.

As previously stated, all the personnel employed were family or friends. This greatly helped in promoting a friendly shop environment for the customers; good working relationships prevailed and common interest in the success of the business was reflected in the workers’ attitudes. Although this method of employment assisted in creating a friendly atmosphere, the following internal management problems soon became apparent: Exploitations of relationships between manager and personnel was intrinsic in any staff related issues, e. g. , salaries, hours worked, holidays etc..

Till and cashing-up procedures were informal due to the trust between employees. This may have proved to be a dangerous operation because of the liberation of that trust, i. e. , opportunities were made available to all employees disregarding their status. Overlapping the boundaries between personal life within the family and business life were often perceivable since husband and wife were working within the same environment. Although this situation was occaisionally embarrassing and no doubt etremental, the shop definitely benefitted overall by the traditionality and local friendliness.

No formal business strategies were evident to cater for family integrations and because of this a unique, informal shopping environment was created but it was inefficient and poorly structured; small problems continuously plagued Mr Pettifer, drawing him away from managerial responsibilities that were consequently not being dealt with effectively. Competition: Although the above problems prevailed since the expansion of the shop, Bridgetown newsagents were still economically successful until the introduction f competition in the local market.

As Dillons was the sole convenience store within the local area, prices tended to be expensive because of the lack of price wars with competition. This proved to be an almost fatal error when the competition entered as they were able to effectively compete with all of Dillons’ price range. In the early stages of 1996 a Tesco superstore opened less than a mile along the same stretch of road as Dillons. Since Tesco is an extremely large shopping chain (and not a small business), large financial backing was employed and the product range was undoubtedly greater.

Prices considerably undercut those presented by Mr Pettifer, drawing away regular shoppers and leaving mainly those who frequented the store even before it was expanded. Tesco opened during Dillons’ most profitable times (i. e. , 7-10am and 4-7pm), and this reduced a high percentage of custom from the shop, threatening the profit margins that had been developed. Within six months of operation, major recruitment of captial was required by Dillons just to help the business survive.

Mr Pettifer was forced to reduce all staff salaries (including his own) dramatically. Business Life Cycle: Applying the business life-cycle to Dillons newsagents, it can be seen that progression from the Inception stage to the Expansion stage was unnaturally ??? and only certain key elements of the life cycle were addressed or implemented. During Inception, Dillons was actually similar to the life cycle model, with products tending towards expensive so the company would gain more profit.

This point is re-enforced seeing that the business opening hours were 5am to 11pm during all days of the week; not taking into account overtime’, it is obvious hat the newsagents is already a very large commitment for Mr Pettifer. Dillons soon drifts from the business theory since there was very little time spent in the survival stage. Here, the business structure should be improved and strengthened, but as no survival issues were presented to Dillons, this vital stage of the life cycle was missed presenting future problems.

Even as Dillons grew and expanded into new markets, no new competition was encountered thus diverging further from the life cycle and making the organisation even more fragile and vulnerable. Management did not develop at all throughout the life cycle and remained individualistic and supervisory instead of developing towards a more distanced and decentralised managerial operation. Conclusion: Currently Dillons is still under major financial threat and business is not returning since the introduction of the Tesco store.

In analysing the structure of the business it can be seen that very little long term strategies were employed and no foresight of major competition was predicted, although this seemed inevitable. The original success of the business seems to be largely due to the major nvestments made by Dillons management, location of the shop and the lack of any similar shops in the local environment. At all stages of the business life cycle it appears that there is never a great financial threat to Mr Pettifer.

During expansion, nearly all the risk involved was presented to Dillons management and Mr Devis in their capital investments. After expansion, good trading and a good relationship with the priciple supplier of the shop’s products enabled a sale or return method on all products (within a reasonable time period). This method proved ideal since it diminished any nxieties in regard to development of the shop’s product range and ensured that there would be no profit loss on over ordering of goods, reduced slaes or changes in the market culture.

Pricing strategy was governed by the motivation of increasing the profit margins. Short term risks such as the time to acheive profit on turnover were reduced whilst the risk of being dramatically undercut and pushed out of the market was increased exponentially. Ironically, this risk factor being the single largest reason for crisis was not recognised. External issues exasperated Dillons due to the neglect of any long term planning.

Dillons newsagents is a late closing local shop with a ‘Mini-Mart’ service. The ‘Mini-Mart’ side of the business is franchised from Dillons to a registered partnership: Mr Charles Pettifer and Mr Marc Devis.

Full services are provided in the shop, a paper delivery service is also available along with the full complement of groceries, fresh sandwiches, confectionery, videos, cigarettes and alcohol etc.

The newsagents is located in Stratford upon Avon, on the Birmingham road, approximately half a mile from the town centre and situated within a very residential area. Tesco’s are the immediate traders to the newsagents.

Nine years ago, the newsagents was expanded with the intention of providing the local inhabitants with a friendly convenient service. Lack of competition at the time provided excellent stability and potential for expansion which was enjoyed until two years ago when a superstore was opened nearby offering a major threat to business.

Business growth, structure, strategies and competition are to be addressed in the following document. Entirety of information sources and research are obtained from two year’s part-time employment at Dillon’s newsagents.

Growth of Dillons:

In 1988, Dillons employed Mr Charles Pettifer as the operational manager, from this date the shop solely provided newspapers and magazines for approximately eighteen months. During this period Dillons were developing their own Mini- Mart’ theme and as such decided to expand the facilities to supply a range of groceries and other common consumer goods as well as the usual news literature. The shop opening hours were also increased from the regular evening licensing hours of 5:30pm, to a more substantial one of 11pm.

At this point, Mr Pettifer decided to take on the shop franchise offered by Dillons with the help of a silent partner Mr Devis. Mr Devis has shares in the business, but does not have authority to make unsupported decisions.

The franchise resulted in Mr Pettifer being able to obtain many goods for the newsagents at discounted prices. The entirety of the shop was responsibility of Mr Pettifer provided that Dillons’ standards were not infringed.

At the stage of development outline here, it can be seen that Dillons newsagents is akin to stage one of the business growth cycle.

Key Issues:

Mr Pettifer strongly believed in providing a personal and friendly service to all customers and from the outset instigated this within the shop environment. Recognition within the local community and attraction of regular customers resulted from this and thus so did a modest, small shop turnover.

Management Styles:

The style of management was very individualistic; only Mr Pettifer’s wife, Fatima was employed initially in running the shop (issues in employing family friends and relatives are recapitulated later). Because of this, only limited professional management skills were required.

Market Research:

This was initially achieved by close relationships with the regular local customers, providing key information to a number of customer needs, although no formal research was carried out.

Systems and Controls:

Due to Dillons’ requirements, the accountancy was in advance of a role model stage-1 business, providing efficient systems and controls for Dillons’ auditing. All secondary audits were made into a fully computerised relational-database system.

Sources of finance:

A great boost for the business was the initial investment by Dillons, this was followed by continued investments by the silent partner, Mr Devis, to enable increased expansion of the store.

Major Investments:

At this stage, no further investments were made due to the limited product range and turnover within the shop. Major investment here was therefore not justified.

Products:

The product range was initially limited due to floor space, and the occupying range purchased, in bulk, at a recommended cash and carry outlet.

Dillons had now become a very stable stage-1 business due mainly to the support and expertise of Dillons’ management. Also, the newsagent’s position was integral to the initial success it achieved, being the sole organisation providing the previously mentioned services in the local area. ((Both businesses in the area also added tremendously to the custom in the shop.))

After one year, Mr Pettifer decided that there simply wasn’t enough room to expand the shop product range to the domains revealed by his marketing strategy (albeit a very limited one!). A proposal was made to Dillons’ management to expand the shop premises approximately by four-fold. After the initial success of the shop and the predicted potential, Dillons agreed to finance the expansion and also improve the presentation of the shop.

Again, the improved video services aided to further boost the custom to the shop.

The shop now had the space to dramatically increase the product range as desired, although with this expansion, stage 2/3 considerations of the growth cycle were required at the very least to re-establish the business.

Key Issues:

Now, maintaining original customers and expanding the customer base was imperative to ensure maximum stock turnover. Further resources could now be exploited due to the expansion. Increased size and stock suggests that further staff are needed.

Management Styles:

Due to employing more staff, a professional style of management should have been adopted. ‘Friends’ were employed thus keeping the managerial position an informal one.

Market Research:

Research techniques had not improved in any way from the original methods and because of this (see later) a product stagnation was induced. Sales representatives suggested leads and ideas, however, these ideas were instigated for other reasons.

Systems and Controls:

The book keeping and control records were now of a very high standard with full accounting systems in operation. The entire business system was professionally audited by Dillons on a bi-yearly basis. Suppliers also checked control and display systems on their relevant products.

Products:

The entire product range was now entering an established market in itself. Each product was purchased from the main suppliers on a sale or return agreement (this agreement was a key principle to Mr Pettifer entering a new product into his range).

The shop had an impressive product range at this stage, the customer base was well established and supplier relations were improving all the time. Bridgetown newsagents now enjoyed economic success.

Personnel Structure and Culture

The following tree structure demonstrates the personnel hierarchy throughout the newsagents: [diagram of management hierarchy goes here]

Explanation of the company hierarchy:

Dillons enforce company policies on all sides of the business. They deal with all supervision of goods delivered and provide regular audits. Visits from the area management are frequent and always stringent. Dillons also provide major investments throughout the Bridgetown store.

Mr Pettifer works a typical day between 9am and 5pm, provided there are no anomalies. He is solely responsible for book keeping, reports, control systems and ordering of tobacco, alcohol and video supplies. Being the operational manager, Mr Pettifer is continually managing and assessing the store.

Fatima Pettifer works similar hours to her husband and is responsible for all stock orders except the above mentioned. General shop maintenance is also an ongoing task.

There are shifts designated to each of the workers:

5am – 11am11am – 5pm5pm – 11pm

The above shifts were maintained so that someone was constantly available to man the shop. Employees are expected to work beyond their shift time occaisionally in the event of a subsequent shift worker not being on time. Each shift is covered seven days a week, with the exception of Christmas day. The labour involves till-operation, re-stacking shelves, petroleum regulatory checks and general shop duties.

Shelf stackers are generally employed together to ensure that all stock is efficiently replaced. Both work six evenings per week and are responsible for re-stacking the enirety of the shop.

Due to the individualistic style of management, problems arose when Mr Pettifer was not present within the shop (anytime between 10am and 5pm daily) since no management issues could be delegated to anyone else. Any sick or holiday leave would result in a further backlog of paper work and reduced stock in the areas for which he was concerned.

As previously stated, all the personnel employed were family or friends. This greatly helped in promoting a friendly shop environment for the customers; good working relationships prevailed and common interest in the success of the business was reflected in the workers’ attitudes. Although this method of employment assisted in creating a friendly atmosphere, the following internal management problems soon became apparent:

Exploitations of relationships between manager and personnel was intrinsic in many staff related issues, e.g., salaries, hours worked, holidays etc..

Till and cashing-up procedures were informal due to the trust between employees. This may have proved to be a dangerous operation because of the liberation of that trust, i.e., opportunities were made available to all employees disregarding their status.

Overlapping the boundaries between personal life within the family and business life were often perceivable since husband and wife were working within the same environment. Although this situation was occaisionally embarrassing and no doubt detremental, the shop definitely benefitted overall by the traditionality and local friendliness.

No formal business strategies were evident to cater for family integrations and because of this a unique, informal shopping environment was created but it was inefficient and poorly structured; small problems continuously plagued Mr Pettifer, drawing him away from managerial responsibilities that were consequently not being dealt with effectively.

Competition:

Although the above problems prevailed since the expansion of the shop, Bridgetown newsagents were still economically successful until the introduction of competition in the local market.

As Dillons was the sole convenience store within the local area, prices tended to be expensive because of the lack of price wars with competition. This proved to be an almost fatal error when the competition entered as they were able to effectively compete with all of Dillons’ price range.

In the early stages of 1996 a Tesco superstore opened less than a mile along the same stretch of road as Dillons. Since Tesco is an extremely large shopping chain (and not a small business), large financial backing was employed and the product range was undoubtedly greater. Prices considerably undercut those presented by Mr Pettifer, drawing away regular shoppers and leaving mainly those who frequented the store even before it was expanded.

Tesco opened during Dillons’ most profitable times (i.e., 7-10am and 4-7pm), and this reduced a high percentage of custom from the shop, threatening the profit margins that had been developed.

Within six months of operation, major recruitment of captial was required by Dillons just to help the business survive. Mr Pettifer was forced to reduce all staff salaries (including his own) dramatically.

Business Life Cycle:

Applying the business life-cycle to Dillons newsagents, it can be seen that progression from the Inception stage to the Expansion stage was unnaturally ??? and only certain key elements of the life cycle were addressed or implemented.

During Inception, Dillons was actually similar to the life cycle model, with products tending towards expensive so the company would gain more profit. This point is re-enforced seeing that the business opening hours were 5am to 11pm during all days of the week; not taking into account overtime’, it is obvious that the newsagents is already a very large commitment for Mr Pettifer.

Dillons soon drifts from the business theory since there was very little time spent in the survival stage. Here, the business structure should be improved and strengthened, but as no survival issues were presented to Dillons, this vital stage of the life cycle was missed presenting future problems.

Even as Dillons grew and expanded into new markets, no new competition was encountered thus diverging further from the life cycle and making the organisation even more fragile and vulnerable.

Management did not develop at all throughout the life cycle and remained individualistic and supervisory instead of developing towards a more distanced and decentralised managerial operation.

Conclusion:

Currently Dillons is still under major financial threat and business is not returning since the introduction of the Tesco store. In analysing the structure of the business it can be seen that very little long term strategies were employed and no foresight of major competition was predicted, although this seemed inevitable.

The original success of the business seems to be largely due to the major investments made by Dillons management, location of the shop and the lack of any similar shops in the local environment.

At all stages of the business life cycle it appears that there is never a great financial threat to Mr Pettifer. During expansion, nearly all the risk involved was presented to Dillons management and Mr Devis in their capital investments. After expansion, good trading and a good relationship with the priciple supplier of the shop’s products enabled a sale or return method on all products (within a reasonable time period). This method proved ideal since it diminished any anxieties in regard to development of the shop’s product range and ensured that there would be no profit loss on over ordering of goods, reduced slaes or changes in the market culture.

Pricing strategy was governed by the motivation of increasing the profit margins. Short term risks such as the time to acheive profit on turnover were reduced whilst the risk of being dramatically undercut and pushed out of the market was increased exponentially. Ironically, this risk factor being the single largest reason for crisis was not recognised. External issues exasperated Dillons due to the neglect of any long term planning.

In 1932, Elmer Doolin, who was in the icecream business, bought a recipe for corn chips from a Mexican man who was eager to leave the states and return home. From him Doolin acquired 19 accounts and old manufacturing equipment in hopes to start an entirely new industry in America. The first manufacturing plant for Fritos Corn Chips started out in Doolins mothers kitchen. With a lot of hard work, Elmers sales increased and new equipment and packaging were soon needed. After WW II he would grant H. W. Lay and Company, a source of potato chips and snack foods, an exclusive franchise to manufacture and distribute Fritos Corn Chips.

The two companies would work close together and in 1961 they would merge. Four years later, Pepsi-Cola Company would also combine with Frito-Lay, but with separate operating divisions, to form a new company called PepsiCo. Consumers in 1995 spent an estimated $13. 2 billion on Frito-Lay snacks, up $1. 8 billion in 1994. (PepsiCo. 1995 Annual Report). Currently, Frito-Lay is still expanding its sales and serves all of the US markets. In 1989 they reconstructed their business into 4 regional divisions to strengthen its channel distribution.

Their growth has continued and as of 1991 they had 22 Sales and Marketing areas in order to bring the decision process closer together. Currently they are continuing to grow nationally and globally with distribution reaching nearly 400,000 in retail, vending, and food service accounts around the country (PepsiCo. 1995 Annual Report) They offer more than 100 product lines and several brand names such as Lays, Ruffles, Doritos, Rold Gold, and Tostitos. The overall market share for tortilla and corn chips in 1993 accounted for 25. 8% of retail sales and 27. 8% of pound volume of the salted snacks market.

Frito-Lays market coverage involves intensive distribution by placing its products in convenience stores, mass merchandisers, supermarkets, grocery stores, and vending machines. Today’s average for the company’s distribution amongst grocery and supermarkets has risen to about 56% (PepsiCo. 1996 Facts). Frito-Lays closest competition in size for snack foods is Nabisco, who dosen’t’ have a snack chip to compete with Tostitos corn chip. Golden Flake Enterprises is Fritos biggest competitor in size and markets served that has a tortilla chip, but they compete in an indirect way through limited product lines.

Some companies that compete serving smaller markets are Philadelphias Utz, Herrs, and Bravo. They try to compete with Frito-Lay, but most of them have to add a degree of differentiation to gain a slight competitive advantage in a market that is to easy to copy. Companies selling in small local markets try to compete and differentiate through targeting their audiences more directly which is hard for Frito Lay to do. However smaller companies resources are limited, so it is hard to compete directly with the big distributor in markets served.

Frito has also used the strategy of forward integration, which means they have used their earnings to gain ownership or control over distributors and retailers which makes it hard for small companies to gain distribution channels. Fritos snack products are available in 40 countries and believes that the majority of its growth will come from establishing new markets. Frito-Lay owns most of their operations but some operations are joint ventures. The company works hard at keeping its market share and has brought in outside firms to look at their supply chain from manufacturing to distribution, to logistics and transportation planning.

This past year the company won an award for its seasoning and packaging program. It works to get full truckloads by utilizing unique carrier management technology systems which are projected to save 20% in transportation costs, reduce inventory carrying costs, and enable deliveries twice a week to production facilities which is expected to decrease transportation time. They are also using what is called a back-haul program to fill empty miles in Frito-Lay’s private fleet, generating over $250,000 in incremental revenue for its traffic centers.

They have also spent big money on an integrated system which provides visibility and productivity tools to optimize Frito-Lay’s distribution network (www. markvii. com/news/frito. htm). Tostitos success is due to Frito Lays capabilities to capture opportunities to enhance a competitive advantage. Through decades of hard work and expansion, the company is moving forward expanding its markets. Thier profits are high and they’ve worked hard over the years to create and maintain relationships with its channel members which has led to thier success.

Even now, customer relationship management (CRM) is in its growth stage. Until recently, diverse individuals defined this concept differently. As the name suggests, the primary focal point is placed on the customer. If a company develops better customer relationships, it also improves business processes as well as its profits. In general CRM, is a more efficient automated method used to connect and improve all areas of business to focus on creating more solid customer relationships (CRM Research Center, 2001).

All forces are coupled together to save, improve, and acquire greater business to customer relationships. The most common areas of business that are positively affected include marketing, sales, and customer service strategies (Digital Consulting Institute, 2002; CRM Research Center, 2001). CRM helps create time efficiency and savings on both sides of the business spectrum. Through correct implementation and use of CRM solutions, companies gain a better understanding of their strongest and weakest areas and how they can improve upon these.

Therefore, customers gain better products and services from their businesses of choice. In order to achieve better insight on CRM, it is essential to consider all of its components. Analogous to other technologies, CRM has its goals, costs, implementation strategies, and success and failure stories. Goals If successful, CRM can assist businesses with many customer-oriented processes. In general, companies will be able to offer better customer service. By keeping track of customer preferences, a company will have a better idea of what type of questions to expect (Bannan, 2001).

Through well-organized call centers they can provide faster more intelligent solutions to customers’ questions and complaints. Costs CRM does not come without its costs, however, according to a recent survey conducted by The Data Warehousing Institute, nearly half of the people surveyed stated that their CRM project expenses were less than $500,000. This demonstrates that not all CRM implementation has to be costly. On the other hand, this survey also presented that quite a few participants had budgets of more than $10 million (CRM Research Center, 2001).

Until recently, not many options were available to put CRM software into operation. The alternatives available were to choose between a trained and certified company to execute the task or train your own IT people, however, neither choice was favorable. Using outside knowledge and expertise costs from half to two and a half times more plus the cost of the actual software. In addition, There is now a choice of combining the external and in-house skills (Goldenberg 2002).

Dolce and Gabbana, an Italian ready-to-wear line, was founded in 1982 by Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Since the distinguished duo established they have become influential and innovative to the fashion industry. Their clothes signify a sanguine, sexy glamour, which, however raw, never over powers the wearer’s character, making them one of the most momentous design forces to emerge from Italy in recent years. Domenico Dolce was born in Palermo, Italy on August 13, 1958 to a Sicilian tailor.

He worked in his father’s shop at the young age of six, “I was obliged by my parents to work in the atelier, where I started drawing and sewing and I loved it. I was making miniature clothes as samples. ” He began studying science at a university but quickly grew bored of the monotony of the subject and dropped out to attend art school. After graduation from the art school Dolce left his native city and traveled to Milan seeking fame and fortune. Stefano Gabbana was born in Venice, Italy on November 14, 1962.

Gabbana always had an admiration of clothing, but never fantasized becoming involved in the fashion industry, “Since I was a child I really liked fashion. When I was thirteen I was going to Fiorucci to buy the most trendy things; but I didn’t think the pleasure of dressing myself would become my job. ” Although he studied art at a college in Monza, he left before receiving a degree and became an advertising art director. While working for the same Milan based fashion designer Dolce and Gabbana met and found they shared many similar idols and influences.

Although Gabbana was from Northern Italy, they both alike profess their prominent influence is the Mediterranean. Stefano claims his admiration evolved by watching classic movies with Southern Italian actresses such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, whose voluptuous bodies are constrained by tight suits, stockings and suspenders. Adoration and glorification of the female body is the departure point for all of Dolce and Gabbana’s female collections. The two have been quoted as saying that breasts are the points of departure for all of their designs.

Other inspirations include films of the fifties by directors like Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti and photos of Enzo Sellerio as well as by Giuseppe Lampedusa’s. In 1981, one year after meeting, they formed a partnership and began to work as subcontractors to factories and thread companies. For the next five years they remained faithful to their fantasy of one-day working independently, refusing lucrative opportunities, which would have sacrificed their autonomous nature.

Finally their determination and perseverance paid off in 1985 when Beppe Modenese invited them to show their designs at the New Talents Forum of the Milan Collections. The next spring Stefano and Domenico had their first design on the catwalk. With borrowed money and girl friends as models, they launched ‘Real Women’ which were quickly being purchased from stores like Browns and Harvey Nichols. When their fall collection, ‘Transformations’, hit he runway the fashion world was beginning to sit up and take notice to Dolce and Gabbana. In 1987, with their first knitwear show behind them, they set up their own showroom in Via Santa Cecilia.

From that point on, Dolce and Gabbana were in the big time, showing in Tokyo and broadened their horizons by adding lingerie; beachwear and men’s wear collections. By 1990 they had become full-fledged international designer label with all associated accouterments. New shops opened in huge cities such as New York and Milan. In this same year the company did $66 million, doubling that of the previous year. The two have really come a long way from the days of sewing their own garments. Both claim they would not continue on their own, “If I had to stop working with Domenico, I probably wouldn’t be in the fashion industry anymore,” claims Stefano.

Domenico holds a similar attitude, “I wish I could go back, to be in a room with a shelf full of fabrics, a mannequin, a sewing machine and two women- I would be very happyWe don’t know what it would be like to be like to work alone. ” Dolce and Gabbana take equal responsibilities for both the creating and business aspects of the company. When it comes to advertising the two shy away from celebrities. Although they have worked with stars such as Madonna and Linda Evangelista, nowadays they prefer anonymity, Stefano explains, “We want all young girls, not the same faces everybody uses.

The photographers they use such as Ferdinando Scianna, Gianpaolo Barbieri, and Steven Meisel have brought new interpretations to fashion photography. Even the background music to their catwalk shows underlines their individualism. The phenomenal growth is continuing by the launching of accessories, a ready-to wear bridal collection, world wide licensing deals and the award winning ‘Dolce & Gabbana Parfum’. Rumors of a leap into the cosmetic and furnishings markets are in the near future. Possibilities seem endless.

The fast paced area of HRM as seen many new developments in the science and practice of the field over its roughly 80-year history (Ferris et al. , 1999). One of the earlier developments in HRM research that still has significance today was, at the time, a theoretical foundation that challenged researchers to design measures to assess the relationship between “individual personalities” and “company personalities” (Gilmer, 1960).

This field of inquiry led to the research that has come to be known as strategic human resource management (SHRM), a field that attempts to align HRM functions and activities with the strategic goals of the organization (Butler, Ferris, & Napier, 1991). Another aspect of this review takes a look at HRM from an international perspective.

This viewpoint acknowledges the importance of the global economy, as well as emphasizes the value of the Human Resource (HR) activities that address cross-cultural concerns (Napier, Tibau, Janssens, & Pilenzo, 1995). Lastly, the political perspective of HRM presents an opportunity to address those features of public sector HRM practices that have become outdated by contemporary organizational standards (Soni, 2004). Background Human Resource Management is a diverse entity consisting of a variety of activities.

Some of these activities include the decision about staffing needs and if hiring employees or contracting with independent sources will fill these needs, recruitment and training of employees, making sure those hired are high performers, dealing with performance and evaluation issues, and ensuring that HR practices comply with various regulations (McNamara, 1999). Additionally, McNamara (1999) points out three other activities that fall within the realm of HRMmanaging the approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records, and personnel policies.

Several HRM practices may influence individual performance by providing incentives that bring out appropriate behaviors (Minbaeva et al. , 2003). Such incentive systems may include performance-based compensation and the use of internal promotion systems that focus on employee merit and help employees overcome barriers to career growth (Huselid, 1995). Previous research has shown that employees are more motivated when they are informed about the organization.

Sharing of information on strategy and company performance tells the employees that they are trusted. Additionally, it is important that employees are kept current on company performance so that they can use the knowledge that resides in the organization to its fullest potential (Pfeffer, 1998). And by factor-analyzing HRM practices, Huselid’s (1995) influential study of the impact of high performance work practices’ points out the importance of HRM as it relates to organizational turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance.

Without HRM practices in place, organizations are likely to suffer in the three areas described above. The importance of HRM as a business function is exemplified in Huselid’s (1995) view that HRM practices influence employees’ skills and competencies through the acquisition and development of a business’s “human capital. ” Because HRM is such a fast-changing study it seems appropriate here to explain the alternative terminology that is starting to make the scene.

Human capital” was introduced in a statement by David Walker (2000), the Comptroller General: We at GAO use the term “human capital” because “in contrast with traditional terms such as personnel and human resource management” it focuses on two principles that are critical in a performance management environment. First, people are assets whose value can be enhanced through investment, as the value of people increases, so does the performance capacity of the organization, and therefore, its value to clients and other stake-holders.

Second, an organization’s human capital approaches must be aligned to support the mission, vision for the future, core values, goals, and strategies by which the organization has defined its direction and its expectations for itself and its people… The term “human capital” originated in the field of economics. But both words human and capital are equally important to the concept as we apply it. Enhancing the value of employee is a win-win goal for employer and employees alike. (p. 34) Strategic Human Resource Management

Over the past 10 or 15 years, numerous theoreticians have argued that the human resources of the firm are potentially the sole source of sustainable competitive advantage for organizations (Ferris et al. , 1999). The works by these theoreticians have drawn on the resource based view of the organization (Barney, 1991, 1995) and have argued that few of the more traditional sources of sustainable competitive advantage, like technology and access to financial resources, create value in a manner that is nonsubstitutable (Ferris et al. 999).

According to Ferris et al. (1999), the slight differences of the human resource value creation process are extremely difficult to imitate, as they are “path dependent and causally ambiguous. ” Each of the research programs that have been carried out is important and distinct in their own regard, but they also share a common characteristic. The similarity is that research in these areas is relatively new and has historically not had the benefit of a richly developed theoretical base to build upon.

However, this trend appears to be changing as researchers have developed conceptual models of HRM that have moved research away from its atheoretical origins (Ferris et al. , 1999). One change that has come about from the research is the creation of professional employer organizations (PEO) that provide HR services to small and medium organizations that must outsource their HR activities (Klass, 2003). Various reasons exist for organizations having to outsource their HR activities, and consideration must be given before deciding on a particular PEO.

According to this framework, Klass (2003) indicates that substantial differences exist among small and medium enterprise (SME) outcome variables in terms of their determinants. The suggestion is that factors that allow a PEO to improve one outcome for an SME may at the same time make it more difficult to achieve positive effects on a different SME outcome. So, the implication here is that while some SMEs sacrifice part of the overall financial savings that might result from PEO use in order to gain improvements in HR outcomes, others focus mainly on cost and time savings (Klass, 2003).

Several potential advantages have been identified favoring the use of a PEO. Cost savings in the form of grater economies of scale and the ability to negotiate better rates for benefit programs are two identifiable benefits. Another plus is the access to HR expertise that offers mechanisms for improving the quality of HR programs and outcomes (Klass, McClendon, & Gainey, 1999). These advantages appear to be appealing to more and more SMEs. Current estimates indicate that three million employees are receiving HR services from PEOs, with this number growing by 30 percent annually (Hirschman, 2000).

There are certain variables one must consider when deciding on the PEO an SME will choose. These variables are trust, firm-specific knowledge, and client receptivity (Klass, 2003). It is logical to assume that the selection process should use consideration beyond a “gut feeling. ” As Klass (2003) indicates, the considerations that are relevant in this selection process include whether a PEO employs a service delivery model that allows repeated interaction with the same set of PEO service providers, whether PEO policies and cultural characteristics promote the retention of PEO personnel, human capital resources, and PEO size.

Multicultural Knowledge Transfer HRM policy in corporate America has begun to emphasize the concept that diversity is a practical choice, based on rapidly evolving U. S. demographics. Recognizing the economic opportunity, corporate leaders are spearheading mandates for multicultural workforces and emerging markets strategies (Council, 2001). Diversity is increasing within organizations at an astronomical rate. Corporations are becoming global, building strategic alliances, and facilitating mergers and acquisitions inside and outside their primary domain of work (Jackson, May, & Whitney, 1995).

Concurrently, organizations are implementing work teams with greater frequency to integrate the knowledge of workers across broad specializations, as well as geographic locations (Sundstrom, DeMeuse, & Futrell, 1990). This increasing diversity of the workforce necessitates a better understanding of how such individual differences affect the functioning of work groups, as well as which types of differences are most consequential (Harrison, Price, & Bell, 1998).

The result is that two of the most complex phenomena in the work place, diversity and work teams, are being merged together with the goal of creating more innovative, high-performing organizations (Webber, 2001). Multinational corporations (MNC) play an important part in the research of HRM practices as it relates to the transfer of knowledge through multicultural interaction. This transfer of knowledge benefits the organization through an interactive process that teaches customs and norms and foreign business practices, while simultaneously promoting good will (Minbaeva et al. 003).

In doing business with ethnic populations, it is important to know your market. For example, there is not one Hispanic market. Hispanics in the United States come from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Latin America, and they have different beliefs and customs (Romano, 1995). These demographic trends make it necessary for HRM to look at the feasibility of employing more bilingual employees because it would be strategically advantageous for the organization to have personnel who speak their customers’ language (Romano, 1995).

Given the composition of the workforce today and its projected future composition, understanding and predicting employee reactions to all levels of diversity is critical. Most organizational research on these reactions has been gloomy, suggesting that demographic diversity diminishes work group cohesion and organizational attachment and heightens risks of employee withdrawal and turnover (Harrison, Price, & Bell, 1998). This has major implications for those in the HRM field.

The challenge will be to implement programs that, coupled with effective hiring practices, will place people in work groups that will function at maximum efficiency for the good of the individuals involved and the organization, even in the midst of cultural differences. HRM in the Public Sector The state of public service has been characterized as a “quiet crisis” for decades. The term was attached to the slow weakening of the public service from the 1970s and 1980s, and has continued through the 1990s into the present (Soni, 2004).

The crisis that exists presents unique challenges for public sector HRM because of the issues surrounding the crisis itself. As Soni (2004) points out, “the current crisis is building as large numbers of government workers are expected to retire in the coming years and not enough younger people are in the pipeline for government jobs. ” These trends in public service seem to reflect the shift in young people’s attitudes toward government itself. The younger generation tends not to choose public service careers because of the negative reputation of government’s hiring process, lack of challenging work, and its system of rewards (Soni, 2004).

For this trend to change reforms must be initiated that will address the problems in civil service. Any reforms should also take into account the lack of managerial flexibility experienced and the changing nature of public service (Light, 1999). Many external and internal organizational forces such as workforce demographics, technology, and privatization, as well as the eroding trust in government institutions have drastically altered the atmosphere of government service. Accordingly, traditional human resource management approaches no longer work.

The HR supply and demand problem must be addressed at multiple levels. Educating people about government service, raising the image of government workers, providing competent and reliable leadership in government agencies, conducting career development and training of existing personnel, and actively recruiting, particularly in technological and scientific fields, all will have to be done simultaneously to adequately respond to the human resource crisis in the public sector (Soni, 2004).

The government’s downsizing during the early 1990s helped to throw the civilian workforce into a tailspin. Walker (2000) points out that the federal civilian payroll is at its lowest level since 1950. Many agencies did not strategically assess their human resources requirements before initiating the downsizing of the 1990s, and as a result, saw some of their best talent, especially in the technical fields, accept buyouts and move to higher-paying private sector jobs.

During the same period, the government conducted very little hiring, which reduced the influx of people with new knowledge, new energy, and new ideas. The result is a federal workforce that is steadily declining in accountability, feels more and more overworked, and whose skills are out of balance with the needs of the public it serves (Soni, 2004). In response to these deficiencies the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has taken steps to improve the skills of human resources professionals so that they can be prepared to take a strategic role in agency management.

The OPM Director James in addressing this issue states, “We are hoping to elevate the entire profession, advise agencies on the kind of training and skills that the human resources professionals need and urge every agency to have their HR professionals at the table when they are developing their strategic plans and goals for the next several years” (MSPB, 2002). Conclusion The field of Human Resource Management is an ever-changing study of activities undertaken by organizations in an effort to gain the competitive advantage over other firms.

It has become clear that in truly progressive organizations in the future, HRM will not be merely viewed as a set of policies and practices, nor will it be defined as just a department or function. Instead, in such effective organizations, HRM will be a “mentality” or way of thinking. It will have to be an extensive entity in the organization and integral to all of its decisions and actions. Organizations will have to make the choice to expend capital in order to have the diversity offered by HRM. Smaller firms will need to incorporate some form of HRM if they hope to remain, or become, competitive with other similarly sized organizations.

The public sector will have to build and maintain a strong HRM body so that declines of the past are not realized today. They must also offer something to potential recruits that will be enticing enough to draw good stock from the workforce pool. And regardless of how contemporary an organization believes they have become in the field of HRM, it would behoove them not to become lax in their diligence to stay on top of the competition. New theories and models are being tested with greater frequency in order to further the field of study and maintain, or gain, the competitive advantage.

Business plays a major role within our society. It is a creative and competitive activity that continuously contributes to the shaping of our society. By satisfying the needs and wants people cannot satisfy themselves, businesses improve the quality of life for people and create a higher standard of living. It is a way for individuals to provide goods and services to consumers, and at the same time, produce a profit for themselves.

Businesses are not only important because they provide goods and services for consumers, but they also improve the economy and increase jobs for people within society which is an dditional fact producing a higher standard of living. To measure our societies standard of living, we must look to our “Gross National Product”, which is the complete measure of our nations output. Unfortunately, inflation is a major problem in our nation which often reduces the Gross National Product. Inflation occurs when the goods become too high within society and spending decreases.

A central function within our economic system is satisfying the needs of the consumers with the use of limited supplies. The purpose of a business is to combine resources such as land, labor, and capital in a way that will make them ore valuable. Operating in a political and economic climate that supports individual rights, American business has as its guiding principle the right to private ownership and profit. The amount of goods produced depends upon the number of resources available for use. This idea is commonly known as “Supply and Demand”.

Businesses must attempt to reach an equilibrium between the two which will directly impact the price of the products produced. If something is heavily demanded and at the same time, it’s resources are limited, the price of the product will rise. This idea of course works both ways. The easier it is o produce something, the cheaper it will be. All economic systems begin with the same resources including land, labor, capital and technology. These resources may be limited at any given time, varying within the world at large, from country to country.

This business cycle explains how business fluctuates from high to low prosperity, recession, depression and recovery over time. The major challenges faced by our nation today are the Federal Budget Deficit, international trade deficit, the Decline of Smokestack America, and the conservation of energy. The Federal Budget Deficit occurs when our expenditures re greater then our revenues. International trade deficits occur when a nation imports more then it exports. The Decline of Smokestack America is when there is a change from an industrial to a post-industrial economy.

Finally, the conservation of energy is so that there are a sufficient amount of natural resources necessary to produce goods. General economic growth or stagnation also has an important influence on business within our society. Many factors can affect it’s condition, such as war, new inventions and technology, political assassinations, the discovery of physical and natural resources, labor egotiations, government action, and many others. When the economy is strong and the demand is high, businesses can prosper.

Regardless of how great the economy may become, businesses still must compete with other firms for scarce raw materials and labor. A businesses environment creates many opportunities as well as problems for prospering businesses. The environment determines what a business can do by shaping and channeling its development. Businesses function within an environment by allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital and create profits freely. The supply of money available within a business as well as the economic tability through times of growth and recession have strong effects on businesses.

Not only is the physical environment, including natural resources, pollution and energy as discussed previously, important, but many other aspects within the environment influence business. A business must adapt and overcome consumerism and ecology, and it has a social responsibility to do so. Cultures surrounding businesses also play a major role. A business must adapt to a changing society with age, lifestyle, culture and location. When a business learns to adapt to these changes, it will be profitable for both the business nd consumers. Economic systems can be classified into three categories.

These include capitalism, socialism and communism. Pure capitalism is an unrestrained freedom to buy, sell and compete. Private enterprises allow entrepreneurs to run businesses without central government control and can operate within a free market. Capitalism is a system of true private enterprise. Some aspects of capitalism are free choice, private ownership, private profit and free competition. The only drawback of this type of system is that a company can operate with no competition thereby creating a monopoly unfavorable for onsumers.

Socialism, on the other hand, is a system where the production and distribution of industries are owned and operated by the government. Officials directly manage some or all of the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, communication and transportation. This system is loosely regulated by the government. Finally, communism replaces the operation of a free market almost entirely. Most of the rights enjoyed within the capitalist system are denied and private ownership is prohibited. Business are controlled by state planners and competition is almost completely eliminated.

Today our economy is made up of a mixed economic system with each one contributing but no one dominating. Communist and socialist systems seem to be adopting many capitalists views and ideas. It is up to you to decide which system you prefer, but the United States’ system of capitalism seems to be working adequately and positively. It is based on the principles of private enterprise and modified capitalism. There are many forms of business within our economic system but they are all arranged in three major categories. These three categories are sole proprietorships, partnerships and corporations.

Within a sole proprietorship, one entrepreneur assumes all the risks of the business, but at the same time, keeps all of the profits. In just this one simple sentence we become aware of the obvious fact that along with it’s advantages come many disadvantages. A sole proprietor, on one hand, makes his own decisions and pays only one tax for himself and the business. In addition, setting up a business for a sole proprietor is much simpler under the law compared to the other two types of businesses. However, the sole proprietor has unlimited liability and complete responsibility to the business.

He or she must assume all of the risks and often must contribute from his own savings in order to prosper or just simply exist. A sole proprietor must also bring the natural resources, human resources and capital together by himself in order to run the business and produce goods and services. Because of it’s difficulty to raise funds and grow, sole proprietorships very often suffer from impermanence. A partnership can also start with little difficulty under the law. They have a greater chance of growing and existing because partners can pool their assets, talents, funds and borrowing power.

Similar to sole proprietorships, partnerships also pay only one tax and create a high degree of satisfaction for the partners stemming from them being their own boss. Unfortunately, however, with a partnership comes unlimited liability and personal disagreements between the partners. In addition, because of this single taxation, the personal assets of the partners are frozen which often creates major problems. As a result, partnerships also suffer from impermanence. A corporation, in my opinion, is the best option.

Although filing for a corporation can become expensive and they are heavily egulated by the state, they have the ability to raise large amounts of capital. They have a long term existence, continuing to exist even when one of it’s officers dies or resigns, large investment possibilities, easy withdrawal power and a specialized management making production easier and quicker. Best of all, corporations have limited liability, holding only the corporation itself liable to any debts or obligations and freeing all officers and their personal assets from blame and liability.

Although this may all be true, owners within a corporation, that being the shareholders, must share the total investment and ivide all profits made. Because of the generally large number of owners, job satisfaction also decreases along with strong personal motivation. Shareholders have almost no privacy when it comes to their financial affairs. There is a higher taxation for corporations and the shareholders are taxed twice, once for the corporations assets and a second time for personal assets.

The role of the government in authorizing the operations of corporations creates still another disadvantage. They are often expensive to establish and complex to run because they are strictly regulated by the government. More government regulations are pplied to corporations then any other form of business ownership. Just simply reporting to the government so that they know all regulations are being followed can be timely and complicated. Strict and detailed records and statements must always be kept for the government as well as for the shareholders of the corporation.

It is obvious, everything that comes with advantages must also come with disadvantages, this is why the type of business ownership that is right for a person varies, depending on the detailed aspects of each particular business. The advantages and disadvantages must be weighed within each ituation. While the main forms of business ownership include the three subsequently discussed, there are many other variations that can be used, depending upon each situation. These include limited partnerships, joint ventures, joint stock companies, cooperatives and franchises. Small business are also widespread in our nation and are growing rapidly.

They provide the most employment to teenagers, immigrants and the elderly, thereby employing a large percentage of the population. This fact is true because small business are more willing to adjust to their employees needs and responsibilities. The services industry is dominated by small businesses which require limited capital in order to establish them and run successfully. They have greater flexibility, provide greater personal attention to consumers, have lower, fixed costs, high innovation and greater motivation. Unfortunately, the failure rate of small businesses is high due to poor management and inadequate financing.

Therefore, small business owners accept many benefits as well as burdens. The benefit of being your own boss and gaining greater work satisfaction is accompanied by the burden of working long hours and dealing with igh amounts of stress. However, these burdens are generally a result of many occupations, regardless of whether or not you are your own boss. This is why small businesses are on the rise. There are many aspects that go along with creating a successful business, regardless of it’s size. These include networking, planning, environmental examinations, internal control and resources.

The problem is, however, that it is up to the sole proprietor of the business to bring all of these aspects together in working order which is harder for a small business then it is for a larger business or corporation. However, there re several agencies of the federal government whose primary purpose is to offer support and guidance to small businesses. A major agency among these is the Small Business Administration. Specifically, the Small Business Administration provides guidance in the form of special courses and workshops in management problems and skills.

It publishes information on how to prepare a business plan, start up and operate a business, and helps a business obtain there fair share of governmental contracts. Of major importance to small business owners is the fact that the Small Business Administration assists sole proprietors in btaining loans and capital necessary in order to create a business. While they can neither guarantee nor provide these funds, they can be of great assistance. People obtaining small businesses through franchising have a much higher success rates, for obvious reasons.

They are a good choice in order to avoid the many problems of creating a small business on your own. A franchise permits an individual to own his or her own business while benefiting from a trademark, know-how and the reputation of an established firm. This enables an individual to acquire a business more quickly and receive profits rapidly. However, the individual owner must pay the parent corporation a portion of the businesses’ profits. This often becomes a problem because in some instances the financial rewards for the individual are sometimes low in relation to the time an effort that they put in to running the business.

Therefore, this a major disadvantage and often makes the idea unattractive to small business owners. Since the government plays a major role in the operation of a business, the two must learn to coexist. The main role of government has traditionally been to protect the rights of the country’s citizens. They follow this role by roviding for the people police protection, a judicial system and a national defense system. The government protects individuals within our economy by protecting fair competition, consumer investments and general welfare, promotes property rights, and oversees certain administrations and industries.

During the nineteenth century many businesses’ strategy was to reach a monopoly position, and many were successful. Finally the government stepped in and regulation has been a rule ever since. The right to own property is basic to a private enterprise and it is the ultimate responsibility of the government to nforce this right. The government must also enforce limitations on property rights, one important limitation being taxation, in order to benefit the public. It is responsible for establishing many agencies to protect consumers’ health and safety.

This, of course, being another benefit of taxation. Taxation is done in order to provide public service and promote the general well being for the people. The most important source of revenue for the federal government is a tax on personal and corporate incomes. Many states and some cities depend heavily on income taxes. Noting gets done without management. Business management is central to running a business by handling resources and activities and accomplishing work through other people within the firm.

A business can be looked at as a system of related parts working together, and management is what integrates these parts to make up the system. Small firms usually have only one or two managers, but large corporations have a staff of managers all working on different levels. The level of the manager is how he or she is ranked within the company. The top level consists of executives, the middle level are known as the middle managers, nd finally the lower level are commonly known as the first-level supervisors.

This is what I mean by the managers being ranked in the company. An executive will be known to have much more responsibility, plan and implement strengths and have more control of the business than the lower level managers do. However, all managers are trying to achieve the same goal regardless of the size of the company, this goal being to work effectively with the employees and consumers in order to achieve the company’s objectives. Managers have four basic responsibilities; planning, organizing and staffing, directing and coordinating, nd evaluating and controlling.

Managers make plans to solve problems and take advantage of opportunities that come there way in order to help the business run successfully and profitably. They must recruit qualified workers to carry out this plan, workers who work well with others and are hard working and innovative. Some king of organization is needed to arrange each workers position within the company. A supervisor must also be selected so that each employee will know to whom they will be directly working for. All of these tasks must be brought together by the manager.

The manager must constantly evaluate the workers and oordinate the work being completed. The evaluation of results leads to control, which influences other functions within the company. One important aspect that makes a successful manager is his degree of sensitivity. Since a manager must work through people, personal interaction skills are of utmost importance. All managers use different approaches to dealing with people but it is important to treat employees with respect, flexibility, recognition, and room for ideas. You will only get back what you give, and this is where many business fail.

No matter how intelligent or business minded you may be, if your employees or onsumers don’t like or respect you as a person, you will get no where. Managers must also be innovative in order to find better ways to get the job done, good decision makers so that they may take risks in order to solve problems, good leaders in order to bind and organize the company, have good communication skills with employees and bosses so as to promote a free flowing exchange of information, and finally, have good motivational skills so as to motivate employees to add incentive and meaning to the work.

Obviously, management is a difficult job. All of the functions that a manager must perform equire dedication, intelligence, the ability to deal with stress and diverse people, and most of all, the ability to deal with and accept responsibility. Today, producers must make an effort to find out what kinds of products consumers want and to make these products available for sale. They must also make an effort through advertising to inform consumers of the goods and services that are available to them. Lets face it, all businesses have the same goal, to make consumers happy and make a profit.

The marketing concept builds profits for the consumers’ needs and interests. Marketing requires as mixture of production, development, pricing, placement and promotion. All of these functions must be implemented on a continuous basis in order to improve sales. Product planning concentrates on determining which goods and services consumers want to design them and meet their needs. Pricing is an important aspect of production because it ultimately determines whether a product will be purchased and if, at the same time, it will be profitable to the company.

Product distribution involves decisions about warehousing and transportation that will be cost effective, timely and safe. At this point, the company will also determine whether they will be selling products directly to the public or to an intermediary. Finally, product promotion includes personal selling and promoting the products available, advertising, and direct sales promotion, such as free samples and discount coupons. Business income depends entirely upon the sale of products, including goods or services.

Successful companies must introduce there products in a way that works consistently with the changing market, economic conditions, competition, and changing company goals so as to benefit both the consumers and he company through a high percentage of sales. The main role of marketing managers is to insure to the best of their ability that the product will be sold in quantities necessary to benefit the company. This role entails expert knowledge about the product and knowledge of consumers’ wants and needs.

It will almost always include designing the specifications of the product in order to produce its precise functions and abilities. An important aspect of planning and designing a new product is differentiating it form other similar products on the market. Packaging and resentation can help to achieve this goal in some ways, however, specific features must be present within the products themselves in order to achieve this differentiation. A trademark or brand name is an important way of differentiating products by creating buyer loyalty.

Brands are important in production because they make it easy for consumers to distinguish one product from another. Buyers feel confident buying certain brands that they feel they can trust and are assured of consistent quality. Brands are normally at the center of advertising. Even if a consumer is convinced about buying a product, hey would be more able to identify and more apt to purchase it if it had a brand. Advertising is an important aspect of marketing. It provides the presentation of good available to the consumer through communications vehicles such as the media.

It present informative and persuasive sales messages through the newspapers, television, magazines, etc. Advertising stimulates interest in and demand for specific products, and thus supports sales promotion and personal selling. It is often used to create a favorable public view toward a company, industry or other institution. The main purpose of advertising is to help sell oods and/or services. It supports personal selling by informing the potential buyer of a products features and encouraging a favorable attitude towards it before the product has actually reached the selling stage.

It reaches people sales personnel cannot since it rarely possible to have a sales force large enough to reach every potential consumer and will sometimes motivate people to seek out representatives on their own. Advertising improves personal relationships with dealers by increasing demand and sales. And finally, advertising promotes goodwill by proving to be reliable, interested in the ublic good and a good citizen. This advertisement will do this by concentrating on the business itself rather then the product so that consumers trust it and feel safe by using the companies products.

Setting the right price for a product is essential to it’s success. The major factors that effect product pricing are demand and competition. Demand is closely linked to price. If the supply of a product is constant, greater demand will allow higher prices. At the same time, however, higher prices will tend to reduce demand. Competition also affects pricing. Free competition tends to drive prices down ecause competitors will increase the supply of the product in the market and new competitors often purposely sell at lower prices in an effort to cut into the sales of an established producer.

Therefore, marketers have an important choice to make when pricing a product. They can establish high prices with the expectation of selling fewer units with higher profits on each unit, or set low prices in an effort to achieve voluminous sales even though the profit on each unit may be small. They must then attempt to find the right price in order to maximize profits by balancing a sales volume with profit per unit. Federal and state governments have passed laws influencing the fair pricing of gods by companies.

These Fair Trade Laws prohibit retailers from selling goods at a price lower then that set by the producer, so as to prevent unfair competition. They are supposed to protect small retailers from the competition of large stores who can afford to set lower prices because of their voluminous sales. Marketing management includes more then just buying and selling. It includes a wide range of activities and duties, all being of great importance to the business. Nearly every firm is concerned with buying, selling, transporting, toring, risk bearing, standardizing, grading and labeling, financing, and gathering and using information.

What all of these aspects have in common is that they must all be done with enough appeal and innovation necessary in order to sell products and at the same time make a profit for the company. Running a business is costly, therefore every idea must be carefully though out and implemented so as to satisfy consumers, while at the sale time, satisfying the business by creating a profit. Market research is of equal importance to a business. As discussed previously, our economy is very diverse and constantly changing. A business must study the environment and population so as to comply with the consumers buying patterns, needs and wants.

A company can do this through market segmentation, demography, and by the use of questionnaires and surveys. Market research can be carried out by the use of market segmentation, which is the dividing up of the market into similar groups so that each group may be studied and carefully examined. Demography is the study of the population as a whole through the use of statistics. Finally, questionnaires, surveys, consumer test panels, and the observation of shopper behavior in stores can also aid in dentifying and characterizing a market within the economy.

This will surely keep a business up to par on the changing economy in the present, as well as forecasting future trends which has also proven to be necessary in order to operate as a successful business. In conclusion, it is obvious from my brief discussion that the term “Business” is very complex. When discussing it, one must consider many important sub-categories such as economic systems, the business cycle, business environments, types of businesses, government, management, marketing and advertising, each of which in and of itself is also very complex.

The purpose of this exercise is to design a single user system, to solve the needs of a startup business. The business I chose is a service oriented, automotive oil change company. This system will need to satisfy the business needs of a small company, including database queries, inventory management, customer tracking, form generating, accounting, and many other functions. This must be accomplished in an easy to use, simple, single user format. This system should be a point of sale system utilizing separate databases.

One for customer tracking used to notify previous customers via postcard printouts. In addition, these should be sent after a three-month period from their last service. There could be coupons issued as well. Accounting and inventory information, such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc. sales, current inventory needs, cost of inventory, profit margins, employee records, sales tax, etc. should also be stored. Another, dynamic database would hold manufacture specifications.

This would provide real-time query access for make/model vehicle specifications for referencing filter part numbers as well as other technical information. This would need to be updated as manufacturers change specifications. This system should contain redundant features as it is business critical, providing dual, mirrored disk drives, as well as an efficient backup device. This would reduce down time due to drive failure. The need for this amount of safety lies in the necessity of maintaining fast, uninterrupted service.

There would need to be two printers. One, a dot matrix for printing customer receipts, as well as a hard copy for business purposes. The second printer would be for the service personnel. This would print out the work orders with specific information, such as the make and model of the vehicle as well as the filter numbers and quantity of oil needed. This printer would be located in the service area. This system should be capable of printing and displaying timely accounting reports including sales figures and current inventory quantities.

These should be available on screen (a color VGA monitor would be required), as well as in printed form. All this must be extremely user friendly. With very little training required. The projected employee skill and pay level is expected to be entry level minimum wage. When researching a business solution to fit this need, one company was mentioned in most interviews and research. Auto Data was highly recommended by the independent area shops that provide this service. Auto Data provides a complete software system specifically engineered for this market.

This package is called POS-I-LUBE. This is a all-encompassing point of sale software package that provides complete support of an automotive service company. This system provides comparative accounting reports, real-time inventory management, work order creation, reliable specification information via a secured connection, employee time-clock accounting functions, full cash register functions and professionally printed receipts, as well as a complete service history for each of your customers.

This system will provide the ability to check inventory levels anytime. Supply payroll information with their time card feature. Generate accounting reports ranging from comparative sales figures from one period to another, period financial reports, profit margins, inventory costs, personnel costs, withholdings, sales tax figures, essentially all the accounting information necessary to successfully run the business. This is in conjunction to the real-time product specification query function and work orders.

The time that is saved by the vehicle specification query, which previously had to be done through hard copy cross-reference, looking up make, model, engine, options, etc. , now can be used to assure that you have a timely customer turnaround time, as this is all done automatically through this menu driven system. The customer history database can be queried to provide essential data for mass mailings and coupons. These are all time saving functions that work to improve customer satisfaction, while maintaining a strong presence in the marketplace.

POS-I-LUBE utilizes a Fox Pro database for it’s customer history and tracking, as well as its accounting data. For the vehicle specification database, POS-I-LUBE uses a licensed Check Chart subscribed database available through a secured connection. This is where the monthly fee ($250. 00) comes into play. Recommended hard drive size is 1GB by the manufacturer Auto Data. This menu driven package is designed to be mouse driven, with no typing required, offering less opportunity for mistakes.

This also make the system very user friendly with very little training required. This all-inclusive package offers greater reliability than many other products available in the marketplace. The STAR Pro VII @ $ 1847. 00, and the Shopman Standard Version 3. 0 @ $299. 00 are alternatives. While the STAR Pro VII offers much of the inventory, report generating and accounting functions of the POS-I-LUBE system it does not offer the database query functions to reference vehicle specifications. The budget priced Shopman Standard Version 3. nly offers the repair orders and invoices.

This reliability of the POS-I-LUBE system is due partly to the fact that it is all inclusive and not pieced together from non-compatible software. The initial cost of this software is under $2,000. 00, with a small annual fee for real-time database queries ($250. 00). The hardware is user supplied and can fluctuate in cost depending on the specifications desired by the user. For the requirements that I desired, Dell provided the best solution for the money. I decided on the Workstation 410 with the following features.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethics statement of the business for which I work, and includes examples of ethical behavior. The paper will cover the success and/or failures of the ethical statement purpose, how the statement contributes to the work environment, and the consequences of the failure to observe the ethical guidelines. The company I work for provides a Code of Ethics and Business Conduct to its employees worldwide for their guidance in addressing the legal and ethical issues encountered in conducting the company’s business.

The code starts with a summary of the core business values that are essential to the success of the company. The employees are expected to adopt these values and apply them to their day-to-day business activities. The company feels that the acceptance and adherence to these values will enhance the long-term success of serving the customer base, increasing the competitiveness and the pride of the corporation.

I feel the purpose of the company’s ethics statement is to set forth standards that restate compliances with laws and regulations. It also covers common sense rules by which employees should be determined to live and work. The company encourages success of these guidelines by requiring employees to become familiar with the contents of the Code. These successes are made available through web cast presentations for each employee. Individuals who fail in their success of ethical behavior do not feel the need to embrace the guidelines.

The expectation is for each employee to exercise sound judgment, conduct, and seek proper counsel in any action that may compromise personal ethical standards and those of the corporation. The statement contributes to the work environment by outlining business values. Employees are to demonstrate honesty in all business transactions and personal dealings with others. They must consistently treat individuals with respect; demonstrate teamwork and the ability to work together.

Employees must show innovative approaches to problem solving with a high priority to customer satisfaction. They must also seek continuous improvement in quality, fairness, and compliance to the ethical statement. This code is applicable to all employees of the corporation. The employees must operate within the bounds of all applicable laws. It is expected that all employees compete fairly and ethically for all business opportunities involving sales or licensing of products. Individuals are expected to know, understand, and honor the terms of contractual agreements.

Failure to comply with the guidelines stated will result in disciplinary action. The following examples ensure continuing attention to matters of ethics and business conduct on the part of the corporation; employees are required to report any conduct that they believe to be an actual or apparent violation of the Code. The managers are to maintain an “open door” policy concerning employee questions including business conduct and ethics. Human Resources will address any suspicion of unethical or illegal activities taking place.

Every employee’s cooperation is required in assuring that violations of this Code are called to the attention of those who should be informed. Because these standards are very important to corporate values, the only appropriate response to a deviation from them may be termination of employment. In summary, this paper discussed the ethics statement of the business where I am employed. It also addresses success and/or failures of the ethical statement purpose, how the statement contributes to the work environment, and the consequences of straying from those guidelines.

With the wealth of information available today, businesses can find a wide variety of schemes visualizing the strategic planning process are available. In essence they usually consists of a series of steps or building blocks. The analysis starts with defining the business and formulating a vision and then goes on to assess the internal and external environment.

The strategic planning process ends with the financial budget and goes into a feedback loop The essence of formulating a strategy is relating a company to its environment. Therefore the analysis phase is crucial to the outcome of the total planning process. A major part of the analysis phase is a diagnosis of the external environment. Several tools and techniques have been developed to assist the planners in evaluating the external environment. Of particular interest is the assessment of the profit potential in the industry. Many years ago, most business analyzed themselves in a comparative sense.

The comparative advantages of a business were determined through an economic theory, first developed by David Ricardo of England, that attributed the cause and benefits of international trade to the differences among countries in the relative opportunity costs (costs in terms of other goods given up) of producing the same commodities. In Ricardo’s theory, which was based on the labor theory of value (in effect, making labor the only factor of production), the fact that one country could produce everything more efficiently than another was not an argument against international trade.

The theory of comparative advantage is a strong argument in favor of free international trade and specialization among countries. The issue becomes more complex, however, as the simplifying assumptions (e. g. , a single factor of production, a given stock of resources, full employment, and a balanced exchange of goods) are relaxed. More recently, Michael C. Porter put forth the idea that competitive advantages were more important.

In The competitive Advantage of Nations, published in 1990, Porter said that instead of trying to enter a market where there is little or no competition, a company should instead participate in national markets with the strongest rivals and most demanding customers. This is mainly due to the fact that in a closed, domestic industry, a company accustomed to weak competitors and undemanding customers has little to fear. In today’s global marketplace, such newly strong competitors are in no short supply. That is why it is important to understand one’s competition.

Yip, 1995) Michael Porter’s Competitive Forces Model (commonly referred to as Porter’s Five Forces Model) is by far the most widely used framework for an assessment of the profit potential in an industry. The collective strength of the so-called five forces differs from industry to industry. Each of those five forces is based on structural features (dimensions) which collectively impact the profit potential. All five forces jointly determine the intensity of the industry competition and profitability.

The strongest forces become crucial from the point of view of strategy formulation. Porter’s Five Forces are a framework for diagnosing industry structure, built around the competitive forces that erode long-term industry average profitability. The industry structure framework can be applied at the level of the industry, the strategic group (or group of firms with similar strategies) or even the individual firm. Its ultimate function is to explain the sustainability of profits against bargaining and against direct and indirect competition.

The five forces are covered in more detail below. These are the important structural components with an industry to limit or prohibit the entrance of new competitors. The major components are scale economies (advantage of experience, learning and volume), differentiation (brand image and loyalty), capital requirements (new entrants will face a risk premium), switching cost involved by the customer, access to distribution channels and cost disadvantages (patents, location, subsidies). Some of the elements involved with the barriers to entry force are shown in the list below.

Proprietary low-cost product design In most industries, especially when there are only a few major competitors, competition will very closely match the offering of others. Aggressiveness will depend mainly on factors like number of competitors, industry growth, high fixed costs, lack of differentiation, capacity augmented in large increments, diversity in type of competitors and strategic importance of the business unit. Some of the elements involved with the rivalry among existing competitors force are shown in the list below.

Fixed (or storage) costs/value added These are products or solutions that basically perform the same function but are often based on a different technology. Depending on the level of abstraction nearly everything can be a substitution. In general the only factor that really matters is a shift in technology. Some of the elements involved with the substitutes force are shown in the list below. Relative price performance of substitutes Through their bargaining power buyers can force the competitors to lower their prices or force higher quality or better service.

The major factors which determine the bargaining power are volume (relative to seller sales), does the product represent a major fraction of the buyer’s costs or purchases, differentiation or standard product, switching costs, buyer profitability (hence their price sensitivity), threat of backward integration, importance to the quality of the final product, and level of knowledge and information of the buyer of industry demand, actual market prices and supplier cost. Some of the elements involved with the power of buyers force are shown in the list below.

Buyer concentration versus firm concentration Buyer switching costs relative to firm switching costs Suppliers can exert their bargaining power over participants by threatening to raise prices or reduce the quality. A supplier group is powerful if they are more concentrated than the industry they sell to, or if the customer group is not important for the suppliers, if the product is an important input to the buyer’s business, or they have built up switching costs, or the supplier group poses a threat of forward integration.

Some of the elements involved with the power of suppliers force are shown in the list below. Switching costs of suppliers and firms in the industry Cost relative to total purchases in the industry Impact of inputs on cost or differentiation Threat of forward integration relative to threat of backward integration by firms in the industry Strategy and industry analysis are vital for anyone wishing to compete, and utilizing Michael Porter’s ideas to their fullest extent can be the difference between success and failure.

The following excerpt from Fortune says it best. For Porter, much of what has passed for management thinking in the past decade may have been important, but it wasn’t strategy–and isn’t nearly as crucial as good strategy. “Strategy is not accidental. It is a purposeful process,” he says. “Luck is alive and well. Intuition is alive and well. But human beings have some control over their own destiny. And you can improve your odds of making better judgments. ” (Surowiecki, 1999)

Porter’s skepticism about the idea that strategy is less important today than it once was is mirrored by his skepticism about the idea that the Internet will turn the business world upside down. “The arrival of the Internet will affect every industry in some way, but for 50% or more of the economy it’s not a transformational event,” he says. “It will have a powerful impact on the supply of information to customers and the relationship between companies and their suppliers, but it’s not like the automobile.

You don’t have to change the theory of strategy to deal with the Internet. ” (Surowiecki, 1999) Porter points to the dominant players in the New Economy as classic exemplars of successful strategic thinking. “The average technology company is not all that gifted in terms of strategy,” Porter says. “But the most successful companies–the Dells, the Intels, the Ciscos–don’t think about strategy as incremental or impossible. They have a clear sense of what they’re trying to do and of how to do it. ” (Surowiecki, 1999)

Many small businesses don’t realize how important their company image really is. The following is a formula for low cost marketing for a small business to create or better their image. To find this formula I interviewed Evan Paull, the owner of a small sign making company based in Annapolis Maryland called ‘Independent Sign Consortium’ or ‘ISC. ’ ‘ISC’ was started in 1996 and has had a steady growth ever since. I also interviewed Allison Green, the marketing director of ‘Revisions,’ ‘Revisions’ is based in Baltimore Maryland and is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the mentally ill.

Many small companies believe that a corporate or company image develops all on it’s own. Therefore, they believe the business itself has little or no control over shaping the outcome of the image. Often a company will delay any investment in a public image because they think it’s an expensive luxury. It is only after some bad publicity or a negative event do they relies that some effort needs to be put into improving or defining their look. Of course if you wait until something like this happens the cost is always going to be higher.

Most successful businesses have a carefully crafted image that separates them from the competition and helps to establish a solid public presence,” remarks Allison Green. A distinct corporate image benefits many aspects of any business. Public relations rely on image to attract new customers and to generate repeat business. Finance departments depend on image to impress investors and shareholders with a sense of stability. Employees feel more secure when a company has a good image. An image should always accurately reflect the substance of a company.

However, an image is only a perception, an appearance, a representative look of that substance. Subsequently, as Green says, “…it doesn’t always have to cost an arm and a leg…” to accurately represent the company. Given an unlimited budget, any fat corporation can create a new image or alter an outdated or damaged one. Those of us with more modest resources, given only a camera, a copier and an ink jet printer adding some creativity can do it even better. There are some things on which you should never cut corners, safety regulations or legal issues for example.

Looking only at the surface, in this instance, is a good thing as is going for style not necessarily substance. You only get what you pay for doesn’t really apply here. Remember an image should reflect the true quality of your products or services, however, as Evan Paull says “…any little set designer will attest, you can get great looking reflections even when you only have very little resources. ” First, take a look at your present image. Make note of the things you like. Decide on what components can or can not be changed (the name perhaps).

Look at the parts that you hate or the parts that need a great deal of improvement. Notice the parts of your image that are neutral. In order to develop a positive or a new and improved but inexpensive image, start identifying other businesses that have the look you want. Start with the competition. Collect their brochures and other printed materials especially business cards and annual reports. Visit their locations and take note of the signage, the dcor, furniture, and display cases.

Next study other businesses that just have a look that you like or an appearance that gives you a good first impression. Even if they are not appropriate for your particular needs, identify parts of the look that you like, a logo or sign, a color combination perhaps. Whenever possible take pictures. Go through magazines and catalogs, clip logos, ads and pictures that express an image you would like to achieve. Carefully examine fonts, letterheads and graphics. Many times things are not as they appear.

Gold lettering on a sign is not gold, wood grain is not real wood and marble floors are seldom made of marble… [In these instances, a designer or architect looked at the surface of the project and chose materials to suit the needs of his design and the budget of his client. ]…When putting together a company image, you need to begin seeing things on the surface the way an artist might see it. When an artist paints a tree, he doesn’t take a real tree and smash it into the canvass. He looks at the tree and sees that it is just different shades of green and brown pigment. He then recreates the tree using different materials.

The end result is not a real tree but a valuable representative image. When putting together your new company image try squinting your eyes to see things differently,” Paull says. Look at everything that makes up your public image in this different way, your logo, your sign, displays, letterhead, brochures, annual reports, walls, and floors. Paull says that you should try to “while squinting see the colors change and shapes move. Notice that red can appear to be several colors when the shades are lightened or darkened. Notice that movement can change the color, size and shape of things [like signs].

See that an expensive die cut in the cover of an annual report doesn’t look cut at all, rather it is a sharp contrast of color with a blackout line. Make note that direct sunlight is different from florescent lighting that is different from incandescent light and that lighting coming from above is different then lighting from the floor or a table lamp. ” Now turn these observations into cost cutting questions. Do you really need an expensive four-color processor for your brochure or annual report to get the look you want? Does your lobby furniture really need chrome accents to achieve the same image as you saw in the lobby of your competitor?

Do you hate your old display or do you just hate the colors being used? Does your sign need to be made of costly reflective or translucent materials? Is lighting being used effectively to accent or emphasize your projects? Is lighting being used at all? When a man walks into a discount department store wearing a shirt and tie, customers think he works there. If he also wears a jacket they will think he is the manager. Likewise, your customers will think what you lead them to think about your organization by the surface image that you present to them.

Again, your product or service must live up to the image to be successful but the representation itself need not be the focus of your finances. Don’t pass by those resumes with degrees in art or theater. In fact have Human Resources to be on the look out for them. Every company needs a visually oriented person. A color ink jet printer is also an important tool, not necessarily the more expensive color laser printer. You will also need a graphics software package and a good copier, remember Paull’s words, “never buy cheap paint or shoes.

There are some things that will always cost you more in the long run if you start off too cheaply. A copier is one of them. You will definitely need a camera; there is no need to spend a great deal of money on this. However if you are going to invest in a quality camera, consider a digital one. Prints can be made instantly from your color printer. A few tips to live by would be to purchase a copy of the “No Money Maker” for your entire key personal but never buy retail. Whenever possible consider used. You can get better quality and more of it. Quality used office furniture can also make a new business appear more established.

It is also good to identify a small part of your logo as a trademark and make sure it appears on everything, stationary, ads, vehicles, signs, doors, etc. It can be a graphic or an initial or just a color, but it should be distinct and representative of your organization. The ‘Nike’ symbol is a prime example. Print this logo and/or trademark on different size labels so you can customize folders, nonstandard envelopes, one of a kind projects, etc. Matching the ink color to the background can make an item appear custom engraved. You will need a large quantity of paper stock with your trademark in a corner or as a background shadow.

If you can afford a digital camera, have enlargements and copies made on a color copier at your local copy shop. It is much cheaper than photo enlargements and the quality is surprisingly good. It is important for your customers to see cleanliness and classiness so get a good cleaning service. Install dimmer switches to control the lighting in the lobby, the boardroom and display areas. Fluorescent lights make everything look flat and harsh including faces. Use tables and floor lamps when you can. Clearly designate your main entrance so that you can control your guests first impression. Use signage and/or landscaping to do this.

It is very important to join the local chamber of commerce and have key staff attend meetings and serve on committees so you can control how the business community perceives you. Improve your image and increase your company’s public awareness and your networking by aligning yourself with a nonprofit as well. Have key staff serve as volunteers on the board of directors for one or more worthy causes. Press releases can go a long way to help out your image. News reports will jump on a dramatic news story or an important event. Realistically though, how often does that happen at most organizations.

One way to improve the odds of getting your news in the press is to do it yourself. Do the research, find the angle, and write the article. Many reporters will take the easy road rather than write their own article. If they have space and all the work is already done, chances are they will use your story. For even better odds put the article on disc in a format that they use and include a photo. Last but certainly not least “never apologize on stage. Let people think you paid a lot for something. Don’t volunteer information. Most times no one will know the difference unless you tell them,” Green says.

This case analysis serves the purpose to provide an analytical framework to evaluate Amazon. com from an internal and external perspective, and to provide strategic direction based upon the internal and external evaluation. The case will begin with an introduction to Amazon. com. Jeffrey Bezos, formerly a senior vice president for D. E. Shaw & Company, founded Amazon. com in 1994. D. E. Shaw is a Wall Street-based investment bank, and Mr. Bezos was assigned to find good Internet companies in which to invest.

During the summer of 1994, he stumbled across a Web site that showed the number of Internet users was growing by 2,300 percent per month. He quickly realized the vast potential of the Internet, and began putting together a list of possible products that he could sell on the World Wide Web. He eventually narrowed his list to music products and books. Although music products and books both had enormous potential, he eventually selected books because he believed that he could compete more evenly in the book segment due to the lack of a very dominant player. In contrast, the music industry had only six major record companies. These companies controlled the distribution of records and CDs and, therefore, had the potential to lock out a new business threatening the traditional record-store format” (Kotha, p. 11). To begin his new venture, Mr. Bezos left New York and moved to Seattle. He decided to move to Seattle for two reasons: 1) Ingram Book Group’s warehouse is located near Seattle; and 2) Because of the Seattle area’s reputation for computer expertise.

In 1995, Amazon began selling books entirely online, operating out of a rented facility and using doors laid across sawhorses for desks. He soon was able to generate several million dollars from venture capitalists, and sales were astounding. Sales for 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 were $0. 5, $16, $147, $610 and $1,640 million respectively. Amazon’s customer base has increased dramatically from 180,000 in 100 countries in 1996 to 12 million in 160 countries by mid-1999. In 1998, Amazon began to expand into other product categories.

The Company began to sell music products and videos, and within two months of these additions, Amazon became the number-one seller of books, music, and videos on the web. During 1999, the Company further expanded its product line. Amazon now offers toys and video games, electronic greeting cards, electronics and software, home improvement supplies, online auctions, DVDs, and an online mall called zShops. More recently, Amazon has begun to expand internationally (Bartlett, p. 21). Next, an analysis of Amazon’s mission statement will be performed.

A mission statement should be comprised of, or address, nine essential components: customers; products or services; markets; technology; concern for survival, growth, and profitability; philosophy; self-concept; concern for public image; and, concern for employees. While Amazon does not have a formal mission statement, the basic mission and goals of the Company are evident in the words of Mr. Bezos, “We have one strategy at Amazon. com – provide the customer with the best shopping experience. ” Additionally, “our goal is nothing short of building the world’s most customer-centric Company. Lastly, “our Company mission is to leverage technology and expertise to provide the best buying experience on the Internet” (Balanced Scorecard, p. 1). These quotes from Mr. Bezos could be combined to create an effective mission statement, as follows: The mission of Amazon. com is to leverage technology and the expertise of our invaluable employees to provide the best buying experience on the Internet. Our goal is nothing short of building the world’s most customer-centric Company capable of providing our customers with the best shopping experience online today, and into the future.

An evaluation of the aforementioned mission statement follows: Essential ComponentEvaluationJustification for Evaluation CustomersStrongCustomers are frequently mentioned and are clearly the focus of a “customer-centric” Company. Products or ServicesModerateIdentifies online shopping as service. MarketsModerateThe market is the online community. TechnologyStrong”leverage technology” indicates that technology is critical for the success of Amazon. Concern for survival, growth, and profitabilityModerateAddresses concern for survival and growth, but not profitability. PhilosophyModerateClearly indicates that Amazon wants to be the best.

Self-conceptStrong”best shopping experience”, “world’s most customer-centric Company” Concern for public imageModerateClearly want Amazon’s image to be the “best”. Concern for employeesStrong”invaluable employees” indicates that Amazon realizes that the employees are essential for continued success. Amazon’s mission statement does a very good job of addressing the nine essential components of a good mission statement, as evidenced by the above chart, where the Company received a strong evaluation on 4 out of the nine categories, and a moderate evaluation on the remaining 5 categories.

The mission statement also does a very good job of “hitting emotional hot buttons. ” Using phrases like: “best buying experience”; “world’s most customer-centric Company”; and “best shopping experience”, Amazon strives to stir one’s emotions. Next, the external evaluation for Amazon will be performed. The first step in the external evaluation is to perform an external factor evaluation (EFE) matrix, which describes the external opportunities and threats facing Amazon. The EFE matrix follows: Critical Success FactorsWeightRatingWeighted Score Growing number of e-commerce bankruptcies0. 30. 30 Number of Internet users is continuing to rise0. 1530. 45 International expansion0. 130. 30 Technological advancements can improve productivity0. 0520. 10 US BMV segment experiencing anemic growth0. 1530. 45 Minimal barriers to entry0. 140. 40 E-commerce may be a slowing consumer trend0. 0520. 10 The above chart would indicate that Amazon is responding to existing opportunities and threats in its industry slightly better than the average competitor, as indicated by a EFE Matrix score of 3. 10. Several factors have varying levels of effect upon the online shopping industry.

For instance, the number of Internet users is continuing to rise exponentially. In 1996 and 1998, there were 61 and 147 million worldwide users of the Internet, respectively. Projections for 2002 are 300 million worldwide Internet users. Growth such as this obviously has a dramatic effect upon the online retail industry, as evidenced by a weight of 0. 15 on the EFE Matrix. Additionally, companies, such as Amazon, that have an established platform (technology, distribution centers, customers, brand, etc. ) have an increased ability to monetize their platform through partnerships like Toys “R” Us and Borders Group. After all, what if [Amazon] becomes the online commerce partner (customer service, order fulfillment, inventory management, marketing services) for a wide swath of brick-and-mortar partners: Blockbuster for videos, Ace Hardware for tools, Tower Records for music, Best Buy, Circuit City for electronics, etc.? Then, in aggregate, those deals could hasten profitability (slightly) and/or make steady-state profitability larger” (Reamer, p. 2). This platform monetization can have an enormous impact upon this industry, as evidenced by a weight of 0. 15 on the EFE Matrix. Amazon posted $410MM in U. S. books, music, and video (U. S. BMV) sales. At 58% of total revenue, U. S. BMV remains the single largest contributor to total revenue. Growth in this sector continues to be fairly anemic: U. S. BMV grew just 2 [percent year over year]” (Reamer, p. 2). Moving into other segments of the online retailing industry (i. e. , consumer electronics) could dampen this negative trend. Lastly, “the growing number of bankruptcies among pure-play e-commerce companies should enhance the competitive position of companies, such as Amazon, longer term.

In other words, fewer industry participants should lead to increased potential scale for survivors such as Amazon. Not only will fewer companies lead to less distribution of e-commerce revenues among smaller e-tailers, but [surviving companies] should also benefit from less price competition over time. Note that less discounting among pure-play e-tailers should result in higher gross margins longer term” (Patel, p. 10). However, “one could argue that the rapid e-commerce growth over the last few years reflected more of a fad that is losing momentum than a powerful secular trend.

This is not to say that e-commerce is going away, rather that the overall e-commerce market may not be as large as once was projected” (D’Eathe, p. 3). Another potential threat for Amazon is that the barriers to entry in the online retailing market are minimal. Start-up costs are minimal, and anybody can start their own Internet shop. “According to Mr. Bezos, Amazon differentiates itself from potential rivals in many ways, besides just marketing and aggressive brand promotion. He observes (Fast Company, 1996): People who just scratch the surface of Amazon. om say-‘oh, you sell books on the Web’-they don’t understand how hard it is to actually be an electronic merchant. We’re not just putting up a Web site. We do 90% of our customer service by e-mail rather than by telephone. Fourteen of our 110 employees do nothing but answer e-mail from customers. There are very few off-the-shelf tools that help do what we’re doing. We’ve had to develop lots of our own technologies. There are no companies selling software to manage e-mail centers. So we had to develop our own tools. In a way this is good news. There are lots of barriers to entry” (Kotha, p. 10).

Some additional threats, while not as threatening, do exist. For instance, online e-tailers are being sued over shipping delays. “The FTC alleges that some online stores did not give shoppers enough notice of impending shipping delays or that they continued to promise deliveries they could not make during the holiday season” (Farmer, p. 2). Lastly, security concerns are limiting the growth of online retailing. Consumers often “surf” the Web to obtain information about a product, but do not purchase the product online for fear of putting their credit card number and other personal information on the Web.

However, encryption technology is so advanced today, that it is actually safer to give a Web page your credit card number than it is to give your number to a salesperson over the phone. Next, a competitive profile matrix (CPM) will be performed to demonstrate how well Amazon performs relative to its competitor group. The CPM follows: Amazon. comBarnes & NobleBarnes & NobleeBay Success FactorsWeightRatingScoreRatingScoreRatingScore Market Share0. 2040. 8040. 8040. 80 Management0. 1520. 3030. 4530. 45 Financial Position0. 2510. 2520. 5020. 50 Product Quality0. 1530. 4530. 4520. 30 Consumer Loyalty0. 2530. 7530. 7530. 75

The CPM score of 2. 55 indicates that Amazon performs slightly worse than its competitor group. The above chart indicates that market share, consumer loyalty, and financial position are the most important critical success factors, as indicated by a weight of 0. 20, 0. 25, and 0. 25, respectively. Amazon’s financial position is the critical success factor that hurts its long-term viability the most. However, Amazon “has created the leading online shopping hub – from both the customer-experience vantage point and market share – that over time should harness the efficiencies of the Internet and could become highly profitable.

Amazon’s robust technology platform and 30 million unique users make the Company attractive to traditional offline merchants via its “virtual storefront”” (Legg, p. 3). A financial comparison of Amazon and the competitor group follows: Amazon continues to focus on developing its business, which has translated into market share gains. Amazon’s sales growth is exceptional, as evidenced by a 5-year growth rate of 457. 91%. Additionally, the Company’s turnover ratios are excellent compared to its competitor group. However, the Company’s net profit margin is atrocious at (37. 98%). The Company’s fulfillment costs as a percentage of revenues remain well above traditional retailer levels making it difficult for [Amazon] to compete in the long-term as it would hold a significant competitive disadvantage in terms of outbound distribution costs” (D’Eathe, p. 2). “However, Moody’s believes that management’s focus on achieving profitability, and a clearer strategy to harvest investment in existing operations rather than expend capital on new businesses, holds the potential for positive cash flow within the medium term. Amazon invested heavily in distribution capacity during 1999, well in advance of need.

Moody’s believes that Amazon is unlikely to grow sales rapidly enough to cover the costs of carrying its current infrastructure. However, Moody’s believes that Amazon may be able to generate cash from sources other than retailing. The Company has an opportunity to use its reputation in fulfillment, bolstered by the initial success of its recent alliance to fulfill online orders for Toys “R” Us, to generate high-margin fee revenues and absorb operating costs” (Reamer, p. 5). The aforementioned opportunity will not come without challenges. Amazon has been facing increased competition.

The Company’s primary competition is Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS) and eBay Inc. (EBAY). “The site that is rapidly becoming known as The Place To Find Anything is eBay. Trouble is, it doesn’t have the simplicity that Amazon does. That’s still the image that many people have of eBay. They see it as a Turkish bazaar, where the stuff is garbage, you have to haggle for a price, and no one can be trusted. eBay is taking steps towards creating simplicity, however” (Lund, p. 2). Additionally, eBay and Barnes & Noble both are financially sound to compete with Amazon. Amazon has done a solid job of aggregating products and making the experience simple, but its debt has put itself into a position of weakness” (Lund, p. 1). Lastly, Barnes & Noble is in the somewhat enviable position of being a “bricks-and-clicks” or “clicks-and-mortar” establishment. This mitigates the threat of security concerns. If a consumer did not feel comfortable purchasing online, he/she could go into the physical store location and make the purchase. However, since Amazon only has “virtual storefronts”, the Company does not have the high overhead associated with having physical sites.

So, there are advantages and disadvantages to only being online. Next, an internal factor evaluation (IFE) matrix will be performed that summarizes and evaluates the major strengths and weaknesses in the functional areas of business at Amazon. The IFE matrix follows: Critical Success FactorsWeightRatingWeighted Score Distribution and technology infrastructure0. 1540. 60 Distribution and technology infrastructure0. 130. 30 Seasonal dependence on strong 4th quarter sales0. 0520. 10 Board of Directors’ lack of independence0. 0520. 10 Declining repeat rate and increased customer churn0. 120. 20

Management lacks retail experience0. 0520. 10 The IFE score of 2. 60 demonstrates that Amazon has a strong internal position. However, it is necessary to avoid the illusion of precision when using the aforementioned matrices. Rather, a thorough understanding of the factors included is more important than the actual numbers. “To its credit, the Company has been successful in leveraging its powerful brand name, management experience and distribution and technology infrastructure, to gain a leadership position in each of [its] markets. Amazon’s powerful brand name is recognized around the world as a leader in e-commerce.

This brand recognition has allowed Amazon to develop leadership positions very quickly when it enters new markets” (Becker, p. 1). Additionally, being one of the first online retailers has provided a significant first mover advantage for Amazon. “It appears that Bezos recognizes that many of the competitive advantages that Amazon has developed are transient in nature. With a few exceptions (e. g. , proprietary software, reputation, the sense of community, and first mover advantages), many of the mechanisms that are at this Web site can be imitated by competitors, albeit not easily.

To defend itself against competitors, for the past year Amazon has been developing a detailed purchasing history and profile of its customers. It now has a vast and unique database of customers’ preferences and buying patterns, tied to their e-mail and postal address (Economist, 1997a). Notes Alberto Vitale, chairman of Random House, Inc. (Wall Street Journal, 1996): ‘Amazon is creating a database that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Book publishers have never had much market data about readers, and some are already salivating for a peek into Amazon’s files'” (Kotha, p. 6). “Amazon. com is considered to have one of the best senior management teams in the industry. Heavy reliance on stock options in employee compensation packages (and a [once] high-flying stock attracting lots of press attention) has enabled Amazon. com to fill its ranks with very motivated and bright people looking to ‘make a difference’ in the world of e-commerce” (Balanced Scorecard, p. 1). “Meanwhile, Amazon’s board is facing mounting criticism for apparently never having questioned Bezos on strategy, judgement, or financial matters.

The board is too small, too clubby, and lacks the necessary independence to make serious judgement or interventions in Amazon’s affairs. The board is too heavy with venture capitalists [that] are looking to cash out rather than build long-term shareholder value. [Critics also] decry the lack of retail experience on the board. All of this is complicated by the large ownership stake of Bezos, who holds some 32% of the Company’s stock. That stake is a serious obstacle to anyone looking to shake up the board. The board certainly has a lot of brainpower.

But it remains a tiny body to run a Company with thousands of employees and a $4 billion market capitalization” (Eads, p. 1). Another concerning trend is customer churn increasing while repeat business declines. However, “sequential revenue growth has slowed meaningfully for most e-tailers in recent quarters” (D’Eathe, p. 3), possibly indicating that the increased customer churn and declining repeat business are more a symptom of the general decline in the U. S. economy, as opposed to an internal weakness of Amazon. If Amazon can capitalize half as well on the myriad of large retailing opportunities before it as it has to date, it can own the space. However, the Company must execute flawlessly on its march toward profitability and overcome early signs of a possible slowing in the U. S. online commerce activity” (Reamer, p. 1). It would be the desired outcome for Amazon to use its competitive strengths (powerful brand name, management experience and distribution and technology infrastructure) to achieve its objectives.

Amazon current stated objectives are: 1) To put customer satisfaction first by using the Internet to transform book buying into the fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable shopping experience possible; and 2) To sell anything that can be sold on the Web. These objectives are reasonable. However, objectives should be specific and measurable. Some alternative objectives would be to focus the Company’s resources toward achieving profitability by the fourth quarter of 2000 (an annual objective), and to increase profitability by 5 percent per year for the next 3 years (long-term objective).

These objectives would give meaningful, measurable goals that management would need to obtain, or it would require management to re-evaluate the Company’s objectives or the Company’s strategy to achieve the objectives. With the aforementioned objectives in mind, the Company needs to implement a strategy to achieve the desired results. It is necessary to evaluate alternative strategies before selecting the actual strategy to implement. The SWOT or TOWS, SPACE, Grand Strategy, IE, and QSPM Matrices are tools to help in the evaluation and selection of alternative strategies.

The matrices indicate that Amazon is in a strong competitive position, and that the Company should build and grow. The matrices indicate that, despite Amazon’s financial position, the Company has some distinct competitive advantages in a high-growth or unstable industry. Some strategies for companies that fit this profile are backward, forward and horizontal integration, market penetration, market development, product development and joint venture. One strategy that would fit into the aforementioned categories would be international expansion.

Expanding internationally is a market penetration strategy in which a company introduces its present products or services into new geographic areas. “As it stands, Amazon. com is well-positioned to remain the world leader in both the development of e-commerce strategy and its implementation” (Balanced Scorecard, p. 6). There are several advantages to selecting this strategy. For instance, “Amazon has invested heavily in product development in the United States, building a state-of-the-art Web site that is generally considered the best in e-commerce.

This technology is highly scalable and has been used for each new market the Company has entered. Furthermore, much of the personalization technology and U. S. content has already been created, and can be shared across markets. By leveraging this existing technology and infrastructure, Amazon has been able to keep product development costs low. Amazon also benefits from certain centralized costs that can be leveraged across multiple markets. [For instance], the Company does not have to hire a new team of engineers for every new market it enters, as it already has a base working out of Seattle.

Clearly, these streamlining efforts give Amazon a significant advantage over single country e-tailers” (Becker, p. 5). For all of its strengths, the strategy of international expansion does have some weaknesses. For instance, “In the United States, Amazon built its brand essentially free through public relations and word-of-mouth advertising. Clearly, the Company benefits from its global brand – having shipped products to over 200 countries in the past five years.

However, in Europe [for instance], e-commerce has not taken off as much, and Amazon will never be able to replicate the hype and excitement that it received in the United States during the ‘Internet bubble. ‘ Furthermore, Amazon must spend aggressively in each of its countries because media audiences are less likely to cross borders” (Becker, p. 9). Amazon is not in the financial position to spend aggressively to achieve additional revenues, and, even if it were, the additional revenues alone would not help Amazon to reach its objective to achieve profitability.

For this reason, an alternative strategy was selected for implementation. The strategy that was selected was a hybrid strategy of product development and joint venture. As was previously mentioned in the EFE Matrix evaluation, a tremendous opportunity for platform monetization exists for Amazon. The Company could sell “access to either its customer base, brand, inventory management, or customer service and order fulfillment infrastructure (or all of them simultaneously), then the economics of the Amazon. om business model could be a lot better than 2-3% margin. Operating margin could then start to creep toward double digits over time, which would indeed support a premium valuation relative to other retailers” (Reamer, p. 6). Amazon has recently entered into two such deals. One deal was with Toys “R” Us and the other was with Borders Group. “Under the terms of the strategic partnership between [Amazon] and [Borders], [Amazon] will assume fulfillment and inventory for the co-branded Borders. com Web site. Amazon. om will be the seller of record, providing inventory, fulfillment, site content, and customer service for the co-branded site. The new site will continue to offer content unique to Borders. com, including store location information and in-store event calendars” (Legg, p. 3). “With the announcement of its e-commerce partnership with ToysRus. com last year, Amazon launched into an innovative e-business services model that represents a win-win scenario for both Amazon and its retailer customers. As in the case with ToysRus. om, the Company has leveraged its core assets to provide three critical components of a successful e-commerce strategy to retailers, including: (1) a scalable and proven e-commerce technology platform, (2) marketing capabilities in terms of access to 30 million e-commerce buyers at Amazon, and (3) outstanding back-end products fulfillment capabilities (that represent one of the Company’s core differentiators versus competitive e-commerce distribution capabilities). In turn, retailers typically enjoy similar core competencies in their land-based retailing business, namely merchandising, pricing control and inventory risk.

As with the ToysRus. com relationship, both companies leverage the strengths of their respective business models to share in the costs of conducting e-commerce. In this regard, ToysRus. com has the potential to lower its timing to breakeven earnings in its e-commerce business, while Amazon has the potential to scale the number of e-commerce orders through its fixed-cost distribution network, thereby increasing the likelihood of breakeven earnings [by the fourth quarter of 2001]” (Patel, p. ). In addition to the aforementioned justifications for selecting this strategy, is the fact that the QSPM Model favored this strategy over the international expansion strategy. The platform monetization strategy yielded an attractiveness score of 6. 30, as compared to a score of 5. 15 for international expansion, primarily due to reasons already mentioned.

The only drawback to this strategy was a “report that the key finding signaling a challenge to Amazon’s growth is that consumers view the online retailer as an outlet for media products-books, CDs, and videos-rather than as a store carrying an array of items such as kitchenware, garden furniture and hardware tools” (Junnarkar, p. 1). However, the advantages appear to far outweigh the disadvantages. If Amazon is able to formalize several more deals with other traditional retailers, then the Company’s financial performance should drastically improve.

Finally, implementation of this strategy will be relatively easy, as the Company has already began to implement the strategy on a small scale. There should be few management conflicts to work through, as there should be no political maneuverings to obtain additional resources to grow one department over another. If properly implemented, this strategy should help Amazon to achieve its objectives to focus the Company’s resources toward achieving profitability by the fourth quarter of 2000, and to increase profitability by 5 percent per year for the next 3 years.

In the following pages, I will discuss the history, debate, past and current public opinion, and how it applies to American ideology and opposing values. Both sides have a fair amount of support and I have included direct quotes and paraphrasing from authors, celebrities, journalists, and ordinary people arguing both sides. The history of the death penalty goes back to the earliest civilizations where it was used to punish all sorts of crimes from robbery, to murder, to different forms of heresy.

In the United States it evolved to just punish murder, treason, and some cases of rape. It has been an issue that has sparked a never ending debate that goes back to colonial times. The general public traditionally supported the death penalty in a majority with only a few politicians speaking out against it (i. e. , Benjamin Rush, Ben Franklin and later on Horace Greeley). Once the U. S. gained independence, each state went back and forth in abolishing and reinstating the death penalty and methods of execution.

The 1960s saw many trials concerning capital punishment cases that led to a ten year halt in executions. In 1965, the American Civil Liberties Unions (ACLU) announcement of their anti-death penalty stance was a sign of things to come. It was particularly important because the ACLU had always neglected to have an opinion on the issue because they believed it was not a civil rights issue. They now determined that capital punishment was inconsistent with underlying values of a democratic system.

They explained that it discriminated against blacks and other minorities and did not comply with the eighth amendment of the constitution, in other words, it was cruel and unusual punishment (Vila, Morris:127). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peoples Legal Defense Fund (NAACP-LDF) also began to speak out in the mid-sixties. They agreed that the death penalty discriminated against blacks and launched a campaign against the death penalty around the same time.

The LDF poured its resources into aiding death row prisoners which tied up the capital punishment cases for years allowing them to achieve their goal of a moratorium on the death penalty (Vila, Morris:131). From 1967 to 1977, there were no executions anywhere in the United States because of groups like these that rallied to oppose it, the particularly low public support of it, and a number of supreme court cases that decided in the favor of the abolitionist movement. One crucial case was Witherspoon v.

Illinois in 1968. The supreme court ruled that prospective jurors who oppose the death penalty can not automatically be excluded from juries in possible capital punishment cases. The court said that having jurors that oppose the death penalty is part of a fair, impartial jury as dictated by the Sixth Amendment. Some dissenters claimed that people who were ethically opposed to the death penalty were biased because they would never vote to give the death penalty to people who deserved it.

Some historians say that this marked the first time that the supreme court was persuaded by public opinion against capital punishment. The following statement was made by Justice Potter Stewart who spoke for the majority, In a nation less than half of whose people believe in the death penalty, a jury composed exclusively of such people cannot speak for the communityIn its quest for a jury capable of imposing the death penalty, the State produced a jury uncommonly willing to condemn a man to die (Gottfried:60).

Scholars and lawyers also thought this would be the end of capital punishment for good because the courts willingness to accept people who fundamentally opposed the death penalty, but this turned out not to be true because of details in the decision that allowed courts and legislatures to work around it. The 1972 case of Furman v Georgia was seen as a complete victory for abolitionists at the time, but proved to be more complicated than it appeared.

It said that the death penalty, as it was administered, violated the Eighth Amendments because it was cruel and unusual punishment and violated the Fourteenth Amendment because it did not guarantee equal protection under the law (Costanzo:18). The crucial part of this statement was .. as it was administered because it left the law open to be revised and then reinstated if in compliance with the Constitution. The important thing to realize was that the court did not say that the death penalty itself was unconstitutional, it said the current way it was being administered was unconstitutional.

The court said that juries were not given adequate guidance in imposing a death sentence and the jury systems were different in every state. This did put a halt to all executions in the country, but only until the laws were re-written. Many states rewrote their death penalty laws that were all deemed acceptable only four years later. The apparent abolition of the death penalty was very short lived.

After many states changed their laws concerning the death penalty, criminals sentenced to death, and then given life sentences, were put back on death row. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court decided that under the new revised laws regarding capital punishment cases that the death penalty was indeed constitutional. The new laws stated that juries had to be under the guidance of a trial court during decision making in the death penalty phase and also there was to be a mandatory state appellate court review of all death sentences (Vila, Morris:161). Justice Stewart even pointed out that public opinion had flip-flopped since the late sixties and early seventies and there was now heavy support for capital punishment (Gottfried:62).

The Supreme Court was not only persuaded by public opinion in this case, but came right out and sited public opinion polls as a reason for the courts decision. The first person to die under the new court decision was Garry Gilmore. For the general public he was the perfect example of someone who deserved the death penalty because of his blatant apathy towards human life. This confirmed the public consensus that in certain extreme cases, the death penalty is the only reasonable punishment. The case of Ted Bundy is another example.

He was a serial killer that was responsible for the deaths of 50 young women and kidnapping a 12 year old girl. There was no doubt that the majority of Americans thought the death penalty was appropriate for him and other cases like his. Despite the support of the majority of the public supporting capital punishment, many politicians and organizations still condemned the death penalty throughout the eighties and nineties. Groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, religious figures like the Pope John Paul II and Mother Theresa, politicians like Jimmy Carter and Mario Cuomo all publicly stand against the death penalty.

In the eighties, there were court cases that concerned specific issues regarding the death penalty such as the execution of minors and mentally handicapped people. This is one of the many issues I will discuss in the next section of this paper that deals with the different arguments of the debate. I have separated the arguments regarding the death penalty debate into two separate categories: the issues concerning the moral and social aspects of the debate and the issues concerning legal and constitutional aspects.

A good place to start in the moral and social realm of the debate would be the issue of the death penalty as a deterrent. Aside from the need for justice and the safety of society, this is the reason the death penalty exists. Opponents of the death penalty say that fear of punishment will not stop people from committing horrendous crimes for a few reasons. The first is that people who engage in the type of crimes punishable by death are not rational people and/or are not rationally considering the consequences when committing the crime.

The second one is that the alternative to the death sentence, which would be life imprisonment without parole, actually might sound worse to someone that is considering the crime. Supporters of the death penalty say that fear of being put to death does deter would be murderers from pulling the trigger. Some cite statistics that crime has gone done after death penalty laws are enacted, but the opponents have said that overall, it hasnt changed that much.

An important point that supporters contend is that the death penalty doesnt apply to all murders, but just the especially horrific ones, so it might deter potential kidnappers and rapists from taking those extra steps. They also believe that the fear of death is a fundamental human motive that everyone, including crazed murderers, will consider. In an article in New Republic, former New York City mayor Edward Koch gives an example of a confessed murderer Luis Vera. He shot and killed neighbor Rosa Velez when she found him robbing her apartment.

Yeah I shot her, she knew me and I knew I wouldnt go to the chair. Another aspect in this realm of the debate is retribution vs. revenge: Is it morally just to kill someone for killing? Opponents say capital punishment for murderers is simply revenge and is just state-sanctioned murder. Their argument is simply – two wrongs dont make a right. Supporters would argue the eye for an eye theory – if you take someones life, yours shall be taken too. This is just a simple question of how far you personally take the idea of forgiveness.

Many clergymen and women have addressed this issue using religious references to support either side. Sister Helen Prejean (author of Dead Man Walking) makes an obvious point: it is curious that those who so readily invoke the eye for an eye, life for a life passage are quick to shun other biblical prescriptions that also call for death, arguing that modern societies have evolved over three thousand or so years since biblical times and no longer consider such exaggerated and archaic punishments appropriate.

She is basically saying that anyone who cites the eye for an eye law because it is in the Bible also has to support the death penalty for pick-pocketing and different forms of heresy. Most people would assume a Christian to turn the other cheek, but in an essay published in The Death Penalty – Opposing Viewpoints, Charles W. Colson insists that capital punishment is necessary in extreme cases: I believe that God requires capital justice, at least in the case of premeditated murder where there is no doubt of the offenders guilt.

This is, after all, the one crime in the Bible where no restitution was possible. * You cant debate the issue of the death penalty without considering the issue of race and class. According to Amnesty International (in the late nineties), African Americans make up about 12 percent of the population, they are almost half of the countrys death row population. In southern states they are even higher, reaching almost sixty percent of the death row population. The reason could simply be that Blacks commit more crimes than whites, which could, in turn, relate to certain class issues.

But many people who oppose the death penalty do not believe this to be the case. They contend that it is the conscious or subconscious prejudice of white jurors and the prosecutors seeking the death penalty. There is evidence that they are much more likely to seek the death penalty when the victim is white and the accused is black. Also blacks who are convicted of killing whites are more sentenced to death than any other kinds of offenders (Gottfried:51).

The argument to this is that these statistics are misleading because of added circumstances that make it much more complicated. I just dont have the space to dive into that here! Another major complaint about the application of the death penalty is that it is unfair to those who dont have big budgets. Thats what capital punishment really means: those who aint got the capital, get the punishment, convicted murderer and death row inmate Mumia Abu Jamal contends in the spoken word CD accompanying his book All Things Censored (2000).

Accused criminals that can not afford a lawyer to represent them are appointed a lawyer by the court, but it is well known that in most cases, lawyers appointed by the court will not put the same effort into the defense that lawyers someone like O. J. Simpson san buy. So defendants from a lower class will not have the same defense as someone who can afford an expensive, prestigious lawyer. You could say that the cause for the abundance of poor people on death row is because of the obvious reason that poorer people are more inclined to commit crimes in general, including the harsher crimes that are punished by the death penalty.

Some opponents focus on limiting the cases that the death penalty can be applied to. The 1988 case of Thompson v. Oklahoma, the Supreme Court ruled that minors could be put to death (Vila, Morris:232). Soon after, James Terry Roach was executed for a crime he committed when he was seventeen. In Penry v.. Lynaugh a year later, they decided that a mentally handicapped person was not protected under the Eighth Amendment, either. The defendant wasnt capable of reading or writing and his confession was written by the police.

Some people feel that certain crimes are so bad, that even though the person might not have been in a normal mental capacity for whatever reason, society needs to be protected from them and incarcerating them is not enough. One more simple issue concerning morality and society is the issue of innocent people getting executed. Some people think that it is better to let some guilty people go than execute even one innocent person. Many death penalty opponents say that the capital punishment should never be used in a case where the jury or judge is not 100% sure of guilt.

They say that, because it is impossible to ever be 100% sure about anything, the death penalty should not be used when someone might be innocent (deathpenalty. org) The other side argues that more innocent lives will be saved in the long run if murderers are executed or possibly deterred by strict capital justice. There are certain legal and constitutional issues that rise when discussing capital punishment. The Eighth Amendment is consistently brought up by abolitionists because they believe that all death sentences are cruel and unusual punishment.

Also the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifth Amendment is brought up because they believe that defendants are not getting equal protection under the law and/or due process of law for the racial and class reasons stated previously. The Supreme Court has determined that with all the opportunities for appeals and reviews that both of those concerns are met under the constitution according their decision in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). A crucial issue for both sides of the debate is the length of time between the time criminals get convicted and the time they are executed.

Many people were outraged at the fact that Ted Bundy remained alive for about ten years while his appeals went through. Both sides think that the ability to have appeals is necessary but people who support the death penalty generally think it should be shorter while opponents say that a long process is necessary to ensure fairness. This ties into another dispute regarding the length of time on death row. Supporters of the death penalty dont believe that society should be paying for prisoners who committed horrific crimes to live out their lives in prison .

The abolitionist argument against that is that the death penalty process of appeals actually costs more than to support a prisoner for the duration of his or her life. So the pro-death penalty side argues back that the appeals process should be shorter because it is costing society (including the innocent victims family) so much tax money. Of course, these few pages come no where near covering all the issues surrounding the debate, but they are the most outstanding issues that people are concerned about. Are you in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder?

This was one of the questions asked for the Gallop poll over the years concerning the death penalty. Since the late 50s, the publics answer of yes to this this question has steadily risen. The percentage of people supporting the death penalty was barely over 50% in the sixties and rose to about eighty percent in the late eighties/early nineties, and then sinking down a little in more recent years (http://www. gallup. com/poll/releases/pr000224. asp). The social atmosphere of the sixties was naturally not the kind that would likely support a government policy like the death penalty.

It did not fit the liberal agenda of Lyndon Johnson or the New Left and was not exactly the best representation of peace and love. Ted Gottfried sites The Encyclopedia of American Crime who asserted that public opinion was overwhelmingly opposed to the death penalty [in the mid-sixties]. This broke an ongoing trend for centuries of the public supporting the death penalty. This shift in public opinion was recognized by everyone, from Johnsons Commission on the Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice to Justice Stewart and the Supreme Court.

As I mentioned before, the 1968 case of Witherspoon v. Illinois was the first time that the Supreme Court acknowledged the influence of public opinion in deciding their verdict in a related case. Also Lyndon B. Johnsons Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice recognized the decline in popularity of the death penalty in its 1967 report, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, and acknowledged the many problems (that abolitionists say) come with it (Vila, Morris: Document 50). 966 actually marked the extreme low in the support of the death penalty: 42% (www. gallup. com). The support for the death penalty continued to remain low in comparison to modern support, although it rose a bit in the late sixties. It was the time period between 1972 and 1976 where a major shift took place again. And again, the courts responded. In Gregg v. Georgia, the Supreme Court pointed out the reforms made by states in their capital punishment laws and determined that the death penalty was indeed constitutional under these laws.

Justice Stewart admitted the influence of public opinion on the case: citing the recent polls showing heavy support for the death penalty (up to 66% in 1976), he said that the death penalty was a legitimate expression of societys moral outrage towards brutal murders and horrific crimes (Gottfried:63). What is peculiar about the 1972 court decision and the 1976 court decision is that within a span of four years, the Supreme Court completely changed their point of view on capital punishment.

In 1972 they were claiming that the court was interpreting the constitution according to the evolving standards of decency in society, referring to the view that the death penalty was inhumane. But in 1976, they responded to societys moral outrage concerning the leniency of the criminal justice system on the most horrific crimes. Public opinion must have really taken a big shift in the seventies. These examples show the blatant effect of public opinion on decisions made in even the highest court in the country.

Support for the death penalty continued gaining popularity and was endorsed by Ronald Reagan in the Eighties, when it reached its peak at 79% in 1988 and then 80% in 1994 (www. gallup. com). Toady, support for the death penalty is somewhere in the high sixties to low seventies in percentage of people who support it, according to polls. This means that somewhere between 2/3 and of the population say they support the death penalty when polled. But Mark Costanzo, Ph. D. (author of Just Revenge), argues that there are complications to those statistics.

He first accuses some sectors of the American public of not considering the entire issue when deciding what position to take. He asserts that they only take into account their belief in the eye for an eye law, and ignore other complications that could cause it to be unjust. Costanzo points out that the public recognizes the strong implications of race and class issues concerning the death penalty, 45% of Americans believe that a black person is more likely than a white person to receive the death penalty for the same crime, and 60% believe that poor people are more likely to be sentenced to death than wealthy people.

He also recognizes that the answer to the one question of the death penalty in the case of murder include a group of people that could hold very different beliefs. For example, some people could support the death penalty in case of any or most murders, while others only support in very extreme cases of horrendous crimes (Costanzo:116). Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that people did look at capital punishment in a different way through the eighties and nineties and still do today.

The most compelling reason for the rise in support is the rise of the crime rate in proportion to it (Costanzo:122). As the crime rate rose, people might have begun supporting the death penalty to vent their frustration and come down hard on crime. As a result of these rising crime rates, politicians used the gimmick of having a hard stance on crime more often, which usually included the support of the death penalty as a deterrent. Many elements of the death penalty relate to ideology conflicts in American culture.

The issues surrounding it cross over the obvious lines of left and right, probably more so than other issues that we could have chosen for this research paper. The first issue I will discuss is crime and punishment (not the Dostoevsky novel) and how it relates to different ideologies. Conservatives have had a history of being tougher on crime than liberals and this generalization follows through on the topic of capital punishment. They believe that order in society is crucial and must come before civil liberties and peaceful notions like two wrongs dont make a right if need be.

The common pro-execution stance taken by conservatives can also be looked at as an extension of their tougher stances on crime in general. This position is taken in order to uphold traditional values (the accumulated wisdom of the ages) and to ensure that society stays civil as a whole. In general, all these conservative views boil down to the belief that it is better to kill a few innocent people as a result of tough legislation and save more innocent lives in the long run than to let guilty murderers run wild.

The liberal take on this would be just the opposite: better to let some guilty people go than execute someone who is innocent. They focus on the issues of race and class in relation to capital punishment (and the justice system in general) and some even take notice to particular outspoken convicts whose cases may raise an eyebrow. For example, Mumia Abu Jamal has gained support in the nineties from the political left because of his fishy conviction in 1981 and his prior radical politics.

Part of the reason for this support is the general liberal belief in ones right to free speech and acceptance of radical politics geared towards social change. Because liberal politics are based on the idea that all the accomplishments of the past few hundred years (freeing of slaves, womens suffrage, labor rights) are based around progressive social change. Conversely, conservatives believe that their grasp on tradition is the one thing keeping society from teetering over the edge into utter chaos and immorality.

These beliefs apply directly to the death penalty debate. Conservatives say that they are doing society a favor by being tough on crime (using capital punishment) while liberals say that individual human rights as well as issues of race and class are not being observed. When compared to other debates that become conservative vs. liberal ideology the death penalty doesnt quite match up. Conservatives generally take the pro-life side of The abortion debate while liberals generally take the side of pro-choice.

In this case, the conservative viewpoint takes the side of the individual (or the unborn fetus) while the liberal stance defends the greater society (the right to have a choice). Its seems that conservatives are taking the side of human rights while liberals are looking out for greater society. This obviously is a direct effect of the Christian influence on the conservative side. It is curious that this same influence doesnt affect the death penalty debate in the same way. As I mentioned before, there is a significant religious influence on the death penalty debate, but it is mostly supportive of the liberal side (anti-death penalty side).

Like any other political debate, there is no black and white on who supports what side and on exactly what each side believes, mostly because everyone is different and no one sees anything exactly the same way. Society has an interesting way of evolving that defines where people stand, what ideology they endorse, what political party they vote for, and where they stand on specific issues. The public opinion in the last few years few years has shown a little less support for the death penalty than the late eighties and early nineties and we (down to the mid to low sixties in percentage).

Today, it is nearly impossible to predict which way public opinion on capital punishment will turn next, but it is likely to be influenced in some way by recent terrorist attacks. There are not too many people on either side of the political spectrum that think that the people responsible for the terrorist attacks do not deserve to die. However, it will always remain a controversial issue with concern to crime, human rights, racism, society, punishment, morality, religion, and anything else you might consider important in political and social concerns.

An e-commerce solution for a business is the incorporation of all aspects of the business operation into an electronic format. Many well-established businesses have been selling on-line for years. For example, Dell Computers Corp. , has been selling computers directly to end-users for years. Currently, Dell is selling excessive of 1 million dollars worth of computers everyday on the World Wide Web (WWW). When a business has incorporated an e-commerce solution, the business will experience a lower operation cost while at the same time increasing its profit.

The e-commerce solution will allow businesses to eliminate unnecessary aperwork. All paperwork and data can be transformed into an electronic format. Thus, it will eliminate valuable shelf space and data can be searched and accessed in matter of seconds. E-commerce will also automates the sales process. Customers can “point & click” on the products they wish to purchase, fill out the customer information, and the product will be shipped and received in a matter of few days. The administration department does not have to fill out any paperwork because the customer had done it already.

Thus, the efficiency will be greatly improved. With an e-commerce solution, the business ill be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People from anywhere in the world with an Internet access will be able to visit the site at any time. They will not be restricted to the “normal” business operating hours. A “brick + mortar” business is normally limited to serving the customers in its local geographical location. With an e-commerce solution, that business will not be limited a geographical restriction, rather it opens itself to the global on-line market.

Essentially, the business’ market exposure will be greatly increased. In conducting my study, I have researched extensively on the Internet for resources. I chose the Internet as my primary research medium because e-commerce is still a fairly new technology. Since it is technology related, the Internet will provide the most recent data available. Printed publications will not be able to adapt to changes as fast and efficient as electronic publications. I researched many e-commerce related web sites along with some companies that conduct statistical studies.

Some of the e-commerce web sites that I looked into are E-Commerce Times, eRetail, and eMarketer. The statistical research firms that I researched are Forrester Research and Jupiter Communication. Both firms provided valuable statistical data that shows the rise of consumers shopping on-line and the predicted dollar amount that will be spent in the coming years. Methods In conducting my study, I completed the following tasks: – I searched extensively on the Internet for sites that are e-commerce related. Upon visiting the sites, I evaluated each site for the contents, thoroughness, and objectiveness.

There are literally hundreds of sites that are devoted to e-commerce. However, after my careful examination of most of them, I narrowed down to four sites that I will research for this report. I have also researched many firms that conduct statistical researches. The two firms that I will be utilizing for this report are Forrester Research and Jupiter Communication. Both firms are known for their preciseness, non-objectiveness, and thoroughness. The statistical data I collected from these two firms will support my recommendation that every business should have an e-commerce solution implemented.

Results From my research, I have developed fifteen reasons why every business should incorporate an e-commerce solution into the business operation. They are listed below. . To Establish A Presence There are approximately 70 million people worldwide that have access to the World Wide Web (WWW). No matter what industry or business one is in, one can not ignore 70 million people. To be part of that on-line community, one would need to be on the WWW for them. Because if one doe not do it, one’s competitor definitely will. 2.

To Network A lot of what passes for business is simply nothing more than making connections with other people. Every smart businessperson knows, it is not what one knows, it is whom one knows. Passing out one’s business card is art of every good meeting and every businessperson can tell more than one story how a chance meeting turned into the big deal. Well, what if one could pass out the business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners, saying this is what I do and if you are ever in need of my services, this is how you can reach me. One can, 24 hours a day, inexpensively and simply, on the WWW. . To Make Business Information Available What is basic business information? Think of a Yellow Pages ad. What are one’s business hours? What does one do? How can someone contact the business? What method of payment does one take? Where is the business located? Now think of a Yellow Pages ad where one can have instant communication. What is today’s special? Today’s interest rate? Next week’s parking lot sale information? If one could keep one’s customer informed of every reason why they should do business with them; doesn’t one think one could do more business? One can on the WWW. 4.

To Serve the Customers Making business information available is one of the most important ways to serve the customers. But if one looks at serving the customer, one will find even more ways to use WWW technology. How about making forms available to pre-qualify for loans, or have one’s staff do a search for that classic jazz record one’s customer is looking for, without tying up one’s staff on the phone to take down the information? Allow the customer to punch in sizes and check it against a database that tells him what color of jacket is available in one’s store? All this can be done, simply and quickly, on the WWW. . To Heighten Public Interest One won’t get Newsweek magazine to write up about one’s local store opening, but one might get them to write up one’s Web Page address if it is something new and interesting. Even if Newsweek would write about one’s local store opening, one would not benefit from someone in a distant city reading about it, unless of course, they were coming to one’s town sometime soon. With Web page information, anybody anywhere who can access the Internet and hears about one’s site is a potential visitor to one’s Web site and a potential customer for one’s information there. 6.

To Release Time Sensitive Material What if one’s materials need to be released no earlier than midnight? The quarterly earnings statement, the grand prize winner, the press kit for the much-anticipated film, the merger news? Well, one sent out the materials to the press with “The-do-not-release-before-such-and-such-time” statement and hope for the best. Now the information can be made available at midnight or any time one specifies, with all related materials such as photographs, bios, etc. released at exactly the same time. Imagine the anticipation of “All materials will be made available on our Web site at 12:01 AM”.

The scoop goes to those that wait for the information to be posted not the one who releases one’s information early. 7. To Sell Things Many people think that this is the number one thing to do with the World Wide Web. However, I have made it number seven to make it clear that I think one should consider selling things on the Internet and the World Wide Web after one has done all the things above. Why? Well, the answer is complex but the best way to put it is, does one consider the telephone the best place to sell things? Probably not.

One probably considers the telephone as a tool that allows one to communicate with one’s customer, which in turn helps one sell things. Well, that’s how I think one should consider the WWW. The technology is different, but before people decide to become customers, hey want to know about one, what one does and what one can do for them. Which one can do easily and inexpensively on the WWW? Then one might be able to turn them into customers. 8. To make picture, sound and video available What if one’s widget is great, but people would really love it if they could see it in action?

The album is great but with no airplay, nobody knows that it sounds great? A picture is worth a thousand words, but one does not have the space for a thousand words? The WWW allows one to add sound; pictures and short movie files to one’s company’s info if that will serve one’s potential customers. No rochure will do that. 9. To Reach a Highly Desirable Demographic Market The demographic of the WWW user is probably the highest mass-market demographic available. Usually they are college-educated or being college educated, making a high salary or soon to make a high salary.

It is no wonder that Wired magazine, the magazine of choice to the Internet community, has no problem getting Lexus and other high-end marketer’s advertising. Even with the addition of the commercial on-line community, the demographic will remain high for many years to come. 10. To Answer Frequently Asked Questions Whoever answers the telephones in ne’s organization can tell one that their time is usually spent answering the same questions over and over again. These are the questions customers and potential customers want to know the answer to before they deal with one.

Post them on a WWW page and one will have removed another barrier to doing business with one and freed up some time for that harried phone operator. 11. To Stay in Contact with Salespeople One’s employees on the road may need up-to-the-minute information that will help them make the sale or pull together the deal. If one knows what that information is, one can keep it posted in complete privacy on he WWW. A quick local phone call can keep one’s staff supplied with the most detailed information, without long distance phone bills and tying up the staff at the home office. 2. To Open International Market One may not be able to make sense of the mail, phone and regulation systems in All the potential international markets, but with an e-commerce solution, one can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with the company across the street. As a matter-of-fact, before one goes onto the Web, one should decide how one wants to handle the international business that will come one’s way, because ne’s postings are certain to bring international opportunities to one’s way, whether it is part of one’s plan or not.

Another added benefit; if one’s company has offices overseas, they can access the home offices information for the price of a local phone call. 13. To Create a 24 Hour Service If one has ever remembered too late or too early to call the opposite coast, one knows the hassle. Not all businesses are on the same schedule. Business is worldwide but one’s office hours aren’t. Trying to reach Asia or Europe is even more frustrating. However, Web pages serve the client, customer and partner 24 hours day, seven days a week. No overtime either.

It can customize information to match needs and collect important information that will put one ahead of the competition, even before they get into the office. 14. To Make Changing Information Available Quickly Sometimes, information changes before it gets off the press. Now one has a pile of expensive, worthless paper. Electronic publishing changes with one’s needs. No paper, no ink, no printer’s bill. One can even attach one’s web page to a database, which customizes the page’s output to a database one can change as many times in a day as one needs.

No printed piece can match that flexibility. 15. To Allow Feedback from Customers One passes out the brochure, the catalog, and the booklet. But it doesn’t work. No sales, no calls, no leads. What went wrong? Wrong color, wrong price, wrong market? Keep testing, the marketing books say, and one will eventually find out what went wrong. That’s great for the big boys with deep pockets, but who is paying the bills? One is and one doesn’t have the time or the money to wait for the answer. With a Web page, one can ask for feedback and get it instantaneously with no extra cost.

An instant e-mail response can be built into Web pages and can get the answer while its fresh in one’s customers mind, without the cost and lack of response of business reply mail. Conclusion After detailed analyzing and studying of the effects and benefits of incorporating an e-commerce solution to an existing business, it is clear that an e-commerce solution will benefit the business in every aspect. The implementation of an e-commerce solution will generate a brand new revenue stream, expand the market exposure, and decrease the operation cost. Many Fortune 500 companies, such as Dell Computer Corp. ave already adapted e-commerce into their business operation.

As I have mentioned earlier, Dell Computer Corp. is currently generating over 1 million dollars in revenues from their web-site. Many well-known “brick & mortar” businesses are starting to establish their presence on the web. For example, Barnes & Noble Booksellers, the top book retailer in North America has just launched their web-site earlier this year following the success of Amazon. com. Amazon. com, the top book & music seller on the web, has been referred to have one of the most efficient business operation in the world today.

Is where you are in your working career where you want to be for the rest of your life? The answer to that question is simple for Sammy in the story “A&P” by John Updike. Sammy, like many others in this world, is a young man trying to make some money in a small town. But unlike some, he refuses to be stuck in the same job for many years or possibly the rest of his life. One day while working the register at a local grocery store, Sammy notices three girls walk in. The girls are wearing their bathing suits because the beach is close to the store.

When the girls reach the register the manager notices the girls attire. He walks over to them and argues with them for a moment and then girls leave. Sammy didn’t understand why the manager had such a problem with what the girls were wearing. Suddenly Sammy decides to quit. He takes off his apron and walks out the door. One of the things that caught my attention the most was Updike’s use of imagery in describing Sammy’s working environment.

“The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle-”(34), I thought, was an excellent representation of customers grocery hopping. I could almost see them pushing their carts around the store shopping for things. It seems to me that the customers are like sheep because they don’t really care about what is going on around them. They just want to get their things and go on about their business. Another good example is when Sammy is looking at the girls while they are standing in his aisle. He refers to one of the girl’s chest as “two scoops of vanilla”(36). I think this is an important point because he doesn’t refer to an older oman, who was standing in line before the girls, in such a manner. This shows a male point of view that helps the reader understand how Sammy feels and what is going through his mind during the story.

I think the girls helped give Sammy a reason to quit the grocery store. On one hand, Sammy quit for the girls. He saw how they were treated by the manager and thought he would be the hero by quitting to get back at him. And even though he knew the girls wouldn’t be waiting on him out side the store, he quit none the less. Because n the other hand, he didn’t want to end up like the manager when he got older. I was looking for a reason to quit a job once. I didn’t quit because I thought I was going to be working there for the rest of my life, but because I didn’t like working there anymore. I decided to not go in one day and when the manager called I said I had a science project to do. When she asked if I was going to come in ever again I said no. That was a long time ago and I would never quit a job in that way again. I was young then and I basically was just tired of working there.

Sammy’s future is unknown. The question of weather he quit because he thought he would be the girls knight in shining armor, or the fear that he would be stuck in a dead-end job the rest of his life is left up to the reader. Maybe both of the answers are both true. I think even though he thought in the back of his mind that the girls would be outside waiting for him, he knew in his heart that they wouldn’t be there. I don’t think Sammy’s future is in the grocery store business though. One thing is certain though, Sammy’s future is up to him.