MGT 498 Final Exam Latest 1. According to Porter, the corporation is most concerned with • the aggregate level of demand for a product line • the amount of pressure from the societal environment • the intensity of competition within its industry • a market's position on its life cycle 2. Which strategy specifies the firm's overall direction in terms of its general orientation toward growth, the industries or markets in which it competes, and the manner in which it coordinates activities and transfers resources among business units? • Corporate • Divisional • Functional • Organizational 3. Which is the MOST commonly used measure of corporate performance (in terms of profit)?
Southwest State Bank’s lower Expense Ratio is a result of lower interest expense and non-interest expense. The first factor on better controlling expense is interest expense. The total interest expense of Southwest State Bank is 0.24% lower versus peers, which include the interest on CD’s over $100M (0.83% less), Total deposits (1.14% less) and so on. But the most important parts are the source of funds from Money market deposit accounts and Time deposits under $100M. Money market deposit accounts which need to pay only a little interest to our depositors are 20.40% higher than peers, but Time deposits which need pay a lot interest are 14.84% lower than our peers.
In this task, I will be describing how political, legal and social factors are impacting upon the selected business activities. The two businesses which I have chosen are, Oxfam and also Tesco. Political factors for Tesco Taxation Large business such as Tesco is largely affected by the government taxes, such as income taxes and business rates. Tesco is a large business which means that a lot of corporation tax taken away from their profits. Corporation Tax is a tax on the taxable profits of limited companies and other organisations.
Case: Blue Nile, Inc., in 2010 (case 9 in text) 1. How strong are the competitive forces confronting Blue Nile and other online retail jewelers? Which one of the five competitive forces is the strongest? Do a five-forces analysis to support your answer. After reviewing all the five competitive forces, my analysis showed that the weakest of the fives forces is the threat of new entry’s despite the possibilities of selling of a good with a high contribution margin, it is very challenging and expensive to develop a new competitor that could go head to head with Blue Nile and make a profit, let alone survive the competition.
This can be leveraged to redistribute its production in order to meet the overall demand. At current level, it costs Applichem $83 million to produce and ship its worldwide production. To shut down Gary, every other plant would have to be used to its maximum capacity and total costs would increase by $4 million per year, assuming demand stayed constant. It would also be useful at this point to take into account the exchange rate fluctuations that affect the overall competitiveness of the plant (Exhibit 5). While comparing the costs, it becomes evident that the Japanese plant should not be used as the overall production costs are really high, driven by high labor and utility costs (Exhibit 3).
A ratio of 1.5 or greater is considered adequate to cover short term debts, and a ratio of less than one is a clear warning signal that a company may not be able to pay its short-term debts. The industry quick ratio standard is 0.84 so therefore, not only does WFM lead their competitors they are close to meeting the industry standard. Whole Food Market reliability is higher than its
Further we will limit the industry to Porters definition from 2008, that if the industry structure for different products share the same buyers,suppliers,barriers to entry and so forth they can be defined in the same industry. 1.0 Threat of new entrants 1.1 Economies of scale. Whole Foods Market Inc is the 8th largest food and drug retailer in the U.S and thereby enjoy lower costs per unit since they can spread fixed costs over more units and this enables them to demand lower prices from providers. They have divided their purchasing in two sections where one is regional and the other local which gives them the possibility to both get niche products and the advantage of economy of scale. These two divisions makes it harder for a new entrants to enter the market, both on the general level and on the niche level.
Even though the concept worked in the test stores, the wholesaler believed the concept would not work when the economy improved. Today, Save-A-Lot has more than 1,300 stores across the United States and Save-A-Lot targets a value- and convenience-oriented psychographic segment. The consumers in this segment are looking for a good value, namely, quality merchandise at low prices. Its stores average about 14,000-18,000 square feet, less than half the size of a conventional supermarket. These smaller stores appeal to shoppers who don't want to park half a mile from the storefront Stores stock approximately 1,250 SKUs of the most popular items, compared with 30,000 SKUs in a traditional supermarket.
The combined sales from these markets amount to a staggering 48.7 Billion. From the end customer view, the company must focus on small users with tanks less than 1,000 gallons. Positioning: Katham MWX needs to be positioned as the cost-effective solution to maintain machinery and extend the life of metal working fluid. Price: The large price differentials from the manufacturer all the way down to the small user suggests that pricing needs to be re-structured through all channels. Currently, Rohm & Haas enjoys a 75% margin, Formulators also get 75%, and dealers claim they can sell this product for $6/packet, which translates to a 400% margin.
But in the same period… the earnings of America’s most highly paid CEOs rose by 4300 per cent.” (Bone 1) Amazing isn’t it that many people barely get by on their paychecks while other live lavishly. How do we close this gap of economic inequality? Marx believed it was necessary to seek refuge in communism. This did not turn out well for China or Russia who tried to apply this principle only to become a totalitarian government. Although people want to close the economic gap “only 2 percent chose the