SUMMARY PROBLEM STATEMENT In the spring of 2003, Mark Taylor, recently promoted to operations manager at Thicketwood Ltd., a custom kitchen cabinet manufacturer in Kitchener, Ontario. The company has to ensure that the plant's capacity would meet the upcoming year's forecasted demand of 2000 kitchen cabinets. But for now, the plant's manufacturing all relies on the handcraft of workers. No matter is the quality or the quantity of productions, cannot satisfied the demand either. Taylor's first plan was to purchase a computer numeric controlled(CNC) router, however, he was not sure whether to purchase a new or used machine.
This represents the founder of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad’s first and last name and the name of the farm where he was born and the village where he grew up. IKEA started out selling wallets, jewelry, watches, pens and other items that Kamprad could buy at a low price and flip for a profit. Furniture was added to the product line in 1948. IKEA is now a well known furniture retailer. Founded in 1943, Ingvar, at the age of five began selling matches to the local community.
No Way Out: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Tragedy Monee Crosswhite Las Animas High School Abstract No Way Out: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Tragedy Americans, to this day, do not realize the rights and privileges they have with their jobs and how lucky they are to have managers who are responsible enough to protect them. This was not always the case as illustrated in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire took place in March of 1911, after a garment caught on fire, it resulted in the death of 146 workers. The tragedy left its mark in history and galvanized a nation to make sure more precaution would be taken by business owners, and an industrial disaster would never happen again. From left, Max Florin, Fannie Rosen, Dora Evans and Josephine Cammarata, four of the six victims who were the last to be identified after the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory fire.
To achieve the company’s stated CSR objectives REI has instituted an employee commuting policy, climate-neutral travel framework, and improved shipping procedures based on the greenhouse emission metrics. As a result, while 2010 sales increased 14% from 2009, its total climate impact increased by less than 7.3%. The addition of four new stores and moving two locations to larger spaces, has allowed REI to decrease its energy consumption by 2.4%. Beyond energy efficiency initiatives, REI took additional steps to decrease waste and its total paper consumption. Although REI admits it still has a very high rate of paper usage, because of its direct mail campaigns and catalogs, the company has taken steps to optimize its catalogs, use electronic means of advertising such a mobile phone and internet and also increased the share of FSC-certified
Print. Gabrielle and Frank Shimkus were unable to have a child naturally on their own, so they, like many other unfertile couples, looked into international adoption. Finding an orphan in Kyrgyzstan, they began the adoption process, only to become members of the Kyrgyz 65. After the country suspended all international adoptions, the 65 couples were left in despair. Some countries have revoked their international adoption agreements for improvement efforts, economic prosperity, and renascent nationalism.
The Cholesterol Race PCSK9 stands for proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9. PCSK9 inhibitors are being made to help reduce cholesterol. Scientists are very optimistic that PCSK9 inhibitor drugs can decrease cholesterol, which is one of the major health problems in the United States today. Many people are dying each year because of high cholesterol. Two companies are gaining a lot of ground on coming up with a drug to lower cholesterol without horrible side effects.
U.S. companies take advantage of these workers because of their willingness to work under conditions that American workers would not. Sweatshops should be stopped across the world because they exploit workers and children from third-world countries and take jobs away from the American workforce. Exploiting children to work long hours in horrible conditions prohibits them from having a normal childhood and the right to a basic education. Amitosh, a 10-year old boy from New Delhi, India, worked in a sweatshop for the international fashion chain Gap. Smeared in filth, he worked 16 hour days hand-sewing clothing in a derelict industrial unit from dusk until 1 a.m.
In 2000 there was a vaccine shortage because quality control issues caused a 6-8 week delay in vaccine delivery. That year supplies were distributed unevenly and prices doubled as a cause of the perceived increase in demand. In 2001 only about two thirds of the produced doses were available at the beginning of the flu season. Then again in 2003 the amount of vaccine supplied did not meet the demand for vaccinations because 4 million doses were destroyed and 87 million were inappropriate for that season’s flu strain. Not taking any action in this case has proven to be a bad decision as was quickly learned in 2004.
The bravery of Rosa Parks inspired the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, which is a major key turning point because it showed the importance of black people in the economy; one million dollars was lost during the 1 year boycott. Non-violent methods of Gandhi adopted by King, also helped the movement spread and gain respect from Federal Government and even non blacks. King’s Ideology helped influence more organizations such as the success of the Greensboro sit-in by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This is a key turning point as it leads to the desegregation of public places. Use of technology in the civil rights campaign is also a key turning point for the campaign as during the 60’s further advancements were made by national broadcasts showing ill treatment of activist in places such as Birmingham and Selma in Alabama, expanding further support for the Civil rights campaign internationally.
PEST ANALYSIS POLITICAL Analysis • Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI): 94th out of 176 nations, score of 36 out of 100 on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) • Political instability: factions, criminal cases against leaders, corruption • Government stipulation for foreign single-brand retailers: source 30% of what they sell from SMEs. Ikea requested for moratorium on this, government agreed to 7 years a 10-year • Frequent strikes, protests and bandhs (complete or partial shutdown of cities), often instigated for political reasons – Often in response to some change introduced or proposed by the ruling party – If it’s a union or organization strike / protest, opposition party will support it in order to bolster its vote banks – Examples of reasons for strikes / protests / shutdowns: • Increase in LPG or petrol prices, or even onion and potato prices • Allowing foreign supermarket chains to enter • Not raising public transport tariff (autos and taxis) • Death of a political leader • Release of a controversial movie • Regulation changed to allow 100% FDI for single-brand retailers. However, states free to allow or bar retail FDI – Key cities and states for Ikea: • • • • Mumbai (Maharashtra) New Delhi (Delhi - Designated National Capital Territory) Chennai (Tamil Nadu) Bangalore (Karnataka) – Two strong parties in most states; one is more liberal and supports progressive reforms, the other supports the masses and blue-collared workers. For e.g., • Mumbai: Congress-NCP v/s BJP-Shiv Sena • Chennai: AIADMK v/s DMK – State policies keep changing according to who’s ruling and what alliances have been formed between which political parties Hurdle & Solution - Ruling and opposition political parties have different stands on FDI - If opposition comes to power,