In the article titled, “Going for the Look, but Risking Discrimination,” by Steven Greenhouse states that many retail companies are continuously searching for workers who are sexy, sleek or simply good looking to enhance the image of the company. Greenhouse begins by explaining that applicants must be attractive to get hired. The author continues by discussing a number of lawsuits that have been filed based on discrimination. He explains further that the most common goal among business is hiring workers to project an image. Additionally, the author describes that hiring only those with good looks can run into antidiscrimination problems.
However, future threats always have the potential to arise. Competitive Rivalry – Unless the popularity of the Little Wonder completely dwarfs other products in it's class then competitive rivalry should remain small. This would change if the Little Wonder starts to greatly impact competitor's bottom lines and they find a way to begin to manufacturer new and improved mixers themselves at a lower cost. Threat from New Entrants – New entrants is unlikely because of the amount of features in Company G's product and it's price point. Competitors likely would not want to risk losing current sales by adding features which would raise their prices.
Although the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed by Congress for positive reasons, there are many disadvantages that come along with it. A major issue is the cost of regulation, especially for smaller companies. Expanding internal controls delay the timeliness of financial statements by adding processing time to accounting functions. To follow the SOX, companies would need to separate duties, causing an increase in personnel. The SOX also calls for additional audits which increase business costs.
The first red flag would be that they are competing with huge computer companies that can have anything a customer needs readily available to ship. While Keystone seems to be doing a great job keeping up with the demand of certain products, they are forced to charge the customers more money for those products. While this has not currently affected them, it could in the future and could eventually be a problem for them. Another thing is that although business is booming right now, computers businesses do very well when the economic conditions are good. There are reports that say the economy will grow over the next few years (2010), but there is a possibility that they could be wrong and that won’t happen.
An example of this could be social security benefits. These motivations help the company recruit top level employees and increase their overall productivity. But this can be a trade-off as these benefits and rewards can be costly. Takeaway 2 - Corporate Culture, Human Resources, and Ethics Zappos is a great example of a company that has created a lively atmosphere for their workers through their casual working environment. But another takeaway is that this type of culture is not compatible with many companies.
This can make expanding and growing very difficult and decisions must be mad wisely. When it comes to their products that are purchased around the world to ensure high quality, expanding may affect that quality, making it hard to supply a specialty product. Going public through an IPO, may change the very decision made that make their company special, or it may enhance their products by providing more resources. Acquiring another company in the same industry to help their company grow could cause increased financial stability or increase their financial burden. Kudler can merge with another organization in hope to expand while implementing their mission and values on that organization or that organization may hurt their reputation.
Determine how best to use your company's strengths to overcome the strengths and overall performance of the competition you've found. How can you do even better? Possibly you'll have an offsetting strength that offers even more to customers. Start working on plans to develop your business into the dynamo you planned for it to become invest the time to double check your competitors for changes they've made. Examine the marketplace to make sure new competitors haven't found a way in without you knowing it.
Technology Risk Presentation Tammy Radcliffe XACC/210 • Limitations of Technology for E-Business System Technology is crucial in the daily operations of any business. Production of services is related to the technology used and it encourages an increase in productivity. Upgrades in technology gives an organization advantage to the competition. This could be cost effective to the organization compared to hiring new employees and paying high salaries in the long run. Technology has had several downfalls as well.
New laws and regulations come about because of social and political changes. Organizations abiding by state and federal laws and regulations may result in the organization spending more money on additional taxes, new technology development, and legal fees. Competition may consist of the startup of a new organization offering similar services and products in the same marketplace, which presents a new challenge. The customers are the most critical in the environment. As the end-users, they will usually improve the organization’s image in the community because of satisfaction with the product or service, or ruin the image of the organization in the community because of dissatisfaction with the product or service.
Meanwhile, the case study of Kodak will supplement to each aspect. The term of ‘disruptive technology’ was first coined by Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen and he suggested that it is a new technology that unexpectedly replaces the existed technology (Techtarget.com 2006). Carefully speaking, this kind of innovation means another different value network to the existed one and generates a niche market, which will eventually disrupt the existing value network and market (Wikipedia.org 2011). The explanation suggests that the disruptive technology is obviously a threat to the incumbent successful firms. It is undoubted that most successful firms have failed to compete with the entrant firms because of the disruptive technology.