Costco Wholesale Corporation was founded on September 15th, 1983 by James Sinegal and Jeffrey Brotman. The two founded Costco to allow small businesses and families to purchase a variety of high quality, brand name items for a better value, and significantly lower price. The idea is, that businesses can purchase items in bulk, and then resell them for an individual price per item, thus bringing in a quantitatively larger profit. According to Jim Sinegal, the Company's Co-Founder and Director, "Costco is able to offer lower prices and better values by eliminating virtually all the frills and costs historically associated with conventional wholesalers and retailers, including salespeople, fancy buildings, delivery,
Blue Niles economical supply chain and comparatively low operating costs allowed it to sell comparable-quality jewelry at substantially lower prices than the leading competitor. Blue Nile found a way to exclusively make arrangements that allowed diamond and gem supplier’s products on the website. These arrangements included multi-year agreements where only designated diamonds were offered only on their website. Second, they didn’t purchase a diamond or gem from suppliers until a customer placed an order. In contrast, traditional jewelers had far bigger
Blue Nile’s supply chain efficiency allows them to have lower operating costs. Blue Nile bypasses the wholesalers and brokers, which gives them a great opportunity to obtain a more cost-efficient product. Blue Nile and their suppliers also have multiyear agreements whereby Blue Nile only purchases diamonds and gems when a customer places an order. The low operating cost allows Blue Nile to offer their customers discounted prices at about 20% to 35% less than the traditionally established stores. 2.
I like Blue Nile’s business model. It informs the shopper on why and how their product is valued. Customer service not being pushy, fast delivery, customized jewelry, and 30-day return policy are some more things I like about the company. One thing I dislike about their business model is that everything is online. Blue Nile should provide physical business other than an
Proprietorship has three important advantages: it is easily and inexpensively formed; its subject to few government regulations and; its income is not subject to corporate taxation but is taxed as a part of the proprietor’s income. Limitations include: difficulty obtaining capital needed for growth; having an unlimited personal liability for business debts can result in losses that exceed the money invested in the company and; life of a proprietorship is limited to life of its founder. For these reasons sole proprietorship is used mainly for small businesses. A partnership exists when there are two or more persons or entities associate to conduct non-corporate business for profit. Partnership agreements define the ways that any profits and losses are shared between partners.
Apex brings in annual sales of $60 million, but with only enough funding to choose one investment, the products also have to be evaluated by lifecycle category to understand the investment. Compound A-115 has benefits in that it is new in its lifecycle, new to the market and the opportunity exists to use this to the full advantage in the business community. There is only one competitor in the field, and although they have brand recognition and a strong customer service ranking, there is opportunity to exploit this life cycle process. Additionally, Apex could revisit their customer service strategy to make it comparable. Apex would have an opportunity to do some innovation, branding and marketing to challenge the competitor and offer an alternative.
Next, the future growth of UST will be assessed. This assessment, combined with the evaluation of UST's business attributes and risks, will be used to assign a credit rating to UST. Finally, this credit rating will be used to show the effect of recapitalization on UST. UST business attributes and risks: The sustainable source of value for UST is brand equity. The strong brand names possessed by UST, such as Copenhagen and Skoal, reduces the company's credit risk by creating a virtual monopoly in the premium smokeless tobacco market that is relatively immune to competition.
Schwab’s competitive advantage lied in their focus on providing investors with low-cost access to making investments. Schwab invested heavily in technology to support their consumers evolving needs, and was able to be a first mover in new opportunities with phone (automated systems) and internet trading. Schwab’s low-cost structure gave them room to market heavily, and reinforce their reputation as a cost cutting company. 3.) How has the internet affected the brokerage industry?
Their s also less global competition which equals more slices of pie for Blue Nile. Power of Buyers) The pressure consumers can exert on Blue Nile to get them to provide higher quality products, better customer service, and lower prices are almost none existent or very minimal because that’s who blue Nile prides themselves on being. This is very important because “buyer power” is one of the forces that help shape the competitive structure of a market or industry. Power of Sellers) Blue Nile has done an excellent job of making arrangements and agreements with their suppliers to
Dell survived the technology bust of 2001, and improved the company’s market share by providing a better-quality product and beat the competitors through quick delivery and meeting the customer needs (Krames, 2003, p. 63). Chapter 5 focuses on Intel co-founder and former CEO, Andy Grove. One of Grove’s contributions to the business field is his philosophies and strategies for change management. Grove