In what ways does your choice of a Target Market dictate (or imply) your choice of Value Proposition to focus on and who your Key Competitors will be?
In: Operations Management
In: Operations Management
In: Operations Management
From early success reaped by Aurora and from the material presented, it would appear that management was effectively using its internal resources.
Identify the resources and explain in your own words, how the company was seemingly using them as growth drivers.
In: Operations Management
Given the dramatic turn of fortunes at Aurora, it is obvious the company failed in implementing an effective strategic management process which would have guaranteed success. Say whether you agree or not and justify your position.
In: Operations Management
What is the difference between Quantative and Qualitative Forecasts at Nike? When would Nike use both methods in Operations?
In: Operations Management
What grade would you give Southwest management for the job it has done in implementing and executing the company’s strategy? Which of Southwest’s strategy execution approaches and operating practices do you believe have been most crucial in accounting for the success that Southwest has enjoyed in executing its strategy? Are the any policies, procedures, and operating approaches at Southwest that you disapprove of or that are not working well?
In: Operations Management
How can the largest Companies in the U.S. such as COSTCO,THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC,ELI LILLY AMAZON,NVIDIA ensure that its supply chain is resilient to the unexpected events such as the Pandemic- Coronavirus. What measures should they have instituted prior to such a worlwide destructive event?
In: Operations Management
At LULULEMON, marketing of women's apparel makes a sales forecast by developing a sales force composite. Simultaneously,operations makes a forecast of sales based on past data ,trends,seasonal components.The operations forecast usually turns out to be 20% less than the forecast of the marketing forecast. What is the best forecasting method for LULULEMON to use in this situation?
In: Operations Management
Instructions:
Consider any product or service, describe it, and respond to the following questions regarding it.
Use 2 minimum citations
In: Operations Management
Case assignments must be completed with a written 1-page study on the assigned case questions in the textbook. The format requested for these assignments is based on elaborating and including two basic parts in the essay: 1) in a bullet presentation style (one phrase each bullet), list a summary of the key issues, situations, problems, opportunities and threats you may identify as relevant; 2) answer all the questions listed in each case in two or three sound paragraphs. Use the APA style for these assignments.
Case SpinCent: The Decision To Export
More than 300,000 U.S. companies export goods. Some 7,000 of these, such as Caterpillar, Boeing, General Electric, and Intel, generate about 65 percent of total exports.2 Their smallest shipments are typically larger than the largest shipments of smaller companies. Still, some 297,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)— specifically, companies with fewer than 500 workers—account for nearly 98 percent of all U.S. exporters.3 One such SME is SpinCent of Pennsylvania.
SpinCent manufactures laboratory and industrial centrifuges.
Companies in chemical, pharmaceutical, food, environmental, and
mining industries use them to spin a substance into high-speed rotation
around a fixed axis, thereby moving heavy elements to the bottom,
lighter objects toward the top, and liquid in between. SpinCent’s
56 employees—43 workers, 8 product and process engineers, and
5 managers—operate out of its 90,000-square-foot facility in suburban
Philadelphia. SpinCent began operations in 2010 with one goal
in mind: create high-performance centrifuges that inspire absolute
confidence. Its patented technology anchors a full line of automatic
and manual centrifuges recognized for quality and value. To this day,
management believes it builds “centrifuges for which there simply
are no equals.”
To Export Or Not To Export: That Is The Question
From inception, SpinCent approached export passively. Its international
sales often resulted from other U.S. firms’ orders that were
set for export, occasional sale leads received at trade shows, or an
unsolicited order from a foreign buyer. Export sales generated high
gross margins; occasionally, unexpected complications, such as
customs or credit problems, increased administrative costs. Still,
SpinCent’s net margins on export sales ran about 15 percent higher
than domestic sales.
Paul Knepper, CEO and founder, explained that recurring problems
had dampened his interest in exporting. First, he and his colleagues
were skeptical about the likelihood of international success. Previous
efforts, they felt, had spent more time on unfocused searching or solving
situations than on purposefully growing export activity. Moreover,
serving customers in the domestic market had kept them quite busy.
As a result, developing exports stretched their already thin management
structure. Going international, they feared, would pose tough challenges,
especially heading into direct competition with seasoned exporters from
Germany and Japan.
Still, as time passed, market pressures raised concerns about
SpinCent’s ongoing productivity and profitability. The struggling U.S.
manufacturing sector had slowed SpinCent’s growth and pushed
some of its customers to import cheaper, lower-end centrifuges from foreign suppliers. Increasing price competition was inevitable.
Knepper knew the day of reckoning was at hand: SpinCent must
(1) focus on the domestic market and exploit every possible efficiency
to sustain productivity or (2) expand aggressively into export, looking
to fast-growing overseas markets. Ultimately, Knepper conceded,
market trends forced his hand. The slow-moving deindustrialization
of the United States, forecast to continue for years, would steadily
reduce domestic demand. Meanwhile, quickly industrializing emerging
economies, particularly in Asia, signaled rich opportunities.
Hence, Knepper accepted, somewhat grudgingly, that SpinCent must
export to promising markets.
Asia Calls
Big market trends signaled big opportunities in Asia. “Industries
were coming online everywhere and seemingly overnight,” observed
Knepper. Pro-market reform, improving economic freedom, and accelerating
economic development spurred industrialization throughout
Asia. Moreover, the types of goods moving through Asia’s
seaports signaled budding industries that used SpinCent’s sorts of
centrifuges. And, unlike the United States, which was in the mature
part of the product life cycle, emerging economies looked set to grow
for years.
Getting Started
New to the idea of the Asian market, SpinCent sought help on how
best to access the large, diverse region. Knepper feared wasting
resources flying solo. Moreover, he was not looking to generate a
single-shot export burst, but aimed to build relationships that would
support long-term growth. Hence, the primary challenge was finding
competent and trustworthy distributors who would develop, make,
and service local sales. “We were looking for a long-term partner
and not a quick export sale,” said Knepper. “The right partner for
SpinCent needed to be as confident and competent about the product
as we are, and able to promote, educate, and serve consumers in
the respective territories.” The key, he added, was partnering with
respected firms. On the flip side, SpinCent had to convince potential
agents that partnering with it made long-term sense.
Knepper began by seeking information on potential distributors,
confirming their reputation and resources. A few of the company’s
earlier export transactions, for instance, had run into problems with
agents who struggled financially. As Knepper warned, “Getting paid
is a huge part of running a business, and unless a company has
the right payment policies in place with the right partners, it will get
scammed.”
Mindful of these issues, Knepper attended a trade seminar sponsored
by the U.S. Commercial Service’s Export Assistance Center of Philadelphia. On the agenda were market analysis and trade reports
on the emerging economies of Asia. Taking his seat, he couldn’t help
but wonder about the opportunities. Sure, he conceded, they sounded
great. However, he had seen hype like this come back to bite, not
to mention the horror stories he’d heard of the problems and pitfalls
of exporting. Indeed, he reflected, a key reason for attending was
reconciling his sense of the opportunities and threats.
Getting Help
Since exports promote economic growth, government agencies offer
extensive assistance, such as trade seminars, market research,
training programs, and financial planning. Trade officials encourage
SMEs like SpinCent, seeing them as the primary beneficiaries of initiatives
to initiate and accelerate international trade activity. Given
that 60 percent or so of all SME exporters posted sales to only one
foreign market, many could boost performance by entering just one
or two others. Expanding SMEs’ market horizons through trade seminars,
official reasoned, bolstered their confidence to do so.
After a full morning of profiles and presentations, Knepper
believed Asian markets held far more opportunities than risk. He
had learned quite a bit about Asia, as well as some technicalities
of exporting. Still, his unfamiliarity of local business practicalities,
compounded by the lack of local sales representatives, bothered
him. Filling in these blanks, he concluded, called for some on-the-ground
research. So, before leaving, he spoke to Commercial Service
agents and arranged to join a 12-day trade mission that was
heading to Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Taiwan the
following month.
Goal Setting
Knepper’s trip had straightforward goals: assess market potential,
identify competitors, get a sense of reasonable price points, and recruit
local sales representatives and distributors. Although he had
never visited Asia, he believed he had prepared well. His time with
the trade representatives in Philadelphia gave him a good sense of
the general characteristics and industry conditions in Asian markets.
Also, in the past, SpinCent had received inquiries from Asian distributors
ordering centrifuges; some had inquired about representing
the company locally. Depending on how busy it was with domestic
customers, SpinCent tried to respond yet nothing substantial had
ever come of it. Still, these contacts had been saved, thereby giving
Knepper a start on potential distributors and likely customers.
Knepper also tapped the Commercial Services’ Gold Key program
to prescreen potential distributors. This program helps SMEs
enlist Commercial Services agents overseas to scan local markets for
qualified agents, distributors, and representatives. Gold Key agents
will prescreen and prequalify potential partners, conduct background
checks, and customize local market research. Exporters report that
the Gold Key program ensures that when a firm adds a partner to its
network, it is a respected company in the target country. Thinking back to his days as a Boy Scout, Knepper believed that
he met the sacred command: “Be prepared.” With a briefcase full of
brochures, a laptop loaded with profiles of his product line, and the
sense of doing something potentially great, he headed to Asia. Over
the next two weeks, he interviewed potential agents, chatted with
likely customers, scouted competitors’ offerings, test called their
service support, spoke to freight forwarders and logistics companies,
and visited local government officials and customs agencies.
Asia Calls, Spincent Answers
On the flight home, tired but charged, Knepper realized that his misgivings
about exporting had been unfounded. There were risks, but
the opportunities outweighed them. Exporting was no longer an option
for SpinCent—it was an imperative. Besides a new sense of
commitment, Knepper had a bit more confidence, given the newly
signed distributors in the Philippines and Taiwan as well as promising
sales leads there and in Hong Kong.
Back in Philadelphia, Knepper tested the Asian market a bit
more, advertising in trade publications as well as running banner
ads on trade sites in tandem with his newly signed distributors (he
handled the English ads, they, the Mandarin versions). In addition,
he began working with an agent from Commercial Services on an
export plan. This work helped SpinCent secure its largest overseas
partner to date, a distributor in Hong Kong who served the fast-growing
Chinese market. Commercial Services arranged meetings with
others, eventually signing a distributor in Singapore and generating
leads in Australia.
Allied with strong partners, SpinCent continues tapping the support
provided by government agencies. The more he has dealt with
them, the more Knepper appreciates a friend’s advice: “Let the government
do what it can for you. This is their niche and they’re the
best at it.” Now, with an export plan in hand, Knepper has begun
working with the Export-Import Bank to secure financing options for
overseas distributors and customers.4 And, with a gleam in his eye,
he’s set to attend a U.S. Commercial Service’s profile of the emerging
markets of sub-Saharan Africa.
Going Forward
Steadily, as SpinCent gains experience in Taiwan, the Philippines,
Hong Kong, and Singapore, look onward and upward. Although exporting
creates challenges, it helps SpinCent boost productivity and
profitability. Indeed, overseas sales provided the firm with a growing
stream of business during the economic downturn in the United
States, while rivals who had not diversified via exports struggled.
More important, exporting taps a low-cost, high-return opportunity to
leverage SpinCent’s centrifuge technology.
This experience reflects Knepper, has straightforward lessons:
“If you are thinking about exporting internationally, do it. Get going,
do your homework, utilize low-cost resources, participate in trade missions, learn about business cultures, and build relationships.
Always verify your potential business partners. Gather as much
information as you can. Stress-test your assumptions; the wrong
guess costs you time and money. Above all, no matter the problems
that you’ll run into, stay committed. All of these seem tough,
but they only cost pennies on the dollar and the returns can be
substantial.”
Questions
14-1. Analyze two challenges that SpinCent overcame in developing its export activity. Describe how it overcame them.
14-2. Based on its Asian experiences, map a sequence to guide SpinCent’s export expansion to sub-Saharan Africa.
In: Operations Management
The produce manager at the local grocery store must determine how many pounds of bananas to order weekly. Based upon past experience, the demand for bananas is expected to be 100, 150, 200, or 250 pounds with the following probabilities: 100lbs 0.20; 150lbs 0.25, 200lbs 0.35, 250lbs 0.20. The bananas cost the store $.45 per pound and are sold for $.85 per pound. Any unsold bananas at the end of each week are sold to a local zoo for $.30 per pound.
Use your knowledge of decision analysis to model and solve this problem in order to recommend how many pounds of bananas the manager should order each week
please use excel spreadsheets for the answers! thank you!
In: Operations Management
Complete a qualitative risk assessment and response planning of each of the risks identified below. Use at least 1 of each of the threat risk response strategies for your response planning.
RISKS:
1. Project and purpose not well defined
2. Scope Creep
3. Project schedule is not clearly defined or understood
4. Lack of communication causing lack of clarity and confusion
5. No control over staff priorities
6. Delay in earlier project phases jeopardizes ability to meet fixed date
7. Unresolved project conflicts not escalated in a timely manner
8. Contractor delays
9. Added workload or time requirements because of new direction or policy
10. Stakeholder action delays project.
Rubric
| Task | Point Value (out of 100) |
| Proper APA format, spelling, grammar, citation, and organization of writing | 10 points |
| Risk Assessment | 20 points |
| Risk Response Planning | 50 points |
| Clear Format and Easy to View/ Report | 20 points |
In: Operations Management
In: Operations Management
Case assignments must be completed with a written 1-page study on the assigned case questions in the textbook. The format requested for these assignments is based on elaborating and including two basic parts in the essay: 1) in a bullet presentation style (one phrase each bullet), list a summary of the key issues, situations, problems, opportunities and threats you may identify as relevant; 2) answer all the questions listed in each case in two or three sound paragraphs. Use the APA style for these assignments.
Case: The Borderfree Option: Going Global—simplified
E-commerce, by changing the way companies around the
world do business, makes international trade easier and
cheaper. Before the Internet, tracking down a product to
import, or finding foreign customers to export to, overwhelmed
the typical SME. Some relied on occasional trade
shows and expensive, time-consuming foreign travel to
identify possible products or assess potential suppliers.
Certainly, traders could tap local embassies or consulates
to support the export promotion or provide import assistance.
Although sounding straightforward, in practice these sorts
of options typically proved expensive and cumbersome.
Consequently, international trade was largely limited to big
companies that could afford to attend trade shows, translate
marketing materials, travel internationally, hire intermediaries,
and supervise the many activities that make up international trade.
Today, the Internet gives SMEs a cost-effective means
to manage these demands. It makes information on any
conceivable product from virtually any market readily and
inexpensively accessible. Falling trade barriers (due to
expanding cross-national trade agreements) along with
improving logistics options (courtesy of enterprising freight
forwarders and 3PLs) offer an array of trade possibilities.
The Internet, simply put, transforms whatever it
touches. It’s already the most powerful force for globalization,
democratization, economic growth, and education in
history. The same, we see, applies to the game of international
trade. As such, e-commerce is now inherently
global—just as the Internet knows no physical boundaries,
so too with Internet sales. Consumers’ growing disposable
income and interest in global brands, especially in a
screen-saturated world, highlights the potential of global
e-commerce.
Still, national markets differ in different sorts of ways—
ranging from market structure and growth dynamics to
consumer preferences and media consumption practices.
Staying ahead of trends, both national and global is no small
task. It calls for companies to study the demographics, psychographics,
preferences, and behaviors of the global consumer
landscape, identify how to manage payments and
collections, and organize supply chains that reflect when,
where what, and how consumers buy. Tough in just one
market, the task can grow stunningly complex when looking
at the 200-plus national markets or territories that compose
the global business environment.
Launch a Website, Go Global
Capturing those sales, along with riding expanding technologies,
has led many retailers to open websites with an
eye to opening export markets far and wide. Now, opening
a website, whether you like it or not, means you are global.
Consumers from anywhere and everywhere can go to your
website and, when there, do business. Done well, enterprising
companies can leverage cross-border e-commerce into
powerful international expansion. Done poorly, a retailer
wastes energy, effort, and equity. Despite best intentions, the challenges of international inexperience, currency ills,
payment problems, logistics challenges, and cultural contingencies
can prove daunting.
E-commerce’s growing potential spurs vendors to make
going global as simple as linking your current website
with their behind-the-scenes, back-office expertise. They
develop end-to-end solutions that break down barriers and
borders, thereby enabling a company to sell its products
worldwide with reduced effort.
These companies are not your typical e-commerce,
business-to-consumer model retailer, like Amazon, eBay, or
Alibaba. Moreover, they are unlike traditional logistics companies,
such as FedEx, DHL, UPS, and their core business
of delivering packages. Rather, these companies, such as
BorderJump, Venda, International Checkout, and Borderfree,
provide proprietary technology that enables retailers to
transact with customers in virtually every country and territory
worldwide.
Borderfree: Fine-Tuning the Global Game
Founded in 1999, Borderfree is headquartered in New York
City. It has offices in Dublin, London, Tel Aviv, Toronto, and
Shanghai. From these, Borderfree helps more than 200 retailers—
such as Neiman Marcus, Lands’ End, and Harrods—
conduct cross-border online sales in more than 220 countries
that are transacted in 74 currencies.
Borderfree manages retailers’ international shopping
experience, suggesting real-time merchandising insights and
marketing strategies to help it target international consumers,
whether through the web, mobile, or in-store channels. Then,
Borderfree’s systems seal the deal, administering multicurrency
pricing and payment processing, tending to fraud and
tax management, calculating landed costs, arranging customs
clearance and brokerage, and supervising logistics.
Borderfree’s mission declared its CEO, “is to make it
as simple as possible for online retailers to reach new consumers
and sell their products around the world globally.”
Added to its chief technology officer, the rise in global consumerism
means that “There’s a lot of growth still out there
for companies in the industry. Growth from a revenue perspective,
growth from a coverage perspective.”
Capturing that growth requires companies, both large
and small, overcome the barriers to buying and selling
internationally. Borderfree, by linking customers and companies
through tap-web and mobile platforms, helps consumers
worldwide shop across geographies and devices
while enabling companies to leverage their brand, inventory,
and expertise.
Arranging the Pieces
Borderfree’s turnkey installation system integrates with the
retailer’s e-commerce infrastructure. Moreover, it's plug-in
modules connect a retailer’s existing e-commerce infrastructure
and international operations. The end result is that
customers enter international markets quickly after a system
rollout. Moreover, Borderfree’s software helps its clients localize
the website experience, supporting country-specific
marketing messages, pricing strategies, international
checkouts with translation, local payment options, and fully
landed delivery quotes.
Operationally, a retailer can add plug-ins that track what
people are buying, where and when they are buying it, and
adjust promotions in real-time. On the service side, Borderfree
also manages international fraud, customs clearance,
and all global logistics. Collectively, Borderfree enables the
internationally ambitious retailer to quickly move from domestic
today to global tomorrow.
Borderfree works with retailers to optimize international
site experience based on local preferences, best practices,
and marketing customization. It provides targeted marketing
campaigns, data analysis and insight into prospective markets,
website localization, duty and tax compliance, pricing in different currencies, customs clearance, and customer
care. Harrods’ e-commerce director, for instance, explained,
“We were drawn to Borderfree’s ability to further enhance
our capacity to serve our customers seamlessly across geographies.
We also were particularly interested in partnering
with Borderfree to extend our reach into China and Russia,
two markets that hold great consumer promise for us.”
The director of e-commerce at The Dune Group, a fashion
footwear and accessories company that has over 300
stores and concessions in 24 countries, said that Borderfree
provides “potential growth opportunities in markets such as
South America, Africa, and Asia.” Likewise, the head of digital
at Trunci planned to use Borderfree’s platform to further its
growth in India, Japan, Ireland, Mexico, Pakistan, South
America, and South Korea.
Promising Solutions
In 2014, Borderfree generated more than $125 million in revenue.
It is paid by its clients based on a percentage of sales,
generally up to 12 percent, that takes place on Borderfree’s
platform. It generates additional revenue from fulfillment
services, foreign exchange, and other transaction-related
fees. Looking to the future, as more countries champion
international trade, as more executives target international
sales, as more consumers develop global brand awareness,
and as more technologies improve connectivity, shoppers
worldwide will make more purchases on the Internet.
Capturing these opportunities pushes some companies
to go alone in the world of import and export. Others, managing
a differing mix of ownership, location, and internalization
advantages, see that the growing competencies of
companies such as Borderfree make going global with the help of an intermediary the superior choice.
Questions
14-4. What mix of ownership, location, and internalization advantages would encourage a company to hire Borderfree?
14-5. Borderfree’s clients expect it to be knowledgeable about the key markets in which they operate and to be able to advise on how to prioritize, budget, and compete. How does Borderfree make that happen?
14-7. Do you think most international trade might eventually take place through intermediaries like Borderfree.com? Does that influence your interest in importing and exporting?
In: Operations Management