How Adidas Company care about customer equity

PLEASE ANSWER AS A TEXT. DON'T WRITE ON A PAPER.

Read the article below and answer the questions.  Your answers should be written to address the question in a report format not questions and answers format. The rubrics for assessment is given below.

1. Explain how the corona virus affect the supply chain in food industries starting from supplier, manufacturing and distribution.
2. Explain how the uncertainty in demand and supply is addressed in the article
3. Explain the solutions the article suggested to mitigate the uncertainties in the supply chain due to COVID-19.

As the coronavirus crisis deepens in Europe Bo Zhou, CEO of supply chain software specialist FuturMaster, shares insights into managing the crisis and lessons learnt from keeping the cogs turning in China. "Everything that seems normal everyday becomes totally impossible."

The food supply chain in Europe is coming under increasing pressure. On the one hand, manufacturers and retailers are struggling to meet a sudden jump in demand. On the other, they may face new transport and distribution restrictions designed to stop the spread of the disease. While the European Commission has introduced measures, such as dedicated lanes, designed to keep good flowing between member states, food industry associations have reported delays at the boarder that impact fresh foods in particular. Labour shortages and forced factory shutdowns should be expected.

According to Bo Zhou, chief executive of A1 planning software provider FuturMaster, 'many' of the company's clients in Europe are 'worried about the impact on their supply chains'. The company counts the likes of Warburtons, Haribo, Bonduelle and Yoplait among its European customer base.

Covid-19: Prepare with forecasting and simulations

FuturMaster has operations in China, where 'huge' disruption was caused to businesses after the onset of the coronavirus crisis. Official data shows Chinese exports in January and February were down 17.2% year-on-year. For one of FuturMaster's beverage customers saw February sales plunge a massive 80%.

According to the tech company, there is still a 'lot of trepidation' around consumer demand - not least because new confirmed local transmission has started again after the full lockdown put a pause on the spread of the disease. The World Health Organization's latest status report reveals 103 new cases were confirmed in the country, all due to local transmission, on 23 March.

What are the key demand trends that FuturMaster has witnessed? Short-term demand from end-consumers has fallen sharply. Due to so many people being quarantined at home, the geographical distribution of demand has also changed. A lot of demand has shifted online. Understanding how demand is likely to evolve will be crucial if the food industry in Europe is going to meet the needs of citizens, Zhou believes.

"During times of such uncertainty, every company needs to make simulations on how demand may evolve and if and how they can satisfy this demand based on their production and warehouse capacity.

“You also need to closely monitor which transportation routes are cut, or how many workers will be unable to show up at various sites due to lockdown. For many companies in China, the problems were compounded because they don't have the technologies to support these simulations; so they were unable to anticipate demand and supply by looking at multiple scenarios," Zhou noted.

Grappling with food shortages and empty shelves

Panic buying - where many European supermarkets have worked to empty shelves due to stock-piling - is likely to test suppliers 'to the limit'. But spikes in demand are not the only problem food makers in Europe will face.

According to Zhou, sourcing materials may not be the biggest problem on the supply side. Companies will also have to contend with reduced production and warehousing capacities due to labour shortages. When one worker tests positive, the whole team has to be put into quarantine.

Moving products around can turn out to be an issue as well, especially when transportation routes are affected due to border closures. This has clearly been an issue in China. According to a recent McKinsey report, trucking capacity to ship goods from factories to ports is operating at around 60-80% of normal capacity in the country. This has resulted in goods facing delays of around 8-10 days.

"During the crisis, companies need to produce more with reduced resources. This is made possible by optimising the production by reducing set-up times. Manufacturers also need to produce more efficiently: having updated demand planning data allows you to produce only what is most in demand and profitable," Zhou said.

"Anticipating ahead - by doing simulations - enables companies to be better prepared. Being able to react in an agile and efficient way is vital for coping with any crisis situations. "

FuturMaster case study: A 'major' bottled water supplier in China

China consumes more bottled water than anywhere else in the world: around 25 billion

gallons a year, according to the IBWA trade association, which accounts for more than a

quarter of the world's volume.

One of the largest suppliers of bottled water to China - which did not want to be named - has been able to avoid 'severe' stock shortages using FuturMaster's 'sophisticated' supply chain

planning technology to help anticipate and respond quickly to the emergency, the tech group revealed.

The water company has 'numerous factories' it can leverage to adjust capacity based on forecasting of demand and market supply. It was also able to determine which products should be prioritised by taking into account stock on hand in each warehouse and available production and distribution capacities.The timing of the crisis was interesting. Most factories in China were already scheduled to close for a week over the Chinese New Year. At this time, coronavirus cases were threatening to bring Wuhan (where the Covid-19 virus outbreak started) to a standstill. A team of planners at the water supplier were already gearing up and preparing for various possible closures as news of new lockdowns spread. So it looked at the areas likely to be most affected and where else it could produce, and at what capacity. Using FuturMaster's system to make an updated plan for the supply network, the supply chain team tracked traffic restrictions and collected information from local managers to understand labour force trends. "It ran simulation after simulation. It came up with a plan A, B, C, and so on. This foresight and planning meant that it was less likely to be taken by surprise and resulted in continued supplies to almost everywhere."

FuturMaster's A1 allowed large amounts of data to be collected and interpreted, Zhou explained. Modelling different scenarios allows the company to come up with solutions - for

instance, shifting production capacity to different locations to cope with factory closures and transportation disruptions. Importantly, this was achieved at speed.

"In times of extreme uncertainty and volatility in demand, digital technology can certainly make

sense ofa multitude of data, quickly and optimally. This requires a supply chain planning too

that's highly flexible and data-driven. Ideally, you need to be able to manage as many variables as possible to get more accurate forecasts on demand and optimise the supply accordingly. It's

something that would normally take days to do manually. And a machine is often much better

than humans at crunching numbers and making decisions from wades of information. "

Managing disruption and re-thinking logistics

Zhou does not downplay the level of disruption coronavirus will bring to food and other businesses in Europe. "Everything that seems normal everyday becomes totally impossible," he stressed.

"For many businesses, you might need to find another logistics network. You have to focus on where's the best factory that you can produce in and look closely at costs and feasibility. All the normal variables that supply chain planners use on an everyday basis become uncertain and questionable. But you can act with foresight to mitigate risk.

"In times of panic - and against a backdrop of empty shelves - some digital technology can be used to avoid a crisis. Digital technology can help make better decisions afterwards and prioritise things whenever there's a choice to be made," added Zhou.

Explain value-defining, value-developing and value-delivering processes in KFC company

1.In BBC Airline, a training program on improving customer service was given to flight attendants in response to the increasing customer complaints. However, when the trainees are back to the workplace, most of them have not served customers as expected in the training. To make transfer of training possible, you are required to:

(a) suggest what should be done by the organization and

(b) discuss how the training should be designed.

2.A two-day workshop on improving communication skills will be given to 30 salespersons in three fashion outlets of J&J. Half of them have the requisite skills of active listening. However, the other half are newly recruited and have just graduated from high schools. They know nothing about this area. To save training costs, both the new and existing employees have to attend the workshop together.   You are required to:

1. discuss how the training should be designed, considering the diverse background of the trainees and
2. describe four types of role play to facilitate learning with an example each.

3.In B&B Café, a two-day workshop on effective feedback skills will be given to 20 managers. It is focused primarily on performance reviews. To ensure that the training program can achieve its objectives, you are required to:

1. explain how the training program should be evaluated throughout the training process and
2. describe four types of evaluation outcomes after training with an example each.

4.The increasing number of competitors, which leads to the decline in the business profits of ABC Restaurant, has been brought to the attention of a senior manager. He believes that training should be given to regain the market lead in a highly competitive market.   You, as a training manager, are approached by him for assistance. In a meeting with him, you are required to:

a. discuss the type of training needs analysis relevant to the situation and

b. elaborate how data are collected to analyse the training needs.

Q1. Explain what companies should do to make employees contribute towards the strategic management process in the organization.

Q2. Why do many organizations fail to implement plans successfully?

Q 3&4 : Case: Maestro Pizza

Entering the food industry nowadays became harder than before. The people now pay extra attention to even small details when it comes to food. The variety of food kinds, the way the food being served, the quality of food, the price, and even the place decoration! Furthermore, there are tons of restaurants (competitors) those being in the food industry for decades which makes it even harder to compete with them. Not to mention if a new restaurant will serve one kind of food that already being served by other expert restaurants.

Here we talk about a new restaurant in Saudi Arabia that successfully entered the food industry and managed to compete existed restaurants who are serving the same kind of food for a long time and even considered the best in the world of serving such food! The restaurant's name is Maestro Pizza which is locally founded and operated by Saudi people. This restaurant has successfully dominated the market and stole the throne from underneath of many other pizza restaurants like Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza and others.

In the context of the above case analyze and provide solutions to the following questions:

Q3. Bargaining power of consumers.

Q4. Suggest strategies to differentiate Maestro Pizza products and services with its competitors.

why taxpayers must have insurance?

please explain as much as possible

Think of a team that you are on or have been on recently. How does it stack up against the criteria for quality teamwork? What specific steps could be used to improve the performance of your team? How could TQ techniques be used to improve team processes?

A firm uses graphical techniques in its aggregate planning efforts. Over the next twelve months (its intermediate period), it estimates the sum of demands to be 80,000 units. The firm has 250 production days per year. In January, which has 20 production days, demand is estimated to be 8,000 units. Which of the following is correct?

• A. the firm must hire workers between December and January
• B. level production of 320 units per day is below the January requirement
• C. the January requirement is below level production of 400 units
• D. level production is approximately 400 units per day
• E. level production is approximately 500 units per day

What can we explain first order change and second order change in a global support organization? Justify with detail examples of the change efforts.

1. Conflict can actually be useful for organizations. If you wanted to encourage competition in order to motivate better performance, which of the following would you do?

Pay everyone the same regardless of rank or performance.

Throw a company party.

Create a contest to reward the group member with the best performance.

Match employees in small teams by personality type.

2. 3M allows employees to spend 15% of their working time on projects that they feel passionate about. Sometimes there is more interest than roles to play on the respective project teams. If, as a manager of one of these special teams, you chose to make volunteers compete for the right to work on your team, which conflict management approach would you be using?

Resolving conflict

Eliminating conflict

Stimulating conflict

Controlling conflict

3. If your group is experiencing a source of conflict and you wish to approach the resolution of that conflict in a confrontational manner, which conflict resolution approach would you use?

Interpersonal problem solving

Compromise

Avoidance

Smoothing

MANAGE RISK

Activity 7

• Outline how you would gain support within the organisation for risk management policies and procedures? What skills might be used when garnering support and with whom should you communicate the risk management intentions? (Minimum 150 words)

Answer in your words

You are the CEO of a large, name-brand consumer packaged goods company. Some of your most well-known products include frozen foods, bottled drinks and juices, salad/food dressings and snacks. You have garnered considerable success in the domestic U.S. market, where you have commanding market shares in almost all of your food categories. On a recent trip to the international foods convention in Vegas, you meet with some investment bankers who are following your company's strategy and day-to-day events. They point out to you that they would like to see you continue to sustain the high growth rate of your company. In fact, they believe that an important way to continue growing is by entering new overseas markets. You concur, and are willing to hear what else they might have to say. The bankers realize you are somewhat risk-averse, as you are unwilling to make an outright acquisition of a company in a market or region with which you are not familiar. However, they note that are two potential alliance partners who would like to talk with you. Both of these companies are in the same industry as you, so there is no issue of industry-based friction or tension. On the other hand, the two prospective firms differ from each other along some important dimensions.
The first company (call it A) is small, managed by a young and enthusiastic management team, but is comparatively new to the food business. In fact, the young leader of company A claims to have read about you in airline magazines and other business publications, and he/she aspires to build the same kind of company that you did. He/she looks up to you and is excited that you are considering his/her company as a potential partner. Company A is well-situated in an emerging market that looks promising, but is already well-represented by the operations and subsidiaries of other highly diversified, multinational food firms. Most of company A’s business is dedicated to providing bottled drinks to its own emerging market. These bottled drinks are wildly popular, and you are thinking that they could be exported to other similar emerging markets (and even the U.S. market) if the conditions are right. The bottled drinks business offer you a nice way to get into A’s emerging market, where you can contribute important skills, but you are concerned that the A’s facilities are not quite up to your quality standards. An additional factor to consider is that the transportation infrastructure in A’s marketplace is uneven, raising the possibility that freight damage could occur, as well as perishability, due to the limited shelf-life of bottled drinks. Company A prefers to work with you in a joint venture format where the both companies form a third-party entity that would serve as the nerve center and operations base of the alliance.
The second company (call it B) is large, and highly diversified in many food businesses. It is almost two-thirds (2/3) your size and has been around for almost thirty years. It has a long history of working closely with the government in its marketplace, and at one point, was owned by the government before it was privatized. Competing in a free-market economy remains more of an abstract, than a real, tangible concept. In fact, company B is often a place where departing government officials often call home, since there are many ties with B’s management that were developed over time. Company B’s management has a marked tendency to look towards its central government for “guidance” on how it should compete. As such, the company has not evinced a high degree of urgency for profitability nor for perfection. Although B owns a number of modern, state-of-the-art bottling and food processing facilities, they are all heavily unionized, and workers are worried about competing in this post-privatization environment. Company B offers you a wide variety of possible joint food-related projects within a broad alliance, and B’smarketplace is only now beginning to be discovered by other multinational firms. Transportation in B’s marketplace is somewhat better, but company B has relied exclusively on its own set of suppliers for bottles, cans, labels, and bottle caps for a long time. There are few other suppliers of these inputs to B in that market. Company B, however, does not want to work in a joint venture alliance format with you. In fact, company B insists on a co-production arrangement that does not involve any type of third-company formation, equity sharing or the like.Being somewhat of a cautious person, you choose to investigate allying with only one of the two potential partners. Financing is easily available.

Based on the notion of differing perceptions of time, how does Company A appear to think? Also, how does Company B appear to think? What makes each company “tick?”

Manage risk

A8.2

Why should employees be invited to participate in risk management consultations? (100 words)

Answer in your own words.

You are the CEO of a large battery company that has a long and famous history in the design, manufacture, and distribution of different types of batteries that are used in a growing variety of industries. Your company is organized into two strategic business units.
One business unit (Business Unit 1) specializes in high-end batteries for critical systems. Some of your best known batteries are used to power cardiac pacemakers (heart implants), kidney dialysis systems, portable diabetes treatment systems, and even space-based life support systems (electronic monitors). Many of these batteries incorporate the use of highly exotic, rare-earth materials whose specific compounds and mixtures are highly proprietary to your company. Your patents (as well as your distinctive way of experimenting with materials) have pretty much given you a lock on this part of the business. These exotic batteries represent the highest form of technology development and refinement that your competitors respect and consider as beyond cutting-edge science. Several executives from the automotive industry have commented that these advanced batteries will do much to boost electric-powered vehicles in the near future, but only if you can scale the business and drive down unit production costs. As such, it has been difficult for other battery companies to imitate what you are doing. As a constant worrier, you feel that your competitive advantage lead-time, while impressive, seems shorter than you would like. Your R&D skills and depth are excellent, but you feel as if your manufacturing process is
missing something, since you have typically experienced a long glide-path in reducing your unit costs with every new battery size.
The other business unit (Business Unit 2) is better known for its well-recognized battery brands that used in long-lasting, conventional lithium-ion and alkaline batteries for a broad range or devices, including watches, cell phones, and even laptop computers. Customers love your batteries because of their long-lasting qualities, but they pay a price premium for your offerings. Unlike that of some of your competitors, your lithium batteries are high-quality and do not pose the same degree of fire hazard in laptop computers and smartphones. The extra safety feature is a tribute to your company’s high ethical standards in development and manufacturing, but it also means that your unit costs will probably remain higher than that of rivals. However, Business Unit 2 is beginning to face growing competitive pressures from other manufacturers who are seeking to erode your sizable market share. You are not excessively worried about your competitors yet, but you realize that the battery industry has become significantly more capital-intensive over the years. Business Unit 2 has significant brand equity that captures much customer loyalty, but here too, you begin to wonder how long you can keep charging a price premium for lithium batteries – especially given the rise of new, ultra-modern manufacturing facilities in the Far East that compete on scale and volume.
A year later, your company has been approached by a smaller battery company (call it X) based in Asia. They approach you with an informal request to begin investigating the possibility of working together on advanced battery technologies. Although you have heard about the company from attending industry conferences in the recent past, you never thought that X was a serious player in the battery or power systems business. Most of the business for X has traditionally come from making standard alkaline batteries that are included in remote controls for television sets, telephone answering machines, small portable electric fans, low-end digital cameras, and other low-cost, mass-produced consumer electronics products. Since X makes standard alkaline batteries for other manufacturers, they really have no brand equity at all, as they have never sold directly to consumers. On the other hand, X just recently completed building a large battery manufacturing facility that is designed to provide a wide range of low-cost batteries to all types of consumer electronics companies. From what you hear at industry conferences, X hopes to serve not only its traditional corporate customer base (portable television manufacturers, phone manufacturers, and digital cameras), but also companies that make high-end digital watches, laptop computers, tablets, and portable DVD players used in long airline flights. X has said nothing about what its new manufacturing facility can do, but there is strong reason to believe that X has the talent and the machinery in place to produce both alkaline and lithium-based batteries. Even more uncertain is how well X can formulate the necessary chemical compounds and mixtures that are needed to produce the right balance of smooth, sustained power flow for long-lasting but stable battery life for higher-end products. Little is known about X’s manufacturing skills as it relates to quality control and battery safety features either. Yet, X is determined to push ahead since it wants to become the battery source to all kinds of businesses. Since most consumer electronics companies are outsourcing non-core operations to improve their own internal measures of financial efficiency, many of them have decided to use X’s batteries rather than to make them on their own. You have also heard rumors that management at X is also anxious to expand beyond the alkaline and lithium business segments to move up the power systems food chain. X’s young CEO even drives a prototype
electric vehicle made by Tesla, but claims that on some day, at some point, he/she could beat Tesla in its own game. Because you have some lingering doubts about the depth and sophistication of X’s management team and technology, you politely decline the opportunity to work with X.
Six months have passed, and you are invited to lunch by a friend and former executive who now works at a medical device electronics firm (call them MECO) that builds external portable diabetes monitoring systems and external portable cardiac defibrillators, as well as high-end implantable cardiac pacemaker devices that are installed in the patient by hospitals and doctors. MECO’s external, portable medical products are designed and sold for the consumer market, not for hospitals or long-stay medical facilities. They are particularly well-suited for consumers who are caring for loved ones in the home, where portable medical devices may be needed as a stopgap measure before emergency help or professional help arrives. (Think portable defibrillators that should be in every section of a high-end steakhouse restaurant!) At the lunch meeting, MECO is interested in purchasing large quantities of your most advanced, proprietary, exotic-material batteries for use in their newly designed, implantable cardiac pacemakers. Having worked for you a long time, your friend knows that you have the best scientific reputation and skills in batteries to back up your products. As the conversation lingers, he/she also tells you that MECO has dramatically improved its power system efficiency and maintenance costs for its external portable defibrillators several quarters ahead of schedule. You asked how they were able to accomplish this, since working with portable medical technology requires a different set of manufacturing skills (e.g., lower cost, long production runs, specialized proprietary techniques) than those used for implantable cardiac products made for use in hospitals (e.g., small-quantity, custom-order, but higher unit-cost production). He/she responds by saying that MECO has contracted out most of their battery manufacturing to a company called X, and that they were instrumental in helping us figure out how to best manage power consumption and drainage issues in electronic devices.
Your friend tells you the following: The alliance is structured in a serial manner whereby X initially provides the battery, and MECO does the rest. Increasingly intrigued and simultaneously perturbed by what you hear, you ask for some more specifics about what this relationship is all about. He/she tells you it works like this: You concentrate your effort on designing the latest medical device technology and focusing all of your efforts on making sure that it can work in a variety of different environments (e.g., climates, temperature, altitude, humidity). Once you have finalized a robust portable defibrillator design, you provide it to X, who in turn manufactures the batteries according to the size, weight, and how long you want the defibrillator to keep running. He/she has visited X’s battery manufacturing facility, and tells you how marveled he/she was: “These people are able to run such a tight ship – their cost management and yield improvement skills are top-notch. The batteries come out perfect without any seams, leaks, dents, or irregularities on the surface. Yet it is difficult to isolate which department within X is responsible for which activity it does. The external coating of the batteries can take a beating. It’s almost like they can coax more out of their equipment without compromising quality. We could not attain the same kinds of battery durability and sustainability in our own factory. It seems like everything related to quality in their facilities is so seamless or interconnected that it is difficult to know where one set of competences end and another begins. I don’t know how they do it, but it’s not obvious that we could duplicate it on our own.” X ships
the batteries directly to you, and is even willing, for an added fee, to build the surrounding surge protectors, voltage regulators, transformers, and a few other components that are integrated with the portable defibrillator’s power system to complete a good deal of the end product. What X cannot do is to design the actual microprocessor “brain” that controls how all of these components are integrated together in the actual medical device.

You have decided to investigate the possibility of working with X on a limited project in the battery field. You think a joint venture would work best with X, and you are willing to contribute management and technical oversight from Business Unit 2. You want to begin working together on a battery that is already mature (for reasons of simplicity, assume it is a lithium-ion battery used for watches and cell phones). In your initial negotiations with X, you propose that they contribute funds to the joint venture that would house a jointly-owned plant in the U.S. so that you don’t have to wait for the battery to be produced and shipped from X’s far-away Asian factory. The negotiating team from X looks at you in a funny way, but in turn, proposes its own counter-offer. X does not want to build a battery factory in the U.S., but in turn has proposed to work with you on a more advanced line of batteries – some of which use exotic, rare earth materials in the core. According to X’s management, they prefer an alliance vehicle “that is not so elaborate and formal like a joint venture.” In fact, they would prefer something along the line of a co-development pact. Keeping your answer short, what would be some of the important points of negotiating with X? What are some key issues that you need to consider? How would you frame them in your proposal? What are some key issues that X is probably considering? How will these issues show up in X’s proposals? (Provide your answer and supporting rationale in a table for both companies using short bullet points.

URGENT, please answer.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Uber and what are the advantages and disadvantages of Taxify in pursuing their international strategies?
2. What are the international corporate-level strategies of Taxify and Uber? Explain how they apply the strategies with their rationale.