Ikea is a Swedish based multinational corporation that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture and home accessories. IKEA is the largest furniture company in the world. It is known for its modern architectural designs, as well as its attention to continuous product development, operations details, and cost control. IKEA relies on design innovation to bring great quality and beautiful designs to the market and its stores by collaborating with the best designers from various parts of the world. It has developed cost efficient and innovative methods to match people’s expectations of price and quality. Answer all the three following questions in relation to IKEA. You can use your study material and other resources to write your answers. Use your own words and adhere to the wordcount specified for each question

Question 1: Innovation at IKEA (30 marks, 300 words) A. Why is IKEA an innovative company? Support your answer with examples. B. Discuss the role of four business functions at IKEA. Give at least two innovation examples for each business function at IKEA

Question 2: Product offering and targeting (30 marks, 300 words) A. Discuss the three levels of a product by using the HAMARVIK mattress as an example. B. Discuss the four targeting strategies. Which targeting strategy does IKEA use for its mattresses. Justify your answer. (Check the mattress section on the IKEA website before answering this question)

Question 3: The marketing mix and innovation (40 marks, 500 words) IKEA’s marketing strategy consists of market segmentation, targeting, positioning and the marketing mix. IKEA’s marketing strategy enables the company to be a successful player in the global market. Using your B207A course material, evaluate how the innovation in IKEA’s marketing mix elements are used to position the products within the minds of consumers. Your answer should contain the following: 1- IKEA’s market segmentation and targeting 2- What is positioning. How is it related to the marketing mix? 3- Examples of IKEA’s marketing mix elements and their contribution to brand positioning

Scenario: Your organization has used a variety of collaboration systems developed by some project managers. Some of these systems were successful while others were not. Your organization has one unique challenge—many of your employees are staffed at other locations or work from home (telework). You would like to standardize the collaboration process to improve team communication for all company projects. In your presentation, you should include the elements listed below.

Explain why collaboration information systems (IS) are important from the organization’s perspective.

Discuss how collaboration tools can improve team communication.

Identify three tools that will be used for synchronous communications and three tools that will be used for asynchronous communications. Be sure to explain why you made these choices.

Describe how project files, such as Microsoft (MS) Word, MS Excel, MS Project, and MS Visio, will be shared with team members. Be sure to explain the rationale behind your choice.

Explain how the task list for managing tasks will be shared with team members. Be sure to explain the rationale behind your choice.

Discuss how this new collaboration IS could provide competitive advantages for your organization.

Your presentation should be a minimum of six slides in length (not counting the title and reference slides). Use of images, graphics, and diagrams is encouraged. You can use an industry of your choosing or examples from your personal or professional experiences in developing this assignment.

The demand for subassembly S is

110

units in week 7. Each unit of S requires

2

unitss

of T and

1

unitnothing

of U. Each unit of T requires

1

unitnothing

of​ V,

2

unitss

of​ W, and

1

unitnothing

of X.​ Finally, each unit of U requires

1

unitnothing

of Y and

2

units of Z. One firm manufactures all items. It takes 2 weeks to make​ S,

2

weekss

to make​ T, 2 weeks to make​ U,

1

weeknothing

to make​ V,

2

weeks to make​ W,

2

weekss

to make​ X, 2 weeks to make​ Y, and

2

weekss

to make Z.

LOADING...

Click the icon to view the product structure and the​ time-phased product structure.

In addition to

110

units of​ S, there is also a demand for

20

units of​ U, which is a component of S. The

20

units of U are needed for maintenance purposes. These units are needed in week 6. Modify the gross material requirements plan to reflect this change ​(type 0 if the input box is not​ used).

1. A project has a PV of $65,000, an EV of $75,000 and an AC of $82,000.

Is the project over or under budget? How can you tell? 20. Is the project ahead of or behind schedule? How can you tell?

2. A project has a PV of $10,000, a SPI of 0.92 and a CPI of 0.90.

1. What is the project’s EV?

1. What is the project’s AC?

Do you think you could be completely disconnected from any type of modern technology? Would there be benefits to disconnecting? Is there a specific technology or gadget that you use in your personal life that you could not live without? Could you do your current job without technology? Why or why not?

What are the Risk associated with gaining competitive advantages by Corus hotels?

600 words. No plagiarism plz

The catering manager of LaVista Hotel, Lisa Ferguson, is disturbed by the amount of silverware she is losing every week. Last Friday night, when her crew tried to set up for a banquet, they did not have enough knives. She decides she needs to order some more silverware, but wants to take advantage of any quantity discounts her vendor will offer.

>For a small order (2,000 pieces or less) her vendor quotes a price of $1.80/piece.

>If she orders 2,001 to 5,000 pieces, the price drops to $1.60/piece.

>5,001 to 10,000 pieces brings the price to $1.40/piece, and

>10,001 and above reduces the price to $1.25/piece.

Lisa's order costs of $205 per order, her annual holding costs are 5%, and the annual demand is 44,600 pieces. For the best option, (the best option is the price leve that results in an EOQ within the acceptable range).

A) What is the optimum ordering quantity?

B) What is the annual holding cost?

C) What is the annual ordering cost?

D) What are the annual cost of the silverware with an optimal order quantity?

E) What is the total annual cost, including ordering, holding, and purchasing the silverware?

services are uniquely different from products in a number of ways. Based on the unique characteristics/differences of services, discuss whether or not the traditional marketing mix (4Ps) is entirely applicable to the marketing of services. Explain the implications of the “people” aspects of the extended marketing mix for non-profit organisations, such as a local or regional charity or museum 600 words

n this unit, we explore the structured approach to modeling business processes. In this practical assignment, using the business process of a fictional package delivery service (a courier company) called On the Spot Courier Services, you will create data flow diagrams that demonstrate the business processes that would need to be supported by a new system.

Scenario:

When Bill got an order, at first, only on his phone, he recorded when he received the call and when the shipment would be ready for pickup. Sometimes, customers wanted immediate pickup; sometimes, they were calling to schedule a later time in the day for pickup.

Once he arrived at the pickup location, Bill collected the packages. It was not uncommon for the customer to have several packages for delivery. In addition to the name and address of the delivery location, he also recorded the time of pickup. He noted the desired delivery time, the location of the delivery, and the weight of the package to determine the courier cost. When he picked up the package, he printed out a label with his portable printer that he kept in the delivery van.

At first, Bill required customers to pay at the time of pickup, but he soon discovered that there were some regular customers who preferred to receive a monthly bill for all their shipments. He wanted to be able to accommodate those customers. Bills were due and payable upon receipt.

To help keep track of all the packages, Bill decided that he needed to scan each package as it was sorted in the warehouse. This would enable him to keep good control of his packages and avoid loss or delays.

The delivery of a package was fairly simple. Upon delivery, he would record information about when the delivery was made and who received it. Because some of the packages were valuable, it was necessary in those instances to have someone sign for the package.

On the Spot courier services grew and changed over the years. At first, Bill received requests for package pickups on his mobile phone, recorded that information in a log, and would then drive around to retrieve all the packages later in the day. However, he soon discovered that with another driver, it was difficult to coordinate pickups between the two of them from his van. It was not long before he reorganized his business and turned the warehouse employee into a driver. Then, he stayed in the warehouse himself, and his two employees made all the pickups and deliveries. This worked well because he could control and coordinate the pickups and deliveries better. It was also easier for him to receive pickup requests working at a desk rather than trying to do it while driving a delivery van.

As he thought about how his business was growing and the services he provided to his customers, Bill began to itemize the kinds of information he would need to maintain.

Of course, he needed to maintain information about his customers. Some of his customers were businesses; some were individuals. He needed to have basic address and contact information for every customer. Also, for his corporate customers, he needed to identify a primary contact person. It was mostly his corporate customers who wanted to receive monthly statements listing all their shipments during the month and the total cost. Bill needed to distinguish which customers paid cash and which wanted monthly statements. In fact, for those that paid monthly, he needed to keep a running account of such things as when they were last billed, when they paid, and any outstanding balances. Finally, when payments were received, either for individual shipments or from monthly invoices, he needed to record information about the payment: type of payment, date, and amount. Although this was not a sophisticated billing and payment system, Bill thought it would suffice for his needs.

Next, he started thinking about his packages and shipments. At the time that a request for a pickup came in, he needed to keep track of it as some type of delivery request or delivery order. At that point in time, Bill mostly needed to know who the customer was, where the pickup location was, and what date and time the package(s) would be ready for pickup. He also recorded the date and time that he received the order. A delivery order was considered “open” until the delivery van arrived at the pickup location and the packages were all retrieved. At that point, the delivery order was satisfied.

Once the packages were retrieved, each package needed to be uniquely identified. Bill needed to know when it was picked up and which delivery person picked it up. Other important information was the “deliver to” entity name and the address. He also needed to identify the type of delivery. Some packages were high priority, requiring same-day delivery. Others were overnight. Of course, the weight and cost were recorded so the customer could either pay or have it added to the monthly invoice.

In the courier and delivery business, one of the most important information requirements is the date and time stamp. For each package, it is important to know when it was picked up, when it arrived at the warehouse, when it went back out on the delivery run, and when it was delivered. When possible, it is also important to have names associated with each of these events.

First, start with a context level data flow diagram by brainstorming the sources/sinks (which are the people/systems that interact with this system). Next, you will list the tasks performed by these entities, and show them on the diagram.

Next, you will begin decomposing the system by showing its various processes (and labeling them x.x, ex: 1.0, 2.0, etc). Be sure to also include any datastores (any time data is stored/retrieved, a process must use a datastore). You should then be able to decompose these processes to an additional level, where each process will have a more granular identifier (ex: 1.1, then 1.1.1, etc). You should be able to develop a data flow diagram up to level 2, with no fewer than 6 data flow diagrams.

1. What is the difference between the implementation of innovation and entrepreneurship within the organization from a strategic management and business strategy perspective?

2. What are some of the benefits and risks of vertical integration as part of a company’s business strategy?

3 What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of mergers and acquisitions that would determine which is best for the organization?   

4. From a business strategy perspective, what factors must be considered as part of a successful global strategy?

5. Why is it important for the organizational structure to be in alignment with the organization business strategy?     

What are the factors impacting on achieving sustaining competitive advantage of Corus hotels and What will be the Future strategic direction of Corus Hotels to gain competitive advantage?

Risk associated with gaining competitive advantages by Corus hotels?

Cesar Rego​ Computers, a Mississippi chain of computer hardware and software retail​ outlets, supplies both educational and commercial customers with memory and storage devices. It currently faces the following ordering decision relating to purchases of​disks:

Quantity needed to qualify for the discount​ = 5,900 disks.

What is the​ EOQ?

EOQ​ = ___ units ​(round your response to the nearest whole​number).

Since the total cost with discounted volume is (greater than or equal to/ less than?) the total cost at the EOQ​ volume, Cesar Rogo should (take or not take)

the​ discount, provided other factors such as storage​ space, etc. permits.

For several months, Jeff’s marketing efforts had the same effect as the prior marketing efforts. In four months optimizing orabrush.com and advertising the site on Google and Facebook, Jeff had managed to incur a net loss of $5,000 on $10,000 in sales. The ratio of loss per sale had decreased over the four months, but profitable sales were still out of reach. Not one to give up easily, Jeff continued to think about ways to make orabrush.com profitable, often daydreaming about it while he worked his regular job as an online marketer at a genealogy website. One day at work, one of Jeff’s work colleagues, Austin Craig, performed a spontaneous ten-minute rant about politics in front of the entire office. While Jeff laughed alongside his colleagues at Austin’s humorous delivery, he received an instant message from the guy in the cubicle next to his. “I would pay money to watch this guy rant.” Instantly, an idea formed in Jeff’s head. Why not ask Austin to rant about bad breath? If it was funny enough, maybe it could generate some views on YouTube and generate some sales on orabrush.com. When asked if he would be willing to perform a rant on bad breath for $100, Austin responded as would most recent college graduates with a low-paying entry-level job: “Sure.” Soon thereafter, Jeff and Austin and a small film crew went to a local pool hall, where Jeff had rented the stage (meant for live bands to perform) for the evening. Austin had not rehearsed his rant, and in fact had not made any preparations for the content of his rant. Instead, Jeff had prepared a list of phrases and facts about bad breath and the Orabrush that Austin would perform in segmented fashion. They would then cut and splice a coherent video together. While the resulting video would not have a very professional feel, it would fit the YouTube aesthetic. YouTube videos were typically made by amateurs, and as a result of their poor rehearsal, would create a coherent video through excessive cutting and splicing. The final video begins with Austin Craig explaining how to test for bad breath. It then explains that the Orabrush is the only proper way to clean one’s tongue and thereby eliminate bad breath. At the end of the video, orabrush.com is promoted. Throughout the video, Austin includes humorous asides. (The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFeb6YBftHE).Jeff posted the edited video to YouTube on September 10, 2009. He also purchased prominent video placements on YouTube for searches for terms related to “bad breath”, “fresh breath”, “oral hygiene”, and “tongue cleaning”. Within three days, the video had been viewed over 1,000 times, and the pace of viewing was increasing. Roughly half of those views had been promoted (views that came as a result of paid ads), while half were organic views. Within two weeks, the video had garnered 20,000 views.

This video viewing led to the first significant uptick in online sales on orabrush.com. About 15% of viewers clicked the link at the end of the video and arrived at orabrush.com. Even better, the conversion rate of this YouTube-sourced traffic was 3% as opposed to 1% for traffic from Google and Facebook. The average order size of this traffic was also larger--$15 instead of $12 from Google and Facebook traffic.To determine whether this traffic was profitable, one would have to calculate the cost of the paid video views. Fortunately for Orabrush, because of a loophole in YouTube’s payment system for this newly established method of YouTube advertising, Orabrush was able to get all of the paid video views for free. But knowing that this loophole would not last forever, Jeff had to make sure that all aspects of this conversion funnel were optimized to maximize profit potential. This optimization focused on several areas. First, Jeff examined behavior across the various keywords they had bid on. He noticed a dramatic difference in behavior from searches related to “bad breath” as opposed to the other keywords surrounding “fresh breath” and “oral hygiene” (searches related to “tongue cleaning” were negligible). Viewers who came to the video from “bad breath” terms visited the website at a rate of 20% as opposed to 10% for the other keywords. They also converted at a rate of 3.5% as opposed to 2.5% for the other keywords, but the average order size was the same between the two groups. As a result, Jeff focused his attention on “bad breath” keywords, and changed the messaging on the website to revolve around curing bad breath. When YouTube began allowing their users to create their own channels, Jeff called the channel “curebadbreath”.First, Jeff examined behavior across the various keywords they had bid on. He noticed a dramatic difference in behavior from searches related to “bad breath” as opposed to the other keywords surrounding “fresh breath” and “oral hygiene” (searches related to “tongue cleaning” were negligible). Viewers who came to the video from “bad breath” terms visited the website at a rate of 20% as opposed to 10% for the other keywords. They also converted at a rate of 3.5% as opposed to 2.5% for the other keywords, but the average order size was the same between the two groups. As a result, Jeff focused his attention on “bad breath” keywords, and changed the messaging on the website to revolve around curing bad breath. When YouTube began allowing their users to create their own channels, Jeff called the channel “curebadbreath”.While 20% conversion from the video to the website was good, Jeff knew this number could be higher. They experimented with several different closing messages that played at the conclusions of the video to induce a click-through to orabrush.com. After multiple iterations, they found that offering a free Orabrush increased click-throughs from the video to orabrush.com to 35%. Offering the free Orabrush had the complementary effect of increasing conversion rates (the percentage of website visitors who ordered an Orabrush). Eventually, the website achieved a 7% conversion, but this could not be attributed solely to the free Orabrush offer, as Jeff was simultaneously testing different header phrases, button placements, video placements, and landing page layouts on orabrush.com. The 7% conversion was the result of a long list of tested changes to the website.The free Orabrush offer actually decreased the average order size to $14 from $15. Customers got a free Orabrush but had to pay for shipping, and additional Orabrushes could be ordered along with the free Orabrush. Thus, the decrease in average order size from $15 to $14 was actually the net result of the discounted price for the first Orabrush along with a small up- tick in the average number of Orabrushes per order. This small loss was more than made up for by the increased video-to-site click-through rate and the increased conversion rate on the website.

he YouTube campaign had made selling the Orabrush online profitable. Just as Jeff had predicted, the 8% of the oral hygiene market that was willing to purchase oral care products online was large enough to generate a profit. But the viral success of the YouTube video opened the opportunity to begin to capture the other 92% of the market. Three months after the YouTube video launched (and had received over 1 million views), a representative from Boots, a U.K. pharmacy, called about stocking their stores with the Orabrush, because several customers kept asking if they could buy it there. Another chain of stores from Australia also began stocking the Orabrush. Finally, all the Wal-Marts in Utah also began stocking the Orabrush. While Wal-Mart is known for its nationwide standardization of product offerings, it had recently begun a program allowing local and regional managers to stock new SKUs that were not available nationwide. Under this program, Orabrushes began being offered in Wal-Marts across Utah. Many of these Wal-Marts dedicated an entire end-cap display to the Orabrush, along with a video feed that played the YouTube video. Prominently displayed on these end-caps and on the product packaging was the message, “As seen on YouTube,” the first product to ever feature such a message. To further support the brick and mortar sales of the Orabrush, the Orabrush marketing team directed watchers of the YouTube video to physical stores where they could buy the Orabrush if the watcher lived within 10 miles of a store that stocked the Orabrush (instead of the orabrush.com home page).The results of this foray into brick and mortar retail stood in stark contrast to the Orabrush’s first retail outings. Sales were brisk. Not only did the Orabrush outperform sales expectations across the board, analysis showed that Orabrush sales were category-expansionary. It was rare for a product to expand category sales in a category as mature as oral hygiene.With such obvious sales success, the Orabrush team was confident that they would soon secure nationwide Wal-Mart distribution, which would guarantee continued and long-lasting success. But no such call came from Wal-Mart headquarters. To grease the wheels, Jeff and his marketing team created another video, this time using higher production values, in which they examined the success of Orabrush sales and performed forecasts based on the sales data to show the benefits to Wal-Mart of stocking the Orabrush nationwide. The video featured Austin Craig as well as Morgan the Dirty Tongue, the main character of a YouTube video series they had created to drive additional traffic to orabrush.com. True to form, the video was humorous but informative.With such obvious sales success, the Orabrush team was confident that they would soon secure nationwide Wal-Mart distribution, which would guarantee continued and long-lasting success. But no such call came from Wal-Mart headquarters. To grease the wheels, Jeff and his marketing team created another video, this time using higher production values, in which they examined the success of Orabrush sales and performed forecasts based on the sales data to show the benefits to Wal-Mart of stocking the Orabrush nationwide. The video featured Austin Craig as well as Morgan the Dirty Tongue, the main character of a YouTube video series they had created to drive additional traffic to orabrush.com. True to form, the video was humorous but informative.Once they sent this video to Wal-Mart headquarters, they further greased the wheels with Facebook advertisements. They sent targeted ads to Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s corporate home, stating that “Wal-Mart employees have bad breath,” and further emphasizing that Wal- Mart should stock the Orabrush.Within a month, Jeff had received both a phone call and an email from Wal-Mart headquarters. The phone call asked Jeff kindly to stop advertising that Wal-Mart employees had bad breath. The email, which came later, asked Orabrush to supply Wal-Mart with 700,000 Orabrushes for nationwide distribution.

QUESTION:

Once Jeff had optimized the orabrush.com site and the YouTube video messaging, what was orabrush.com’s average value per visitor (to the YouTube video, not the homepage)?

Diamond of National Advantage Analysis for the country of Germany for supermarkets.

What is Organizational Culture? Explain how organizational culture is expressed and learned. What are the benefits of a strong culture, versus the potential pitfalls of a weak culture? We’ve discussed a number of companies in class so far this semester. Choose one and provide examples of the culture in place.