name three kind of retailers that are appropriate for selling home appliance. what are they advantages and disadvantages ?

Cases: Case 5-1 FedEx Corporation

Federal Express Corporation, now known as FedEx, was started in 1971 by Frederick W. Smith, an entrepreneur who recognized the need for a company that could deliver documents overnight. The company is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and it maintains a workforce of more than 290,000. The company provides transportation, e-commerce, and business services in more than 220 countries through a portfolio of businesses including FedEx Express, TNT Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx Services. FedEx’s main competitors include UPS and DHL along with various smaller, local delivery providers. The company is known for being a great place to work at, as it has frequently made Fortune magazine’s list of the Best Companies to Work For. It accomplishes this through the use of annual employee surveys (The Survey Feedback Action Program), evaluations of leadership potential (The Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Program), and a Reward and Recognition Program (e.g., Golden Falcon and Bravo Zulu! Awards).

The mission of the company is as follows:

FedEx Corporation will produce superior financial returns for its shareowners by providing high value-added logistics, transportation and related business services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its team members, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.

The company’s strategic objectives are to:

• Achieve 10%-plus operating margin
• Increase EPS 10% to 15% per year
• Grow profitable revenue
• Improve cash flows
• Increase ROIC
• Increase returns to shareowners

In terms of corporate strategies, FedEx focuses on growth in the following areas:

• Grow internationally
• Grow our supply chain capabilities
• Grow through e-commerce and technology
• Grow through new services and alliances

One core competency for the company is its ability to use the planning process to support continuous improvement and innovation in all aspects of its operations. Technology has been a major focus of the company’s planning efforts. This has resulted in a variety of industry-leading innovations, including the first automated customer service center that includes the COSMOS (Customer Operations Service Master Online System), real-time package tracking, and the Command and Control satellite-to-ground-level operations system that enables the company to deliver packages based on the fastest and safest routes possible. It manages the interface between more than 750 customer service stations and 500 air traffic and traffic hubs around the world. This enables the company to coordinate inbound and outbound aircraft and thousands of delivery vehicles to ensure the smooth and efficient delivery of packages to their destinations. Other examples of how FedEx’s superior operational planning process has led to the creation of innovative technological solutions include the SuperTracker devices that are used by drivers to track and retain detailed information about all packages and the APEC Tariff Database that is used to expedite global delivery of packages through the creation of an integrated information source for the specific tariff and customs requirements of most countries.

Discussion Questions

1. How does FedEx engage in both strategic and operational planning?

2. Conduct a SWOT analysis of FedEx. Based on this analysis, what can you conclude about the company?

3. What is FedEx’s competitive advantage?
4. What are the human resources functional strategies used at FedEx?
5. Do you think it is beneficial for organizations to engage in a strategic planning process? Why or why not?
6. Think about a student organization you have been involved with or a part-time job or internship you have held. Did this organization have a competitive advantage? If so, what was it?

1) Ready-to-eat foods are very profitable. To make it even more so, suggest two strategies to change the breadth and width of the retailer's product line. (4 points)

2) Explain what a distribution strategy is and identify the main activities associated with the distribution channel, the supply chain and logistics management. What are two ways that supply chain management adds value to a business’s offer to both consumers and business partners? (4 points)

3) You have been waiting in your doctor’s waiting room for an hour. Knowing that the products are different from the services, name a list of measures (3 measures) that the office manager could take to improve the overall service delivery. Consider how it might address the problems associated with the intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability of services. (4 points)

4) Juicy Couture, a designer jeans manufacturer, has developed a new integrated marketing communications plan. The company chose to advertise their jeans during the CBC / Radio-Canada news, and in Maclean’s and Les Affaires magazines. Its advertisement announces the new styles of the season and features a 17-year-old young model. Evaluate this strategy. (4 points)

5) Apple has launched its latest iPhone model, an innovative technology. How quickly do you think this product will be adopted by Canadians? Describe the type of consumers who represent each of the categories for the dissemination of innovations. (4 points)

6) Explain the advantages and disadvantages of Dell's decision to abandon its direct distribution strategy and turn to multichannel distribution. (Two advantages and two disadvantages of abandoning its direct distribution strategy and two advantages and two disadvantages of opting for a multichannel strategy). (4 points)

7) Mazda is about to launch a new model of car. The company is now in the marketing study phase of the new product development process. What are two ways to conduct the market research that precedes the launch of the new model? (4 points)

8) Bernard, a local furniture maker, targets college and university students living in apartments and young households who buy their first furniture. If you worked for Bernard, what type of media (3 types of media) would you choose for your advertising campaign? Explain your answer. Should Bernard base his advertising calendar on continuous, ad hoc or wave advertising? Why? (4 points)

9) Suppose you have just landed a job as a marketing consultant for a jeweler. The latter has produced a private label for 75 years, but he is thinking of creating his own brand of jewelry. Outline two advantages and two disadvantages of this strategy. (4 points)

10) A dry cleaner in your area has asked you to perform a tolerance zone analysis for their customers. You’ve found that the tolerance zones for reliability and readiness are much larger than those for the other three dimensions of service quality. You also noted that the dry cleaner is above the tolerance range for reliability, but below it for speed. What advice (advice on reliability and advice on readiness) should you give to the manager of the dry cleaner? (4 points)

what kind of retailers would you suggest that Nespresso should choose to reach out its target market ? Explain in detail.

1. I am the Chairman of the Board of your company. I ask you to develop a Business Strategy for a company in our corporation. You are to develop the plan in enough detail so that the executive staff can execute the plan and be measured by the success of its implementation.

Describe the process you would go through to develop a strategic plan to be implemented?: (1 page allocation: Note: the answer is not to (1) figure out what your firm is, (2) figure out where you want to be, (3) figure out how you are going to get there, and (4) determine how you are going to measure when you got there. Think about the course as a whole will guide you on your response.)

• How does LinkedIn stay dominate in the job search space? Why is it more effective for job searching that Facebook or Snapchat?
• What are the differences and similarities to web sites like Indeed.com and LinkedIn.com as it pertains to job searches. Which one is better? Which one is worse? Why?

Anna Sheen, upon graduating from a Boston-area university with a degree in journalism and operations research, returned to her hometown of Hamptonshire, Pennsylvania, to start a daily newspaper. The Hamptonshire Express emphasized local news, which Sheen believed was not adequately covered by big-city newspapers such as the The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and The New York Times.

Working in leased space that cost approximately $10 per day, Sheen wrote stories and articles daily around news and feature material that she gathered from around town, and then typeset the newspaper using desktop software. A local printer printed the newspapers overnight at a marginal cost of $0.20 per copy. Anna sold the copies the following morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. from a newsstand at the intersection of Main Street and Center Street in the center of Hamptonshire. Newsstand rental was $30 per day. Express was sold to consumers for $1 per copy. Copies not sold by 10 a.m. were discarded.

Demand for newspapers was unpredictable; Sheen estimated demand daily before delivering the typeset paper to the printer. Based on data from similar entrepreneurial ventures and interviews with potential Hamptonshire customers, she estimated that daily demand for the Express was normally distributed with a mean of 500 and standard deviation of 100.

a. How many newspapers should Sheen stock (i.e., order from the printer)? What is the profit at this stocking quantity?

b. Verify that the value derived in part (a) is consistent with the optimal stocking quantity in the Newsvendor model using excel: Q*= µ + Normsinv(Cu/Cu+Co))σ

*Please show work

• How can schools better utilize tools like Zoom as an alternative to face-to-face classroom settings? What the benefits of using tools like Zoom vs. in-person class rooms and drawbacks.
• What advantages do sites like Dropbox and Google Drive have over e-mail as a way of sharing and collaborating on creating documents? What has been your experience with these tools?

• Describe the factors that influence consumer shopping behavior today.
• Why are retailers likely to view technology as both a blessing and a curse?
• Describe how an omni-channel retailer is likely to be different from a traditional, single-channel retailer?

What is the difference between a blog and a microblog?

What is a blogging platform?

Why do marketers use blogs and microblogs?

What makes Twitter a more attractive communication channel than traditional media for many individuals and organizations?

Question from - Human Resources Management - Chapter 6 " Training , Learning & Development "

Consider the job of a server at Boston Pizza. Design a new employee onboarding program for this job. Explain how your program contributes to effective socialization, performance, and employee retention. Your proposed program must include 5 specific recommendations.

Please answer briefly .

A few years ago, Google launched Google+ social media, why didn't it work? Why was there little user adoption? Should Google try again? If so, why? If not, why?

Question from - Human Resources Management - Chapter 9 " Collective Bargaining and Labour Relations"

A. Explain the three levels of decisions that are involved with labour relations.

B. Assume that management and a union are negotiating a collective agreement. During the negotiation process, the two parties are unfortunately unable to reach a contract. Identify and explain three neutral third-party actions that could be used to resolve the conflict.  

C. From the actions identified above, which is the most formal and produces a binding decision?

Please answer briefly .

Top executives and members of a corporation's board of directors have different roles and responsibilities. Traditionally, executives have been responsible for determining the firm's strategic direction and implementing strategies to achieve it, whereas the board of directors has been responsible for monitoring and controlling managerial decisions and actions. Some argue that boards should become more involved with the formulation of a firm's strategies. How would the board's increased involvement in the selection of strategies affect a firm's strategic competitiveness? What evidence you offer to support their position?