• Please provide your responses for the following pricing strategy scenarios as practiced in corporate world. Make sure your analysis is well grounded in theories and concepts related to pricing decision making. (150 to 200 words each)

• The Subway sandwich chain was not fully satisfied with the initial performance of its line of healthful fast foods, which were more expensive than alternatives offered by McDonald's and other competitors. But the company was able to boost sales by obtaining an American Heart Association endorsement for its products. Explain this move in terms of perceived value (PV).

• Traditional newspapers have lost millions of subscribers for free news websites. Instead of providing its own content at no charge, the New York Times and Company erected a pay wall-in other words, readers must pay to access most of its newspaper's stories. Explain this issue as a price customization strategy.

• Many consumers are willing to pay a significantly higher price for Perdue chicken for no-name supermarket poultry. This is a testament to the company's success in differentiating its product as being of higher quality than generic brands. Which general price indicators of price sensitivity are illustrated by Perdue's ability to command a high price?

Discuss the strategic, tactical and operational roles of the procurement.

Making reference to an organisation that you are familiar with:

QUESTION 1 Provide a detailed explanation with examples of the market/task environment of the organisation you selected.

QUESTION 2 Identify and detail the activities and initiatives of the following functional areas of management in the organisation you chose.

 The Human Resources Function

 The Marketing Function

 Purchasing Function

 Operations function

QUESTION 3 Provide a detailed discussion of FIVE (5) management challenges faced by the selected organisation.

it must not exceed 3500 words The length of your answers to each question should be in line with the mark allocation. Your assignment must include a Table of Contents page. All text must be justified at each margin. References- At least 8 academic sources of reference must be used. (These include textbooks, journal articles and internet sources that are relevant to your field of study. Academic sources do not include Wikipedia and blogs). You must include Reference list at the end of your assignment. Information quoted/paraphrased from sources listed in your Reference list must be referenced in-text. The Harvard system of referencing must be used.

Please note that this is 1 assignment made up of 3 questions. So i cannot ask the questions separately.

Whoever it was that posted anonymously, I can show you other question that are exactly the same as mine. If you have a problem answering it, then dont

How a Welsh jeans firm became a cult global brand

With a look of concentration on her face, a worker guides the sheet of denim through the sewing machine, and a pair of jeans starts to take shape.

As the needle goes up and down in a blur of movement and rattling noise, a line of stitching starts to form a neat trouser leg.

When most people think about the global fashion industry it is safe to say that a sleepy town in far west Wales does not immediately spring to mind.

Yet Cardigan, on Wales' Irish Sea coast, has for the past five years been home to a high-end jeans-maker - the Hiut Denim Company.

Beloved by a growing number of fashionistas from New York to Paris, and London to Melbourne, Hiut ships its expensive jeans around the world.

As orders arrive via its website, Hiut's workforce of just 15 people gets to work hand-cutting and sewing the trousers from giant rolls of indigo-coloured denim that the company imports from Turkey and Japan.

Despite only making around 120 pairs of jeans a week, founder and owner David Hieatt has big ambitions to expand.

While it may seem a little incongruous that a posh jeans business is based in west Wales, Cardigan (population 4,000) actually has a long history of jeans-making.

For almost 40 years the town was home to a factory that made 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for UK retailer Marks & Spencer. But in 2002 the facility closed with the loss of 400 jobs when production was moved to Morocco to cut costs.

Fast forward 10 years, and when Mr Hieatt - a proud Welshman - was looking to open a factory to start making jeans, he chose Cardigan. The company name is a combination of the first two letters of Mr Hieatt's surname and the word "utility".

"Where better to locate ourselves than in a town with a history of jeans-making, where the expertise remains?" he says.

Employing machinists who had previously worked in the old factory and not lost their years of jeans-making skills, Mr Hieatt says he was confident that Hiut could be successful if it concentrated on selling directly to consumers around the world via its website.

"Without the internet we'd have been dead within 12 weeks," he says. "But the internet has changed only everything. The internet allows us to sell direct and keep the [profit] margin... it enables us to compete."

Now exporting 25% of its jeans, it takes Hiut about one hour and 10 minutes to make one pair, compared with 11 minutes at a highly mechanised jeans industry giant.

And rather than staff doing just one part of the manufacturing process, such as sewing on the pockets, each machinist at Hiut makes a pair of jeans from start to finish.

Mr Hieatt refers to the workers as "grand masters". This is in reference to the fact that some of them have more than 40 years of jeans-making experience, and new joiners have to train for three years before they can start making jeans for customers.

In running Hiut Mr Hieatt and his co-owner, wife Clare, have benefited from their experience of previously owning a clothing firm called Howies, which they sold to US firm Timberland for £3.2m in 2011.

But what has also been invaluable is Mr Hieatt's previous career working in advertising.

This advertising nous has enabled him to very effectively market and promote Hiut, from its snazzy website, to its extensive use of social media; both adverts in people's Facebook feeds and arty photos of people wearing its jeans.

"The interesting thing about social media for me is that up until Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat you had to have a huge budget in order to tell your story," he says.

"In effect you were locked out of telling that story because the costs [of advertising and wider marketing] were too high. But social media has actually allowed the smaller maker [small firms that manufacture things] to go and tell his story.

"And actually, if David wants to beat Goliath, the best tool in the world is social media."

Mr Hieatt also sends out free jeans to what he calls "influencers", either fashion bloggers or famous people, in the hope that they will write or talk positively about the brand.

Successful examples of this have been an increase in orders from Denmark after Hiut sent a pair of its jeans to celebrated Danish chef Rene Redzepi, and also UK TV presenter Anthony McPartlin of the duo Ant & Dec tweeting about the company.

As Hiut continues to win overseas orders for its jeans costing up to £230 ($300) a pair, Mr Hieatt admits that one negative issue the company has to deal with is a return rate of "about 14%" - people sending them back because they don't fit.

To counter this problem Hiut is exploring using technology that can accurately tell from a photo a person's perfect jeans size.

Dr Natascha Radclyffe-Thomas, fashion marketing course leader at London College of Fashion, says that if Hiut wants to expand its overseas sales it needs to "have the website in different languages" and consider partnerships that will see its jeans listed on other websites.

Back at Hiut's small factory on the edge of Cardigan, Mr Hieatt says the long-term aim remains to recreate 400 jeans-making jobs in the town.

"Our aim is to get 400 people their jobs back. If you ask me when is that going to happen, the honest answer is I don't know.

"But I believe in compound interest. Small things over time gather huge numbers."

QUESTION:

What international marketing strategy would you recommend to the firm?

Search the Internet using the key words: "best practices, project management". What do you find? How might this be useful to a team as they manage projects?

PLEASE CITE YOUR SOURCES AND REFERENCES!

Consider Ghana Technology University College, of which the students are the product of the manufacturing process.

A. What will be quality from the producer’s perspective (producers in this case are lecturers) and administrator’s? at least five

B. What will be quality from the consumer’s perspective? Consumers in this case are Students. at least 5

C. What will be quality from the consumer’s perspective? Consumers in this case are employers. At least 5

Courts are often faced with the questions namely breach of the employment contract and the termination of the employment contract. Explain the difference to your client. Also give practical examples

Irrespective of your individual/personal thoughts on climate change/global warming, do environmental sustainability initiatives exert any measurable impacts on an organization's sustainable profitable growth?, why, why not? Present substantive supporting argument(s).

Statistics say that purchases in physical retail stores are in deadline, while purchases on E-commerce websites such as amazon are more popular than ever. Do you agree why or why not. Give examples or personal experience

Case Study I

HAIER’s foray into International Markets :

In the late 1990s, the Haier group (Haier) was the leader in the Chinese consumer appliances market (with a 39.7%, 50% and 37.1% market share in refrigerators, air-conditioners and washing machines respectively in December 1998). But deflation in the Chinese economy slowed sales.

ut deflation in the Chinese economy slowed sales growth from 50% in 1998 to around 30% in 1999. Haier decided to look for new markets. Since the US had a large demand for consumer appliances, Haier entered the US market in 1999. Analysts were doubtful about Haier's acceptability to American consumers, as there was a general perception in the US that Chinese goods were of low quality. Haier, however, was confident that with its product differentiation strategy it would be able to create a positive image for its products among the American public. In the early 2000s, the consumer appliances market in the US started hotting up as Haier entered the market. By 2009, Haier products were sold in 9 of the 10 top retail chains in the US.

With Wal-Mart agreeing to stock Haier products, many analysts believed that Haier would be able to shake up the US consumer appliances market. In 2009, Haier had a 6% market share in the US refrigerator market; it stated that it was aiming for a 15% market share by 2015.

The history of Haier dates back to 1984 when Ruimin Zhang (Zhang), a bureaucrat with the local government was asked to take charge of Qingdao General Refrigerator Factory, a state-owned enterprise that is manufacturing refrigerators for sale in China. When Zhang took over the management, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, with no funds to pay the salaries of its employees or to invest in new product development. When Zhang took charge of the company, he realized that the company did not look after the quality of its products; nor did it bother about customer satisfaction. In 1985, Zhang started importing technology from a German firm and began manufacturing technically sophisticated refrigerators.

Zhang emphasized the elements of customer satisfaction and quality control in the company. In 1985, when a customer complained about the poor performance of his refrigerator, Zhang conducted a quality check and found that out of 400 refrigerators inspected, 76 were defective.

He had all the defective refrigerators destroyed with a sledge-hammer. According to Zhang, this made the workers realize that quality is of only two types - acceptable and unacceptable. In 1989, the company changed its name to Qindao Refrigerator Co. Ltd., and it was restructured with funds raised from banks and government agencies. In 1991, the company once again changed its name to Qindao Haier Group Co. and in the same year it merged with Qingdao Air-conditioner Plant and Qingdao Freezer General Plant. In 1992, the company set up Qingdao Freezing Equipment Co. In the same year, it merged with another previously state-owned enterprise Qingdao Condenser Factory, which manufactured refrigerator condensers.

In the same year it became the first company in China to get ISO 9001 certification, and the company's name was changed to the Haier Group. In 1993, Haier went in for an IPO of RMB 50 million and got listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE).

During the mid-1990s, Haier began to grow through mergers and acquisitions. In 1995, it merged with Red Star Electric Appliance Company (and five of its subsidiaries). This company manufactured washing machines. It also acquired Wuhan Elec-appliance Co., which manufactured freezers and air conditioners. Between 1995 and 1997, Haier acquired seven companies and started exporting its goods to foreign markets.

By 1997, Haier was the number one consumer appliances brand in China and the market leader in all its product segments, which included refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens and freezers and its revenues were reported at $1.15 billion (10 billion Yuan)...

Haier's Competitors in the US Market

USA was the world's largest and most competitive market for consumer appliances. The consumer appliances market can be segmented on the basis of products into kitchen appliances and home comfort products. Included in kitchen appliances are products such as dishwashers, disposers, compactors, food preservation appliances, refrigerators, freezers etc.

In the home comfort segment are included products such as room air-conditioners and dehumidifiers. The home appliances market in the US was dominated by American companies, namely GE Appliances (a subsidiary of General Electricals), Whirlpool and Maytag. The only strong foreign player in this market was Sweden's Electrolux. GE Appliances, Whirlpool, Maytag and Electrolux together accounted for around 98% of the 9 million standard refrigerators sales in the US every year. In the 1990s, many Asian players such as LG Electronics and Samsung entered the US market in a big way. The big four companies in the US market concentrated on the high- end market comprising full-size refrigerators and washing machines, since the margins in this segment were high...

Strategies in the US Market

Haier decided to compete with the US brands on the quality plank rather than on price. However, analysts felt that it would be very difficult for the company to win over American consumers who associated Chinese goods with low quality. To strengthen its presence in the US market, Haier adopted a localization strategy.

It opened a design center in the Los Angeles and employed US designers for designing its products for the US market. Haier also opened a marketing center in New York. The company focused on enhancing consumer awareness about the company and its products. Commenting on Haier's strategy, Zhang said, "We want consumers to feel that Haier is the one company that comes closest to satisfying their needs." For instance, none of the consumer appliances companies in the US offered a compact refrigerator to satisfy demand from college students who could not afford normal size refrigerators...

Going High-End

Most analysts felt that Haier would feel the real competition only when it entered the high-end market. In the compact refrigerator segment, Haier did not face much competition from established players in the US, who did not focus on the low margin segment.

However, the major US players were keeping track of Haier's activities. Commenting on the competition from Haier, GE Appliances Chief Executive, Jim Campbell said, "I take it very seriously. They may be producing only 200,000 refrigerators per year now, but that's going to get bigger."

On the negative side, some analysts felt that Haier lacked the brand image to make a dent in the high-end segment. They pointed out that in general US consumers were brand-conscious, and this was especially true in the case of high-end products. The lack of a positive brand image in this consumer segment would probably make it difficult for Haier to succeed in the high-end markets. Analysts felt that Haier had an additional weakness in its distribution and service centers...

Future Prospects

Despite a few reservations, analysts too were, by and large, upbeat about the company because of its strong performance in breaking into the American market in a short time.

Said Nicholas Heymann of Prudential Securities, "Over five years, it could become a force." With quality products and lower prices, it was felt that Haier would be able to garner a sizeable market share in the US. Haier's experience in the geographically vast and diversified Chinese market would serve it well in catering to the US market.

However, a major worry for Haier is how to fund its expansion plans. Increasing competition in the domestic markets is bringing Haier's finances under pressure.

Questions 3:

What are the countries that you would suggest Haier should concentrate upon? Why?

1. Dave Martin is the R&D Vice President of a company in the internet industry.

Dave wanted everybody in the company to understand his value. For this reason, he was looking to start a new product that would change the landscape. After much R&D, he came up with an idea for a new product.

Dave has known you for a long time and trusted your capabilities, skills, and integrity as a senior project manager. He appointed you as the manager of the product development project. He presented to you the idea of the new product and the required specifications. It was a complicated product and because it was planned to be a breakthrough in the industry, Dave wanted to make sure that none of your company’s competitors would know anything about the project and the new product. Therefore, Dave told you that you have to develop all the components of the product without using any partnership or subcontractors. Based on Dave’s directions you prepared a project plan as you learned in the project management course at LSU. Because of the complexity of the project you found out that the project would use a lot of resources and will last a long time. Dave approved all of your requests. He told you that you must complete the project on time, within the approved budget, and that all of the required specifications must be addressed.

Because of the complexity of the project and its uniqueness, you needed the best resources (labor, materials, and machinery). When you approached the different line managers and asked for the resources, you faced their resistance. They told you that because of other commitments, they could not provide you with as many resources as you asked for.

You approached Dave and presented to him the difficulties you faced and asked for his help. Dave was a very strong manager in the company. Since it was his product and he wanted to develop it by all means, he forced the different line managers to address your needs.

You were very happy. You knew that you had the full support of the sponsor of the project and that the sponsor could do whatever he wanted in the company.  You also knew that should the project be successful, you would be promoted and rewarded.

Dave promised you and your team members a big bonus should the project be completed within the budget and time limits, and all the required specifications were addressed.  You and your team worked very hard including days, nights and weekends in order to make sure the project would be completed without exceeding the approved budget and schedule, and all the required specifications were addressed.

Your efforts paid off. You completed the project on January 15, 2020, two months before the due date, you did not utilize all the approved budget, and you did address all the required specifications. You were very happy and you saw that everybody in the company respected you.

As they do every year, the board of directors of the company had a meeting in early February 2020 to evaluate the different projects that were completed in the previous year (2019).  It was a tradition in the company that every year, the best project was announced in mid-February, and its sponsor and project manager were rewarded with a big bonus.

Then the important day of announcing the best project arrived.  In spite of all of the expectations, your project was not the “winning” one. You were disappointed, but you thought that it was not “the end of the world.” You knew that you finished the project on time, within the budget limits, and addressed all the specifications. Your status as a good and reliable project manager was not damaged.

But then came the really bad news.  The board of directors announced that your project was a failure.

Please explain how the project could be a failure in light of, and in spite of all the information presented above.

Important Guidelines:

1. All the information that was presented in the question is accurate. Do not try to say that maybe the project did not address all the 3 objectives of schedule, budget, and specifications.
2. Do not try to claim that the board of directors was wrong and in light of the information presented in the question, the project was not a failure.  The board of directors was right. The project was a failure.
3. Focus your answer on the request to explain how the project could be a failure in light and in spite of all the information presented in the question. You will not get any credit for anything that is not directly related to this request even if it is right in and of itself.

(b) Eir-Tel, Inc. is a telecommunication services provider looking to expand to a new territory Z. It is analyzing whether it should install its own telecom towers or lease them out from a prominent tower-sharing company X-share, Inc. Leasing out 100 towers would involve payment of €5,000,000 per year for 5 years. Erecting 100 new towers would cost €18,000,000 including the cost of equipment and installation, etc. The company has to obtain a long-term secured loan of €418,000,000 at 5% per annum. Owning a tower has some associated maintenance costs such as security, power and fueling, which amounts to €10,000 per annum per tower. The company’s tax rate is 40% while its long-term weighted average cost of debt is 6%. The tax laws allow straight-line depreciation for 5 years. Determine whether the company should erect its own towers or lease them out. [14 marks]

Question 3 (a) Financial evaluation is an import step in the project management.

(i) Explain what is meant by Cost Benefit Analysis and, using two project examples, discuss benefits of such analysis. [2 marks]

(ii) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of three techniques used for project investment appraisal. [4 marks]

(iii) Projects A and B are competing for funds. With an original investment of €1,000 and returns given in Table Q3, determine using appropriate project financing evaluation techniques whether the company PTO 5 should choose projects A or B? Provide calculations to justify your recommendation. Use 10% discount rate in your calculations.

Table Q3 – Table of project returns Project A Project B Year 1 €200 €0 Year 2 €500 €0 Year 3 €400 €700 Year 4 €0 €700 Year 5 €500 €500 [7 marks]

(b) There is a variety of organization structures. (i) Discuss each type of structure and draw their schematic diagram. [4 marks]

(ii) For each type of structure summarize in a tabular form: • What is the Project Manager’s authority (range: little, limited, moderate high, total) • Who controls the project budget (range: Functional Manager, Project Manager) • Project manager’s role (range: full-time, part-time). Use this information to explain major differences between them. [3 marks]

1. You are a project manager at a construction company that specializes in building office buildings. You were approached by a representative of a company that was interested in your company’s services. He told you that their company was growing and they decided to build a new office building to address their needs. Then he told you that they already started the process with another construction company. They signed a contract with the other construction company and they started the building process.  Unfortunately, the other construction company experienced financial problems and went out of business. Now they were facing a problem. They have already sold the old office building and committed to a date they would move out. They asked you for a proposal for completing the building process.

As a project manager, you realized that it could be a very good opportunity. This is a win case for you and a lose case for them. Since they must move out of their old office building, they are probably very vulnerable.  Therefore, you can inflate the price, compromise on the specifications and still get the job. You think about how impressed your boss will be.

How will you handle this case?  What will you offer the potential client with respect to the price for completing the project and the specifications you will guarantee?  Please present the different alternatives you have, explain the advantages and disadvantages to each alternative, select the alternative you recommend, and justify your recommendation.

Q.Using the Performance Gap model, analyse the main problem/s, cause/s and propose solution/s for eBAY,