The Viability of Recommended Command and Response Structure

Rettractive heels

The Product The product is an adjustable height heel shoe. When released onto the market, it will be the latest, most unique and technological advanced high heel shoe available. The company’s name is Rettractive Heels. Rettractive Heels will manufacture many different designs of this shoe to target a range of buyers and tastes. The designs will range in style. The five styles will be: classy, sophisticated, formal, elegant and ultra-modern. The basic design of the adjustable height heel shoe is very much like any other high heel shoe, except the height of the heel is able to be adjusted, which provides unprecedented versatility for its wearers. Why Is This Product Needed? High heels create many illusions. They make people look taller, slimmer and make their legs and posture look more shapely. People wear high heels to enrich their beauty, improve their physical appearance and, in some instances, to increase their chances of becoming the centre of attraction. Some women simply cannot live without high heels. High heels have become tremendously important in a woman’s life in modern society. Heels are worn by women everyday in the workplace, at nightclubs, parties, weddings and other social occasions. Today, more than ever before, we live in a society obsessed with image and appearance. Women are willing to spend a large percentage of their disposable income on accessories, like high heels, which will help them meet society’s expectations of beauty. High heels are donned by many women all over the western world, yet, high heels, like many things in life, are flawed; they have cons as well as pros. High heels can be ridiculously uncomfortable, cause the wearer immense pain, and can also cause women short and long term physical problems especially in the back, feet and knee areas. Heels can also give women an unnatural gait. It is safe to say that women in the modern western world, a world obsessed with external beauty, don’t want to stop wearing heels, but what they do want is the choice to buy a new versatile heel that will be able to alleviate the problems that stem from wearing ‘standard’ heels which flood the shoe market today. This is why there is a place in the market for the adjustable height heel. As women, we understand women’s love-hate relationship with high heels and it is this love-hate relationship which was the catalyst for this new product. Our own experiences, common to many women, sparked our idea for this product. How Does the Product Work? The adjustable height heel shoe is designed to help women make a transition from the workplace to the social scene at 5 pm without carrying another pairs of shoes. The adjustable height heel allows women to be comfortable in the workplace throughout the day, and heighten their heel at the end of the day when they meet friends for after-work drinks. The adjustable height heel shoe also gives women the option to lift their heel for important board meetings or client visits or lower their heel in the evening if they are going straight home. The shoe is also designed to help women relax at the end of a long party without taking their shoes off! When they are feeling tired, have to walk home or meet somebody smaller than themselves, they can simply lower their heels to take the pressure off their feet and bodies. This will stop the aching legs and feet that many women complain of at the end of a night. The shoe is designed to be adjusted by up to seven centimeters. It works by a simple catch system. Women simply press a button and push the heel up or down to suit. This is known as an adjustable gauge. A thin, long bar made of steel is inserted through the middle of the heel lengthways and can be pressed in to move the heel up and down. Small holes are inserted along the heel which determine the different heights of the heel. This adjustable gauge is used in many devices today, such as home appliances, and can also be found in tools.(a diagram might be useful here) Competition This heel is new to the market, our only competition is a company known as Camileon Heels who have launched a similar product. Their invention is a shoe with an adjustable heel that you can take off, so there is only one possible adjustment to the shoe that can be made; from high to low. The shoe is easy to adjust and simple yet elegant in its design and looks as though it is targeted more towards the business woman. However, our shoe is able to adjust without having to take any parts off the shoe, so its easier and simpler and there is no chance of misplacing the heel when you take it off and there is no need to carry a bag with our shoe. Our shoe can also be adjusted to many different heights instead of just one. Many online articles suggest that many females like the idea of the camileon heel, but at the same time, the majority were also worried it may fall off surprisingly, without any notice. Our adjustable height heel will assure potential buyers that it won’t let them down. Individuals will just need to take the time to get used to it. Any new product takes time to convince consumers to buy and trust it, therefore a lot of promotional marketing will be needed in order to make this product successful and separate it from the camileon heel. We want woman to feel and look great after a night out or a day at work. We are hoping this will be the heel of the future. This heel will bring so many advantages to womens lives. This includes not having to carry extra pairs of shoes in your handbag in case you wont be able to walk anymore after a night out, there will be no more painful/sore feet or damage to other body parts. Market Analysis This new product will be an exclusive product marketed to working women who occupy the professional space and young adults who occupy the social scene, love fashion, nightlife, going to clubs and parties. The adjustable height heel which targets women in the workplace will sell for slightly less than the heel that will target women who occupy the social scene, because the former will be more basic in style. The top end heel will sell from around $200 a pair due to the new technology of the shoe material which includes silicon, hence, the material will feel stretchy and have a rubber feel to it. The top end shoes will also made from the finest leathers. We decided on our target audience based on our own experiences as young female adults, and on a survey given out to different aged groups of females. We also took on board the comments and reviews that were made about our competitor, to make our product better. We asked the surveyed groups questions, such as how often they wear high heels, whether it is to work or out to nightclubs and what they think of the Rettractive heel concept. The majority of the female members were very impressed with the product and excited to see when the product would be released. Generation of Ideas Rettractive Heels is a new high heel brand that embodies progress in footwear technology.The company values quality, choice and function and these values are reflected in the product. Women wearing this shoe should feel comfortable, stylish, and flexible and welcome this shoe with open arms after years of suffering with aches and pains cause by the standard and restrictive high heel shoe. This product means that women dont have to suffer wearing heels and they dont have to give up on the idea of wearing heels. The Idea Generation stage was extremely important as it helped us create the final product and helped our New Product Development Team and our brand meet standards. Rettractive Heels to date have incorporated the values of quality, choice and function in the shoe and therefore, we place great emphasis on the Idea Generation stage as it helped us to interpret what primary values we wanted the shoe to reflect and what our valued customers need and want. To maintain our companys reputation, the New Product Development Team at Rettractive Heels will hold meetings to recognise the current technologies of footwear on the market, look at different reviews of our product and discuss how we could further improve our product and deliver it to our consumers. These methods will prompt Idea Generation amongst the New Product Development Team. All ideas have to come from somewhere. The New Product Development Team began by brainstorming ideas of new products, and from this brainstorm many different ideas were communicated. Each idea was then discussed, ranked and categorised under pros and cons columns. From there the team chose the idea that they thought they would be able to expand on and adapt easily into our society and from there the adjustable height heel shoe was born. The primary inspiration for the Rettractive heel came from an idea from one of our New Product Development Team members, who noticed a lot of complaints from females after a night out about their heels and noticed that the majority of females at midnight were wandering around with bare feet due to sore heels at the end of the night which is an unattractive look, especially when dressed up. The group jumped on the idea of an adjustable heel. The group then continued brainstorming this final idea, and writing down how we can further improve the standard heel. We decided to take the technology to the next stage and produce an adjustable height heel that women can work by just pressing a button to heighten or lower their heel, a simple and unique operation. The focus of this product was quality, flexibility and function which work together to remove the discomfort that other footwear creates in an individuals life. Screening By brainstorming and analyzing the pros and cons of the teams ideas, the Product Development Team at Rettractive narrowed down the suggestions to the ones that we thought would actually be the most feasible. The ideas that were chosen were then submitted to a screening process in order to find out which idea had the greatest market potential and which was achievable and workable. The ideas which we decided as a team to screen were the adjustable height heel and a garbage bag that has an adhesive strip at the top so the bag doesn’t fall into the bin. Both ideas were screened to interpret which idea would have the most market demand and would be most successful for the firm. We all did some thorough research about each product and we realized that the garbage bag idea would have too broad a market and therefore it would be difficult to determine who our consumers would be. Whereas the adjustable height heel had a more specific market to target and it is something that we felt women will be more fond and interested in. As there are many garbage bag creations around, we also thought that we would have to go against more competitors whereas there is only one competitor for our current product. So we came to the conclusion that the adjustable height heel would be the more relevant product, as we would be able to identify who our target market would be and identify the business prerequisites that our contemporary product is expected to fulfill more clearly. The strategic role screening was another process we tried and the adjustable heels proved to be a success as the Rettractive Heel is aimed at the growth markets. The only competitor we found that was similar to the Rettractive heel was a company known as Camileon Heels which was also an adjustable heel but to change the height of the shoe you have to take the heel off which limits its adjustability to only two sizes. Therefore we took this on board and developed it further and tried to make it a better and more feasible idea.

Organizational Culture for Honda Term Paper

online homework help Abstract Organizations adopt values and beliefs, which are then shared by all employees and business associates. This aspect helps in the harmonization of goals, objectives, and mission of an organization in its different operating units. This paper discusses the Honda Motor Co. Ltd’s organizational culture. The company was established in 1948 in Japan before growing to become a global organization in manufacturing automobiles, motorbikes, and other powered products including airplane engines. Honda’s employees and customers are from diverse backgrounds ethnically, professionally, and in terms of nationalities. This aspect forced the company to adopt an organizational culture emphasizing on the importance of people, viz. employees, customers, and the society in contributing to its success. Introduction The constituents of a firm’s philosophy define its organizational culture. This assertion suggests that organizational culture binds all components and sub-components of a firm to form one harmonious system having common goals and objectives albeit being constituted of differing components. This paper discusses the Honda Company’s organizational culture and it evaluates its impacts on employees, society, and the organization (Honda Company). The objective is use the case of Honda to lay out a practical benchmark on the impacts of organizational culture on enhancing a company’s success. Brief history of Honda Honda engages in global business activities. It operates in China as a joint venture together with Guangqi, the Honda China, and the Dongfeng Honda. The company (Honda Motor Co. Ltd) was established in 1948. It started by manufacturing engines for bicycles. Later it engaged in manufacturing of motorcycles before progressing to manufacturing automobiles and other powered products such as generators, marine equipments, and garden equipments among others. The company has been leading in manufacturing of motorcycles coupled with internal combustion engines since 1959. It has a production capacity for internal combustion engines in excess of 14 million units per year. In 2013, in the US market alone, the company sold 1,525,312 units of motor cycles. Get your 100% original paper on any topic done in as little as 3 hours Learn More Honda Motor Co. Ltd ventured into the robotics industry and produced its first robot – ASIMO, in the year 2000. It acquired the tag of the second biggest automobile manufacturer in Japan in 2001. According to OICA Correspondent Survey (2012), by 2011, the company was 8th largest manufacturer for automobiles in the globe behind “General motors, Volkswagen group, Toyota, Hyundai Motor group, Ford, Nissan, and PSA” (p.1). In 2011, it produced 2,909,016 units of automobiles, which rose to and 4, 110, 000 units in 2012 (OICA Correspondent Survey, 2012). In 2004, the company evidenced its ability to exploit the aerospace industry through the release of its GE Honda Aero Engine. This was followed by the release of Honda HA-420 Hondajet engine whose production started in the year 2012. In 2013, the organization invested more than 5.7 percent of its total revenues in further research and development activities. Therefore, it still seeks to captures more market share and increase its production capacity for different product lines. Honda’s organizational culture In its philosophy, which was developed in 1956, Honda Motor Co. Ltd outlines two main principles encompassing its fundamental beliefs. According to Furlan (2002), these are “respect for individual and ‘the three joys’” (p. 36). Initiative, trust, and equality constitute the values in the organization’s belief for respect of individuals. The second belief – ‘the three joys’, borrows from the first belief. It focuses on the creation of satisfaction amongst the organization’s stakeholders, viz. customers, society, and employees. This aspect defines the organizational culture for Honda Motor Co. Ltd to constitute appreciation and value for all people in driving its success. Team orientation and how Japanese culture affected evolution of Honda Since the establishment of Honda Motor Co. Ltd in 1948, the organization has been pursuing the strategy of remaining competitive amid the sophistication of the business environment dynamics. In a bid to acquire sustained growth in an environment characterized by intense competition from rival organizations such as Toyota, Hyundai Motor Group, and General Motors among others, Honda Motor Co. Ltd pays incredible concern to enhancing competitive advantage through creativity and innovation. The company holds that this aspect occurs when people are organized in the form of work teams to encourage knowledge sharing (Furlan, 2002). This understanding has fostered the development of teamwork-oriented, creative, and innovative work force for the organization across its global manufacturing plants. We will write a custom Term Paper on Organizational Culture for Honda specifically for you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Sticking to one effective organizational culture inspired by the Japanese culture accounts for continued growth of Honda Company since its inception. The culture of people of Japan encourages the building of relationships amongst people (Chua, 2004). Borrowing from the culture, Honda’s culture entails the embracement of the diversity of individuals in a bid to avoid fragmentation of the organization’s employees into groups defined by their respective cultural affiliations. In fact, the company believes that future success through innovation and creativity will emanate from the inclusion and engagement of a diverse work force. This aspect reflects the Japanese culture of insisting on building mutual relationships amongst different people in society (Chua, 2004). The signs of the culture In an attempt to evidence appreciation and value for all people in driving organizational success as the culture for Honda Motor Co. Ltd, it is necessary to consider the meaning and elements of organizational culture. According to Zahidul et al., (2011), organizational culture embraces the “shared basic assumptions that an organization learnt while copping with the environment and solving problems of external adaptation amid internal integration” (p. 5901). Such assumptions teach all the work force of an organization the most ample procedures of seeking solutions to the experienced challenges. The beliefs also bind different elements in an organization into one harmonious major component, which is defined as ‘systems’ in the organizational systems theory. Organizational culture defines the main operational strategy for an organization. For Honda Motor Co. Ltd, this strategy involves the utilization of people as a source of competitive advantage by ensuring that all stakeholders are happy with the organization through ‘the three joys’. In an effort to ensure that all stakeholders for an organization are focused to common goals and objectives, it is important that they subscribe to a common way of thinking, interactions, values, and norms (Adel et al., 2007). Organizational norms, values, and the way of thinking define an organizational culture, which should align with the business of a given firm. Organizational culture elements constitute some basic assumptions that when adopted and observed by all the stakeholders of an organization, especially the diverse workforce, can aid in enhancing the success of a company. Not sure if you can write a paper on Organizational Culture for Honda by yourself? We can help you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Stemming from the above arguments, the signs of organizational culture are incorporated in a company’s values, norms, and beliefs. These signs are integrated in an organization’s philosophy statement. In the philosophy statement for Honda Motor Co. Ltd, norms such as respect for people’s diversity and conducting business in a manner that ensures that all people share the benefits of Honda Company are emphasized. In particular, the company states that its goal is to “provide joy for those who buy our products and produce our products” (Furlan, 2002, p.37). This aspect reflects the culture of appreciation of people as the most important resource that the company has for success. The culture is also reflected in the principle statement. The company states its principle as, “In maintaining an international view-point, we are dedicated to supplying products of the highest efficiency, yet at a reasonable price for worldwide customers’ satisfaction” (Furlan, 2002, p. 38). Here, the focus is on customers, which the organization maintains they are the cores reason for its existence, as part of its norms shared by various Honda associates. Considering the values and beliefs of the company in social corporate responsibility, it becomes even more evident that the culture of the company revolves around delivering value to people. Honda Motor Co. Ltd emphasizes that is has an additional obligation to reduce the unintended impacts of its products on all people, both its customers and those affected by their consumption or society. Drivers of the organizational culture Trust, initiative, and equality are the three main pillars driving the culture of respect for individual in driving organizational success at Honda. From the perspective of equality, Honda Company stipulates that the norm of respect for individuals implies, “we recognize and respect individual differences in one another, that we treat each other fairly and that we establish relationships built on mutual trust” (Honda, 2014, par. 2). Allocation of opportunities available in the company is based on individual capabilities, but not on sex, race, social economic status, nationality, age, or educational background (Furlan, 2002). This aspect implies that people working and interacting with Honda need to see the company as an organization embracing contribution of people in its success only through differences in individual capability and talent potential. Through trust, Honda develops the ability to build its culture. The company creates trust by insisting on the need for people to help others where they are deficient, welcoming help where necessary, and sharing knowledge amid the demographic differences amongst employees. Through the culture’s driving aspect of initiative, Honda Company ensures that people are not bound by their preconceived arguments and ideas. Rather, they require thinking in a creative and an innovative manner, which is driven by their own initiative and judgment (Furlan, 2002). Most importantly, they need to appreciate and understand that their initiatives match the company’s responsibilities and objectives, but not their individual differences. Impacts of the organizational culture Organization Honda Company is a global organization. This assertion suggests that it employs and does business with people from diverse backgrounds. For instance, although originally established in Japan, the company has production units in China, India, Spain, Italy, UK, Belgium, and France among other places. Through the culture of appreciation and value for all people, the organization has been in a position to reduce challenges attributed to cultural diversity differences. The perception that the company is Japanese does not reside in the mind of the diverse number of employees and consumer of the products offered by the company in the global market. This assertion explains why Honda has taken a significant lead in the automobile, motorcycles, and other powered products markets since 1959. Appreciating that the only reason that Honda employs people is due to their contribution in enhancing the success of the company through technical, creative, and innovative participation in its operations makes the culture beneficial to the organization. Since the company does not recognize the demographic differences of people as criteria for employment, individual differences do not influence innovation and creativity of the organization. In fact, the company celebrates high levels of knowledge sharing between various units irrespective of their location across the globe (Furlan, 2002). Through the organizational culture, Honda Company disseminates information coupled with knowledge across all functional units. This aspect implies that through integration of people’s diversity, knowledge sharing provides the mechanisms of enhancing both current and future success of Honda Motor Co. Ltd Employees Honda Motor Co. Ltd recognizes employees as important assets for enhancing its success. Recognition of the value of people for an organization prompts companies to invest in human capital management with the chief objective of “responsibly attracting, developing, and managing a firm’s biggest asset – people” (Bowles

The performance of Coca Cola

The Coca Cola Company is considered to be one of the topmost beverage companies of the industry. It has its business all around the world. It engages in production, distribution, and marketing of non-alcoholic beverages in 200 countries worldwide. It produces almost 3300 beverages ranging from caffeinated beverages, fruit juices, water, milk-based beverages and energizers and has managed to capture the hearts of millions of people worldwide. Brand building, technological know-how as well as aggressive marketing skills are the core competencies of Coca Cola which help the company in gaining competitive advantage over other companies. Coca Cola’s brand is respectable and dependable and it took many years for the company to build this image. Not only is it a favourite among many individuals, but also has acquired a household name. Their brand and logo can never be mistaken, which is why consumers feel a sense of ease when the purchase the company’s products. Coca-Cola is a cash cow in the soft drink industry. Due to its strong brand name, Coca Cola will remain profitable in the soft drink industry in the future too. The management of the company harmonizes the venture of human resources and organizes technology along with other core resources such as physical assets, marketing skills, financial resources, and skills and knowledge of employees in order to set up an effective and efficient internal organizational structure of business. The function of the organization focuses on division, coordination, and control of activities and tasks along with flow of information within the institution. Also, the managers allocate responsibility and authority to all people within the organization. The Coca Company focuses on acquiring and retaining highly skilled knowledgeable employees in its company in order to maintain the company’s superior most position in the market. Coca Cola treats its resources as an asset. It provides such an environment for employment to its employees that the employees develop a sense of unity with the company and carry out their duties willingly and in the most effective and efficient manner. The company entertains it employees by providing a security of employment so that they are not carried away by uncertainties of their future. These objectives, strategies, and programs are already specified drawn in advance by the company which serves as a guideline to the management and unions when taking decisions. Also they concur with the organization’s mission, objectives, strategies, policies and its internal and external environments. Since the organization concentrates mainly on marketing, human resource is an essential asset to the company. Without its knowledgeable employees along with their abilities and skills, The Coca Cola Company can never be successful. The ability to adjust and researching and finding out new markets have been of great help to Coca-Cola in becoming a symbol of the American culture. Since the company’s affiliation in 1892, a strong focus on growth and marketing has existed. There were also traditional advertisements in the local newspaper but apart from this, the company’s founder Asa Candler distributed thousands of coupons for free glasses of Coca Cola so that many people would be forced to taste it. many tokens that showed the trademark of the company. This type of aggressive marketing is the foundation of The Coca-Cola Company’s strategy and its culture. In the Coca-Cola Company, the divisional managers are responsible to run the operations in the general region. The functions of each vice president are divided into functions such as human resources, innovation/research/development, marketing, public affairs and communication. Marketing, innovation, research, and development are the functions which are of utmost importance to the company in gaining competitive advantages. It’s mainly because the company is interested in keeping its brand name capitalized and so marketing plays a major role. It is the responsibility of the innovation, research, and development department that they come up with something new as demanded by marketing functions. Majority of the top level managers of the company have been exposed to different regions and different areas of the company. Many of them have worked for the bottling companies that partner with The Coca-Cola Company. Owing to the fact that these topmost members have well rounded backgrounds, they have an eye to look at problems from different angles. The current objective of the organization is to use its assets, which is namely its brand, financial strength, its unbeatable distribution system, research and a strong commitment by its management and employees worldwide in order to achieve a long-term sustainable growth. The core competences that helps the company in gaining its competitive advantage is its strong brand name and its widespread network with bottlers and distributors. Its marketing capabilities and broad portfolio of products is unbeatable and very difficult to imitate. The strong brand name gives the company a strong bargaining power and leverage. The company also influences consumers’ tastes and trends. When the company launched Diet Coke, the company performed a blind taste test with consumers. The results was that the consumers preferred a glass labelled Diet Coke over a glass labelled Ta by 12 percent, even though the liquids in each glass was same (Plasketes, 2004). This is nothing but its strong brand name. In spite of all these core competences and its outstanding performance in the market, the company withstands a number of challenges, many of which arise from the fact that the company operates on such a large level. Different markets have different trends and styles. Consumes in some markets are found to be health conscious. In order to adapt to this trend, the company has created many diet and low-calorie drinks. The company always tries on bringing new ideas and innovations to adjust to the changing market trends. Due to the anti-carbohydrate trends introduced by the Atkins diet, Coca-Cola C2 was introduced. It is supposed to have the same taste as Coca-Cola but it contains half the carbohydrates. Also, The Coca-Cola Company faces a problem due to social and political differences of each market. It’s mainly because different countries have different laws and so Coca Cola has to follows laws of each and every country where it operates but in spite of this, it faces strong criticism. The structure of the company has characteristics of both mechanistic and organic modes. It is more leaned towards centralized structure but now slowly and gradually it is moving towards decentralization. The stakeholders of the company are mainly shareowners who are its bottling partners, government, suppliers, retail customers, and local communities. Since each group of stakeholders have their individual goals, this gives rise to conflicts. The shareholders are interested only in profits, the local communities have concerns about environment issues and labour standards, the suppliers want to charge as much as they can in order to generate more revenue whereas the company wants to keep the lowest price to decrease its cost of production. The managers aim at keeping labour costs down whereas the employees aim at wage increase and increased benefits. There are at least 5 hierarchical levels at the corporate level. Due to its very big organizational structure, it experiences communication problems. One of the problems discovered was that the employees and the company did not have clear goals. This huge hierarchy structure has caused motivation problems and that is why the company is attempting to get employees more engaged. The increased use of company’s intranet greatly resolves the communication gap and increases communication at every level of employees and allows the management at the topmost level to communicate more effectively to the front line employees. The company is moving towards decentralization which has resulted in a strategic structural change and has affected the company positively. Sales increased and the employees were much more satisfied. The company is trying to develop a more innovative culture by following the path of decentralization. The Coca-Cola Company is trying to compete to get the best employees. The production of beverages does not demand skilled employees but on the contrary, it has had problems finding the proper personnel in order to run the organization. In the year 2004, The Coca-Cola Company’s top choices for the open CEO position decided not to join the company because they disliked the gestures of the board of directors. Due to the company’s high creditability in the market, the company has the capability to raise funds at lower cost. This gives the company an opportunity to finance operations such as expansion. This is of much more importance to the company when the company wants to expand or if it decides to enter into new markets or to purchase new brands. The company operates in a very charismatic environment and this type of environment is difficult to predict and control due to the global nature of the operations. The company faces a danger of reduced production or interruption in its distribution if any problem occurs in the market. There is also a possibility of workers going on strike or stoppage of work or distribution falls during bad economic times. Also the raw materials it uses are dependent on specific climates. Climate changes have a drastic affect on price of raw materials they require and so indirectly affects the production cost. The company has received plenty of criticism for its operations in India due to the fact that their bottling plants caused a great deal of pollution and have damaged local water supplies. The company believes in using different techniques in order to maintain good relationships with stakeholders, and strategic alliance is one of them. Nearly 100 percents of its revenue comes from strategic alliance. In 1999, the company signed a 10-year contract with Burger King as it was among the list of restaurants with being the only supplier of beverages. PepsiCo offered Wendy’s a much a better deal but still the restaurant signed a 10-year deal with The Coca-Cola Company. This really depicts the strong brand name of the Coca-Cola. The company has done a fabulous job by managing some aspects of the environment but done extremely poorly while managing other parts of the environment. The negative publicity it received in India has led to the boycotts of the Coca-Cola products at some places. This seems to be very bad for the company but the average customer is completely ignorant of these allegations. The company is doing a fair job of damage control but while the company has not had any problem with the suppliers, its future cannot be predicted. It does not seem like the company is not making sincere efforts in trying to secure supplies and for this reason, vertical integration is most suitable. The company has a very strong bond with its distributors. The relationships between these two create collaborative interdependencies and so the victory of both creates a direct impact on each other. Differentiation is one of the business strategies of The Coca-Cola Company. This is clearly evident from the above example where the consumes preferred a drink with Coke as the brand name attached. The company succeeded in its strategy of differentiation because of its aggressive marketing skills. The company has been always known for its innovative marketing and its brand names and so it stands above its competitors. The Coca-Cola Company needs to improve its portfolio of brand names. To be very specific, the organization needs to start introducing new types of beverages as it enters the markets late. The company was late to enter the market of sports and energy drinks as well as coffee drink (Morris, 2006). Even if creates a new type of beverage, it’s always alone in the market and it can hardly force its competitors to react. The structure of the organization is hybrid in nature and it best suits its differentiation strategy. Its marketing and innovation functions have always remained centralized which allows the company to keep control over development, marketing, and production. It performs extensive researching and tries to find new ways to serve a new group of customers. The culture of The Coca-Cola organization is mission oriented and focuses on refreshing the mind and making a difference. The company means a lot to its customers and its employees. It provides a sense of pride to them and inspires new employees to act more positively which in turn have a positive impact on the world. The company tries to change its culture by giving liberty to its employees to shape and reform the goals of the company. The company provides a strong base to encourage its employees by becoming model citizens and not just employees of the company. The output processes are the greatest source of uncertainty for the company. The company does not produce the final product. The distributors and bottlers mingle other ingredients and then sell the final product. Who bottles it does not matter and only the end product is important with Coca Cola as its brand name. So the company should make efforts by maintaining good relations with bottlers and distributors and try to pressurize them to maintain high quality final product, otherwise, it could have negative effect on the company and its brand. There appears to be very limited information about the production of company’s syrup. At The World of Coca-Cola, a museum for the company, there is no mention as to how the syrup is produced. Based on some information available, the company has a moderately high level of complexity in relation to the fact that it uses mass production. Task variability in production is also low because it is extremely mechanized and routine. As a result, task analyzability is high. When a problem occurs, it is not hard to find solutions. So, this shows that the typical structure of a manufacturing company that uses mass production is a mechanistic structure, in which efficient production is the desired end. The company has a mechanistic structure, in which efficient production is the desired end. The company’s structure is that of organic type due to its focus being mainly on marketing and local appeal. If the structure mismatches, then the production may not be efficient but however, the benefits of the company’s structure outweighs the consequences. The Coca-Cola Company has a high level of uncertainty when it comes to the raw materials it uses. For a few of the ingredients, the company only has one or two viable suppliers. This could create a problem for the company. The Coca-Cola Company has less bargaining power if there is little substitutability in suppliers. Another problem could arise if a supplier experiences an event that economically smashes them. If a supplier experiences bankruptcy or some type of natural calamity then the company could suffer as well. The Coca-Cola Company can improve and secure relationships with suppliers using a few tactics such as minority ownership or strategic alliances. The most suitable solution would to be use backward vertical integration and purchase a supplier. As a result of this, the company can grab the profits that were earlier earned by the supplier, save the costs, and have a trustworthy source of supplies. The company knows that it needs to meet the ever changing requirements of its customers. The company so moved toward decentralization in the 90s. The company allows decision making at local level and so it can promptly respond to the changing market demands. Also, the higher-level management then direct their attention more on long-term planning. Some divisions of the company like finance, innovation, human resources, marketing, and strategy and planning are located centrally within the corporate division of the company. Some of the decisions are made at the lower levels in each regions of the company while majority of the decisions are taken at top hierarchy. The company’s structure is of hybrid type which consists of both mechanistic as well as organic features. The focal point of the company is on responsiveness. The complex integrating mechanisms are the special features of the organic structure. The surveys and interviews used by the company allow information to flow from the bottom-up, and the intranet allows for information to be exchanged laterally. The surveys have also forced The Coca-Cola Company to adapt simplification and standardization. Centralization and high standardization are associated with mechanistic structure. The mixture of both types of structures seems to be ideal for the organization. Flexibility is essential when trying to address such a big number of independent markets but high standardization is also necessary to remain efficient in production. The use of complex integrating mechanisms allows for easier coordination for the global company. Centralization keeps organizational choices in line with organizational goals. Since the information in the company is flowing in each and every direction, upper management will have access to information more quickly which adds to the organization’s flexibility and responsiveness. This recent shift towards a more decentralized and organic structure corresponds with the uncertainty of the organization’s environment. Every individual should acknowledge lifelong learning, and every successful organization in the same way like Coca Cola should become a permanently learning organization. Many successful organizations like Coca-Cola feel a sense of pride in describing themselves as a learning organization while other successful organizations have one of their strategic goals to become such an organization. The company appoints vice presidents for knowledge, learning and intellectual capital whose work is to develop knowledge management systems that enable them to quickly adapt development tendencies, influencing in that way the customers, competitors, distributors and suppliers like. For internal collaboration, The Coca-Cola Company has established its Innovation Framework. It is a system which combines project management and business intelligence capabilities to give operating units in 50 countries the chance to search for and reapply concepts which are utilized in developing and marketing over 2500 beverages produced by Coke. The company uses it to develop new soft drinks, design equipment such as vending machines and fountain dispensers that it leases or sells, and creates packaging concepts for new and its already existing products. The Innovation Frameworks helps Coke recognize duplicate product ideas and prioritize the best allocation of resources. For example, Coke Zero’s expansion is the result of Innovation Framework. It was introduced in USA in 2005 and now it is sold in almost 100 countries. This is the outcome of knowledge flow between financial, legal, sales, marketing, and R

Clothing Manufacturing in Bangladesh Research Paper

Clothing Manufacturing in Bangladesh Research Paper.

The goal of the project is to give you some exposure to how business firms, evaluate and implement international investments in foreign countries/markets. At the beginning of the semester you should form a group of no more than three student. Each group should select a country and industry in the same country you believe will make great investment opportunity.Country and Industry Report .In this phase, each group will be asked to prepare a proposal for investing in a specific industry in a foreign country (Greenfield investment or Merger & Acquisition). For example, you can present a proposal to acquire an automobile manufacturing plant in Mexico, or to acquire a software firm in India. Your proposal will do the following:I.evaluate the investment condition in the country and industry sector of your choice.II.evaluate the risk profile of the country and industry and examine the sources of risk.III.present options on how your group intends to address each type of risk.IV.analyze the different options and present the best way to invest in the country.Each group should choose a country and a specific industry sector to consider for investment. The country chosen must be such that data concerning the country and industry are publicly available. Some of the information you will need for this project can be obtained from the following sources:Country Information:CIA Factbook, World Bank country report, IMF country report, Capital IQ.Industry information: Yahoo! Finance, Wall Street Journal Online, Reuter’s Financial, Bloomberg Professionalsince the work is divided to three students, I only need two parts to be answered. The project is about Clothing Manufacturing in Bangladesh. The parts that needs to be answered are:1- Political stability: The type of political system (e.g., military government, dictatorship, democracy, socialism) and the likelihood that political events might disrupt the performance of the economy.2-Risk and Return:•What is the risk profile of the industry? (How much overall risk is there in this industry? Where is this risk coming from (market, country or currency)? How is the risk profile changing?) •What is the performance profile of an investment in this industry? What is the domestic return would you have earned investing in this industry’s stock? Would you have under or outperformed the market. number of pages doesn’t matter as long as the two parts are fully answered
Clothing Manufacturing in Bangladesh Research Paper