Firm College Essays Samples For Students

Business Strategy

Competitive advantage can be defined as the advantage gained or accrued by a firm or company over other firms in a competitive industry. This is done by offering customers a greater value of the purchased products and through several mechanisms (Rumelt, 2003). Such mechanisms may include low priced goods, high quality products, and after sale services that are superior to competitors. Competitive advantage may stem from several factors such as economies of scale, integration and non- integration and process based core competences (Peteraf, 1993). To further understand the concept of competitive advantage, several theories have been put forward for Continue reading...

Industrial Organization

Industrial organization refers to how the markets and industries are organized. In this case, the workings of such markets and/or industries are studied, particularly the way the firms in such industries compete with each other. Industrial organization is widely considered as a subject of microeconomics. However, it is imperative to consider it as a separate entity since it tends to emphasize on the study of strategies that firms utilize as a characteristic of interactions in the market. Such market interactions include product positioning, competition in pricing, research and innovation, advertisements, among many other factors. Further, it is important to Continue reading...

EVANSVILLE ARC INDUSTRIES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is a combination of the strategic assessment of Evansville ARC using which the discrepancies of the business will be rectified. With the analysis, new strategies will be defined using which the excelling prospects of the organization will be studied. In this report, the company profile and the background of the business will be assessed. Based on the current position of the organization the further goals and objectives that the business wishes to acquire will be analyzed. This report presents a discussion of the strengths, weaknesses and challenges which the firm is facing currently. Using this Continue reading...

Market Entry Strategies

Abstract
There are numerous marketing entry strategies and they all imply a level of degree of risk and that of international firm commitment as well. Generally the international strategy development implementation is a process that goes through several steps to achieve. The major starting point is indirect exporting and if there are satisfactory results then the associating local firms make more committing agreements. This study reviews important literature and provides a conceptual framework on the new market entry strategies. A proper investigation is done on the various strategies that are important in entering a new market and also analyses Continue reading...

GROUP WORK CONTRIBUTION

This extract will involve two different elements and aspects of the study relating to Hotlips Hoolihan (Firm 1)’s that encompasses the following areas:
1. What was your firm's overall strategy?
2. What firms (and products) posed the most direct competition for you in quarter 6? In quarter 12?

Section 1: Firm 1: Hotlips Hoolihan’s Overall Strategy

Strategy has to do with the long-term and organization-wide objectives and plans that directed the operations of a given firm. Strategy sets the tone within which all the different units and components of a firm can be steered in order to meet the desired end of the owners of the Continue reading...

Introduction

Strategic management is a systematic analysis of the factors related with clients and competitors and the organization to generate the basis for maintaining most favorable administration practices. In addition, it is an approach that is related to formulating and implementing the main goals and initiatives used by a firm’s top management on behalf of owners. Furthermore, the formulation and implementation is based on the consideration of resources and an assessment of the internal and external atmosphere that the firm competes in (Hill & Jones, 2012, 21).
Therefore, this paper offers an overall direction to the firms in question and Continue reading...

 Corporate Ethics; Dynegy Case

Ethical practices and behavior play a crucial role in any organization. The ability to distinguish the right act from the wrong activities enables individuals in a firm to improve themselves both personally and professionally. Companies today invest the huge amount of resources on developing corporate ethics; this measure increases their ability to achieve the set organizational goals. Corporate ethics entail the effort to create a healthy relationship with the company’s stakeholders to enhance efficiency. An analysis on the Dynegy Inc case of 2012 reveals the importance of upholding effective corporate ethics. The company faced losses once the stakeholders Continue reading...

INTRODUCTION

It forms part of the four business analysis. It is the last step among the process of business analysis. The first step of business analysis is business strategy analysis, accounting analysis, financial analysis and lastly is the prospective analysis.
As noted earlier that the final step in business analysis is the prospective analysis and mainly focuses on forecasting a firm’s future earnings and cash flows. Prospective analysis is drawn from the findings from accounting, financial, strategic and business environmental analysis.
According to the 2010 Annual Report to Shareholders, Gale Pacific communicates the results of the 2009-2010 financial years. Continue reading...

Oligopoly is a market structure in which only few firms are having control over market supply and since there are high barriers of entry and exit from the oligopoly market, the existing firms enjoy the monopoly kind position.( Parkin, 2011) Following are some of the salient features of Oligopoly Market:
1. Interdependence:
Firms operating under oligopoly are interdependent in the decision making process. The reason for the same is that the number of firms operating and competing in the market are very few and any change in price or output level by one firm will have a direct influence Continue reading...

Introduction

An analysis of financial statements of an ongoing concern is essential as it sheds the much needed light on the financial state of a firm and enables prudent decision making. Questions on the ability of a firm to meet its long-term obligations, use its assets efficiently, produce good returns to the shareholders or whether it possesses the optimal financing mix, can be answered through a financial analysis of the firm’s statements. Normally, the financial analysis is done using historical data and is aimed at depicting the future prospects of the firm. This is usually done through computation of Continue reading...

Special Topics

Question 1
Change in corporate control refers to transfer of the decision making authority of a company from one group of persons to another group. This power entitles individuals to make decisions concerning operations and strategic planning of the company, allocation of capital, acquisitions, marketing decisions and production decisions. Publicly traded companies are prone to corporate control changes when large investors, especially institutional investors and other companies, strive to seize control from existing shareholders and managers. Change of corporate control can be effected through; tender offers, negotiated offers and proxy fights .
Negotiated offers are the process by which outsiders Continue reading...

Arguably, decision making is very crucial to organizations, as well as individuals. As a matter of fact, decision making incorporates various skills, expertise, character and knowledge. The decisions made by individuals has various impacts, especially when the outcome is realized. Programmed decisions define the decisions which are made in situations that are routine, well-structured, and repetitive and predetermined decision rules. They may have a basis of established policies, habit, procedures or rules that stem from prior technical knowledge or experience concerning what can work or cannot work in given circumstances. For instance, firms usually have standard routines applicable in Continue reading...

Introduction

The desire for shopping organic fruits and vegetables verses those that were produced traditionally was among other propelling factors that gave birth to ACME Marketing and Consulting by MR. Frederick Nelson a retired government employee. The firm growth and establishment was based on the shopping interests where Frederick and his wife growing pricing and marketing analysis based on the two options led to the need to explore the preceding objectives in reference to the local farmers and distributors; develop a common ground where farmers and the distributors share information, to achieve this he enacted strategies where organic farmers and Continue reading...

Critical Study of Standard Costing and Variance Analysis

Standard costing is a method of developing cost standards of the whole or part of business activities so as to set particular cost estimates which can be later compared with the actual costs that have been used. The variations are then investigated and used to identify loop holes within the organization. The standard costs may then be changed periodically depending on current prevailing costs so as to reconcile them with actual costs. The main reason standard costing is used is to approximate the costs that will be used in a period so as to make it easier to draw Continue reading...

Liquidity Ratios

These are ratios that help accompany to meet its short term maturity obligations. They are arbitrary measures that are used to verify a company’s capability to settle off short-term debts responsibilities. They basically measure the ability of the company to meet its near-term obligations. Current ratio and acid test ratio are example of liquidity ratio measures.

Current ratio

Current ratio is a liquidity measure that shows the rate at which a company is able to meet its short- term liabilities using its current assets. It indicates the capability of a company to meets its short term Continue reading...

INDIVIDUAL STUDENT ESSAY

(Global Marketing)

Module Code: MC5057

List of figures II
1 Introduction 5
2 Decision to Internationalise 7
2.1 Nine Strategic Windows 8
2.2 SWOT Analysis 9
3 Decision-Making for Entering a Foreign Market 13
3.1 Canada13
3.1.1 Gross Domestic Product13
3.1.2 Restrictions for Saccharin14
3.2 Ukraine14
3.3.1 Gross Domestic Product14
3.3.2 Restrictions for Saccharin15
3.3.3. Inflation Rate15
3.3.4 Political Stability15
3.3 United States of America16
3.3.1 Gross Domestic Product16
3.3.2 Restrictions for Saccharin16
3.3.3 Inflation Rate16
3.3.4 Political Stability16
3.4 Germany16
3.4.1 Gross Domestic Product16
3.4.2 Restrictions for Saccharin16
3.4.3 Inflation Rate16
3.4.4 Political Stability17
3.5 North Korea17
3.5.1 Gross Domestic Product17
Continue reading...

Background

Boston Consulting group is a management consulting firm operating globally. It is considered to be the world’s leading in business strategy and advisor. Interestingly, the firm was established in 1963 by Bruce D. Henderson a previous Bible salesman (BCG, 2013). The firm has more than 75 offices all over the world located in 43 countries. It has partnered with clients from the public, private and the non-profit organizations. This is meant to help them realize the opportunities with the highest values as well as addressing their challenges and help transform the organizations. This calls for sound corporate social Continue reading...

Introduction

More than 500 employees of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. filed a discrimination claims against the firm with the United States’ Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission. This came after the Supreme Court blocked a class-action lawsuit the previous year. The filing of the claims came to preserve the rights of women to pursue personal and regional class-action suits against the firm concerning the alleged discrimination on payments and promotions. The world largest retailer suffered the consequences on 26 April 2010. The ruling came from the federal appeal court situated in San Francisco with the firm accused of discrimination under class action. Continue reading...

INTRODUCTION

In order to come up with effective and efficient strategies, it is important to understand the dynamics of different market structures. Different market structures have different characteristics and features and operate differently. In this report, an attempt has been made to understand the different market structures and comments have been made on the different features and characteristics of these market structures.

MARKET STRUCTURE

A market is a group of individuals, firms and economic agents, who have interaction with each other as a buyer and seller. In economics market structures are defined into four main types, and that are perfect competition, monopolistic Continue reading...

Introduction Accounts receivable comprise of the debts which are owed to the firm by those customers who purchase goods on credit. As assets, accounts receivable comprise substantial fraction of a firm’s total assets owing to the fact that a lot of sales are done on a credit basis. From the point of view of a creditor, accounts receivable have different characteristics from those of other assets of the firm. The performance of other assets such as machinery depends on how the firm is efficient, and such information is held by the managers of the firm. However, with accounts Continue reading...

The appointment of Felipe Montez as the purchasing director added value to the performance of the Spanish electronic company. The employee came up with a strategy, aimed at reducing costs of operations, which I think eliminated “middlemen” in the chain of distribution. He visited various firm in china, where their company outsourced some of their raw materials. Most of the firms built their synergy by utilizing the younger generation, which the management recommended being more productive than machines and easy to “run” and “maintain.” I considered unfair because the management could have considered the working environment and the remunerations.

Continue reading...

Executive Summary

This work is about the preparation, appraisal, and interpretation of financial statements. The financial statements considered herein are Cash Flow Statement, Trading Profit and Loss Account (Income Statement), and the Balance Sheet of SIMPLECO PLC. Based on the provided information, the above statements are prepared and analysed so as to determine the financial position of the company. The analysis involves calculation and interpretation of the financial ratios. These ratios fall under three categories: profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, and leverage ratios. A conclusion is finally made concerning the performance of the company based on its financial Continue reading...

Introduction

To illustrate the various aspects of business ethics and religious perspectives, a study was carried out in a CPA firm. This company is owned by Myron D. Solomon who is a CPA and he was interviewed for purposes of this study. This is a small firm located along Dundee Road, Buffalo Grove, Illinois. His firm provides accounting services for small and medium sized companies. It is estimated that his business revenue is less than $ 500,000 annually. Myron D Solomon does not employ full time employees. He shares office space and employ with two other Continue reading...

[First Last Name]

English [Number]

[Date Month Year]

1. What are the 3 or 4 key issues raised in this case?
1.1 Sale of Client-Adverse Instruments: This violation of the firm’s fiduciary responsibility to its clients on the sale of a collateralized debt obligation (CDO), which triggered the 2010 American financial crisis after the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused it for civil fraud in April 2010, is an affront to revered historical principle of putting the clients’ interest first (INSEAD 1, 25). These mortgage-backed securities are sub-prime assets that Goldman Sach did not disclose to the buyers. Instead, it Continue reading...

Question one

An organization refers to a social union of several individuals who come to work together with the main aim of accomplishing a predetermined set of goals. Each individual in the team has a role to work on, everyone, therefore, has to put in effort to ensure that the organization functions well. Therefore, organizations are the individuals and not just the physical structures that the individuals conduct their activities. A business organization, for example, is a set of individuals who work as a unit with the objective of making profits. There are many kinds of organizations, for example, universities, schools, Continue reading...

Question 1

A float is a sum of money that is supposed to be transferred from the account of one party to another after a transaction but it is reflected in both accounts before the process of transferring is over. A float occurs when there is a delay in deducting the required amount of money from the paying party’s account causing a short-term double counting of the amount. It is the objective of every management to reduce these delays on collections.

There are four components of a float that affects both collections and payouts. A Continue reading...

24, 03, 2014

QUESTION 1
- Develop a master production schedule for the bread-maker. What do the projected ending inventory and available-to-promise numbers look like? Has Realco “overpromised”? In your view, should Realco update either the forecast or the production numbers?
In this case, master production schedule form the core of this approach even though the stability of the approach is question because of the numerous assumptions on which it is based. The quantities supplied and demanded are derived from Jack’s unverified assumptions. Thigh heightens the cost of inventories, which consequently leads to the lowering of the profit margins for Continue reading...

About the paper

In the words of eminent economist, A.A. Cournot, ‘’ The term market structure refers to the nature and degree of competition in the market for goods and services’’, and this paper is commissioned to discuss various forms of market structure, Perfectly Competitive, Monopoly, Monopolistic and Oligopoly, and how their varied characteristics affect the life of an average consumer and the society as a whole.

Perfectly Competitive Market

In the words of A. Koutsoyiannis’’ Perfect competition is a market structure characterised by a complete absence of rivalry among the individual firms.” 

Below discussed in detail are the multiple characteristics of perfectly competitive market:

i) Number and nature of sellers
A perfectly competitive market structure is characterized Continue reading...

Introduction

Customer loyalty is crucial for every business. In case of a business losing customer loyalty, it faces several problems in the form of loss of market share and revenue. Repetitive sales from the consumer helps create better and improved market position. In case of retail industry, customer loyalty is extremely important and essential for long term success (Payne and Frow, 2005). In present times where in E commerce has taken over, a firm like TESCO would require ensuring customer loyalty in order to survive the competition. Moreover they are also expanding their businesses and customer loyalty can help them Continue reading...

Internal Analysis and SWOT analysis

Resource Based View is an approach used by the management in the achieving of competitive advantage in relation to other business. It emerged between 1980 and 1990 after combined efforts by Wernerfelt, Prahalad, Hamel and Barney. The supporters of this method of analysis insist that managers should focus more on the internal resources that give the company competitive advantage as compared to focusing on the external factors. In short, the company should capitalize on the resources it has on its disposal first before venturing into other means of strengthening the firm’s competitiveness.

The model below simplifies the Resource based View Approach

Kraft Food Company Resource based Value Continue reading...

Small Business Opportunities Through Government Contracts with the U.S. Navy

Introduction

The business landscape of the 21st century has represented one of the most difficult for the typical small business to successfully navigate. Although the new millennium began with a few years of explosive growth and prosperity, the ladder part of this first decade was plagued with a particularly brutal economic and financial recession that crippled businesses throughout the international marketplace. Small businesses in particular have found survival to be extraordinarily difficult in the unforgiving business environment that persisted during the economic crisis and the years that have followed. As Continue reading...

In the modern context the business operating environment has become increasingly complex. With the advancement of globalization and the integrated information technology platforms, it is incumbent for businesses to strategize in order to position themselves for opportunities in the market. A number of approaches can be applied by firms in positioning themselves strategically. One such recommended approach is the five forces model. Under the five forces model, the five main considerations include the buyer power, rivalry in the industry, supplier power, substitutes and new entrants. This paper shall briefly discuss the five forces model and examine their application to Continue reading...

Question 3:

When two incompatible technologies compete in the marketplace, one usually becomes the dominant standard and the other fades away. Using the notion of network effects, discuss the reasons why such a winner-take-all market emerges. If you were the inventor of a new social networking website called FriendSpace, what would be two strategies if you would adopt to get network effects working in your favor and against the market leader, Facebook?
Facebook is currently the market leader in social networking. It has enjoyed the lead due to network effect being in its favor. Facebook has a large number of users’ Continue reading...

As with most employee privacy issues, this is a simple case of needing to balance the rights of employees with the consequences for the organization. Discuss your arguments using ideas from ethical theories and stakeholders theory.
` Cyberspace has presented a great chance for people to interact and share personal details. The private information that employees make public through online forums or rather social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and numerous internet blogs is utilized by many potential employers, current employers and recruiters seeking further information regarding their employees(Dupree, 2006,P.32). It is worth noting that when Continue reading...

Task

Compare the corporate form of organization with the sole proprietorship and the partnership.

Describe the principles dealing with ways of creating value and economic efficiency

The major principles include comparative advantage and absolute advantage. Comparative advantage is the ability of a country to produce a particular commodity in a more efficient way than other countries. Countries that have modern machinery are likely to produce machine intensive products than other countries. Continue reading...

International Business

This term multinational comprises of two diverse words, multi and national. Multi means multiple or great in number whereas the word national is referring to countries or nations. This shows that the term multinational means that it exists in multiple numbers of countries. A multinational company is such a company which has a main head quarter in one country but it is operating in more than one countries. (Dunning, 1983)
The multinational enterprises emerged and evolved after the Second World War. They spread widely due to huge investments in activities which were resource based. Before the world war, the Continue reading...

This paper covers definition of human resource management and a range of human resource activities that managers at all levels must understand. The main functions of HRM explained include staffing, training and development, motivation, and maintenance of employees. Besides, the author addresses the role of human resource management in a firm’s strategic plan, which entails job analysis to identify, specific knowledge, abilities, and skills, which the job candidate must have to meet. Moreover, HRM determines techniques to lower personnel costs and determine efficient ways of providing employee amenities.
Human resource management (HRM) refers to the process of recruiting Continue reading...

Question 4: Discuss the implications of the real options likely to be embedded in a multi-million pound capital budgeting decision on whether or not to accept such a proposed investment project and compare and contrast real-options with financial options (25 marks)
Real option techniques are increasingly being used as the standard method of evaluating investment decisions whose uncertainties are quantifiable. Capital budgeting decisions are long-term strategic decisions that impact directly on the organization’s efficiency of its daily operations, cash flow, income statement, and the taxable income for the subsequent years; however, most organizations treat them as operating budget Continue reading...

Apple Company was founded in 1976 by Steve jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne with the objective of developing and selling personal computers. It was later to be named Apple Inc. in 2007 in order to mirror its shift towards consumer electronics. The company has well-established brands of equipment in the market that involves iPod media player, iPhone smartphone, and the iPad tablet computer. The company has continued to develop and come up with innovations hence ahead of its competitors such as Samsung.
The company has been involved in several industries such as computer software, consumer electronics, and digital Continue reading...

During senior year in college, I developed a mobile phone application that allows area restaurants to make their menus available to customers, who can use the application to place their orders for take-out food from the restaurants. The application sorts different restaurant options for the customers by price range, restaurant location, preparation time, and menu items. In order to increase sales of the company’s application, we have decided to hire an employee to market the application to local businesses. The company is based in the city where I went to college. We believe that the addition of a Continue reading...