Life At The Time And Potential Family Essay - 2144 Words

Every individual has the choice to become a parent or not. Those who choose to become a parent are making the decision to undergo huge changes and transition into a new realm. Deciding to become a parent includes many different steps including, pre-birth planning, division of household labor between spouses, form of delivery, parenting styles, and more which will be explored further on. After graduation and looking forward into the future (Question Twenty One), I do no think that my parents will have any influence on my living whereabouts. My decision will be based on the demand of my current career and/or current relationship status. I will decide by considering all of the different factors and deciphering what works best for my life at the time and potential family. With that being said (Question One), I absolutely plan to become a parent because it is something that I have always wanted; the opportunity to create a family with my significant other and grow together as a unit. Enri chment is a type of parenting reward and it consists of a couple growing together through the experience of parenthood and gaining happiness throughout the process; which are rewards I am looking forward to achieving (Lawson, 2004). Question Two- After about a year or two of marriage, I would like to start having children. I want to be able to experience marriage without children and living life freely with my spouse. I plan to only have two children, preferably, a boy and girl or two girls.Show MoreRelatedThe, Theological, And Cultural Perspectives On End Of Life Issues1179 Words   |  5 Pagesfor dying and the afterlife. Death can take families by surprise sometimes; therefore, they have to make quick decision and may not have all the details need. There are times when families are able to successful plan for their death and afterlife. We have to learn to balance the spectrum for the quality and quantity of life. 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Suicidal thoughts and feelings should be taken seriously because they’re true

The Effect Of Traffic On Major Cities By Running A Few...

Traffic Lab ITEC 201 In this lab we will examine the impact of traffic on major cities by running a few test simulations as well as examining data on the topic. Please answer the following questions in detail. 1. What are some major challenges you feel cities face when dealing with and handling large amounts of traffic? What could be some potential solutions that could minimize some traffic congestion? When dealing with handling large amounts of traffic, cities may experience a higher incidence of accidents or speeding cars due to road rage. Cities also deal with risking driver safety because some drivers may be tired from long hours at work and do not have enough energy to stay awake throughout the hours of traffic on the road home every day. Traffic congestion not only affects car drivers, but it may also delay the trip of those who get to places on the bus and in taxi cabs as well. On city roads, traffic congestion may lead to the death of many pedestrians by car accident because drivers may become impatient and outrageously try to run red lights or not stop at the crosswalks. Also, the running engine in the high traffic may lead to high rates of air pollution. Some potential solution are to build bridges or streets around the city that are made mainly for public transportation services such as the city bus or taxi cab in order to reduce the number of frustrated drivers on one r oad. Also, cities may also arrange for road construction to be done at times when theShow MoreRelatedFedex - Management Case Study9964 Words   |  40 PagesDrive Bolder Creek, California 95006 School of Business Administration University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 3K7 Canada WALTER CARLSON DUNCAN COPELAND Federal Express Corporation has used operations research (OR) to help make its major business decisions since its overnight package delivery operations began in 1973. 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Capstone Experience in Integration and Strategy

Question: Provide a high-level analysis of the companys business strategy and operating performance. Be sure to complete the following: o Analysis of the company value proposition, market position, and competitive advantage o External environmental scan/five forces analysis o Internal environmental scan/organizational assessment o SWOT Analysis o Balanced scorecard/strategy scorecard Answer: Introduction Capstone experience in integration and strategy is the sole concept of this particular report. The purpose of the study is to provide a clear idea about the business strategies along with their operating performances. In order to enlighten the topic, the study has considered the company Walmart Stores Inc; a well known multinational retail company of America. The organization operates their business through a market chain that includes grocery stores, discount department stores, and hypermarket (Breaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Sols, Casadesusà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Masanell Grifellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Tatj, 2015). The paper presents the strategy audit report of the company to analyze their issues that they face in the present market. Strategy Audit Report In this study, the researcher has been appointed as a strategic consultant in the respective organization. Being a strategic consultant, the researcher analyzes the current market position along with the issues they confront. This would help the researcher to lead the executive officers of the organization towards the right direction in order to obtain sustainable growth. In this particular section, the researcher goes through the external and internal environment analyzing process. Moreover, the SWOT analyzing process would help the researcher to bring some recommendation that would be effective for the strategic growth of the organization. Business strategy and operating performances of Walmart Position in business market The prime purpose of Walmart is to increase their investments as well as provide high possible satisfaction to its customers through selling their products at lower possible prices. Rapid changes of the retail industry across the world bring a challenge to this company in leading their business with continuous growth. As per the record of 2015, it is in the 20th position in the Forbes List in terms of their product quality and brands. Moreover, it has acquired the 1st position in sales, 18th position in profit making, and 12th position as per the market value. Currently 2,200,000 (approx) employees are employed in this organization. Walmart Stores Inc operates their business in three specific segments that include Walmart International, Walmart US, and Sams Club (Walmartstores.com., 2016). The last three years financial data of Walmart helps to determine their market position in the global market. The below table displays the total revenue, gross profit, operating income, and net income of the organization: 2015 2014 2013 Total Revenue $485,651,000 $476,294,000 $468,651,000 Gross Profit $120,565,000 $118,225,000 $116,354,000 Operating Income $27,147,000 $26,872,000 $27,725,000 Net Income $16,363,000 $16,022,000 $16,999,000 Table 1: Financial Data of last 3 years (Source: Walmartstores.com., 2016) The above table determines that total revenue and gross profit were increased in the past three years. Here, it s important to mention that the increase in the total revenue and gross profit maintains the same increasing level. The operating income was declined in the year of 2014 and then increased in the next year again. Though, it has not reached the previous level of income where it was in the year of 2013. It clears that the expense was increased and that resulted decrease in the operating income. However, the net income has been increased over the past years. The company could have generated more income as well as profit if they reduce their expenses. At the present market, the company confronts challenges in obtaining the competitive advantages over its major competitors. Changing demand and purchasing behavior of the customers force the producers to change the price of their products. Low price strategy is one of the core strategies of the organization to retain their customers. However, they face extensive competition in product price, store size, technology and innovation, layout and environment. External Environment analysis Rigby Bilodeau (2015) opined that environmental analysis is one of the major strategic tools that help an organization to address the external as well as internal elements that affect the business activity. Being engaged as strategic consultant in Walmart, the researcher analyzes the external environment of the organization. Here, the researcher has considered Porters 5 forces analysis technique to analyze Walmarts external environment. Threats of the entry of new competitors: In todays highly competitive global market, the existing firms confront high competition in making a place in the business market (Grnig Khn, 2015). It has been found that Walmarts cost advantages helped them to obtain competitive advantages over its existing competitors. However, being a high productive as well as high profitability firm, Walmart attracts new firms. Though, the brand name and popularity of Walmart put high barriers to the new entrants. Competitive rivalry: The major competitors of the Walmart stand in strong position in the global market. K-Mart, Target, Tesco, Career-Four, and Sears are the major competitors of the respective organization in the current market. Among these, the organization faces high competition from the company Target. After analyzing the customer relationship of Walmart, it has been found that they are staying in the edge. The company would fail to retain and attract customers if they lose their cost advantage. Power of the consumers: In the highly competitive market, the consumers have more option in purchasing both the necessities and luxury products (Woerner Wixom, 2015). The consumers have the high bargaining power that results changes in the prices of the Walmart products. Power of the suppliers: As Walmart holds maximum market shares, they have the power of threatening its suppliers of switching over to the other ones. However, it is important to mention that only small suppliers have the low bargaining power. The large suppliers of Walmart are Coca-Cola, and Proctor Gamble. Thus Walmart face high bargaining power issues from its large suppliers. Threats of substitute products: Most of the consumers are attracted by the products that are offered high quality against low price (Higgins, Omer Phillips, 2015). Walmart has low threat from the substitute products as they deliver good quality products at lower possible prices. Internal Environment analysis As opined by Buckley Ghauri (2015), the internal environment analyses defines the organizational assessments that helps the organization in risk management. The researcher has analyzed the internal environment of Walmart in order to improve the performances and effectiveness of their business. Corporate Structure: Walmart has strong corporate structure along with strong culture. However, the Walton family members hold the most part of the stock. Corporate Culture: Walmart values their employees and their cultures as well. They motivate the employees to pursue the common goal of the organization. Their primary concern covers low cost and better quality products. Management functions: The management function is centralized in Arkansas, headquarter of Walmart. The staffs deliver the submit reports and updates of the inventory to the store manager. Through maintaining proper management process, they hold their business in a sustainable position. Research and Development: Walmart confronts challenges in terms of research and development. They require producing more products on their private label brand. As they have high margin in this private label brand, they can increase their sales and also help their bottom line. The competitors take high advantages from the weak points of the Walmart and thus it creates more challenges in developing their business. Human Resources: The researcher has found that they have poor history of staff integration. They have restricted the benefit packages of the employees to reduce their expenses. It results downward curve of employee performances. Furthermore, the customer rating for the staffs is also declined, and it raises a red flag of staffing problem. Customer rating of staff friendliness has been declining since 1999 and it stays below the average at present. Operations: At the present market, Walmart has more 2000 suppliers across the world. Thus, they do not face surplus or shortages in their inventory. Furthermore, they face decrease in the comparative store sales growth. It has been analyzed that the Walmart stores need upgrading their operations. SWOT analysis of the organization According to Mukherjee, Ramirez Cuthbertson (2016), the SWOT analysis helps an organization to identify their current strength, weakness along with their opportunity and threats. The strategic consultant of the organization analyzes these areas of Walmart to bring out some recommendations. Strength: Walmarts brand name is itself a strength point of that organization. Through analyzing the external environment, it has been found that they have high bargaining power over most of their suppliers. Proper supply chain management process is pursued by the management body to maintain the flow of their goods and services. Strong supply chain process is the prime reason behind their inventory management. Furthermore, strong cultural environment helps them in maintaining good employee relationship as well as effective team performances (Lloret, 2016). The low pricing strategy is centre point of their high sales and increasing revenue. Walmarts major strategy is to offer high quality products at lower possible prices and thus they can successfully retain its customers. Besides, they have achieved advantages in the areas of financial and information technology resources. Weakness: The low price strategy is effective only for the price sensitive customers. Some customers are there who expects high quality products at higher prices (Vlachos, 2016). Therefore, people might assume by their lower price that the products are of low quality. Walmart attracts only price sensitive consumers; that is one of the weak points in their pricing strategy. As they are engaged in both the national and international market, huge expansion is needed. Improper management of expenses increases the expenditure and restricts their revenue and profit as well. Furthermore, it has been seen that they have fewer market across the globe in comparison to the competitors. Opportunity: Apart from the strengths and weaknesses, they have some opportunities to deal with the present issues and improve the business performances. Through enhancing the digital marketing, they can increase their online sales. They have grabbed the market of Canada and Latin America. Besides these regions, they have the opportunity to spread their business across Europe and Asia. Threat: The major threat comes from its competitors such as Tesco, Target etc. This prevents Walmart to acquire the sustainable market leader position in the world business market. Beside the existing competitors, large number of foreign competitors entries in the market where Walmart is present. As the company has the market in different nations, the changes in the taxes and tariffs creates threats of additional expenses. Besides, huge involvement creates cultural and practice differences among the employees of different nations. Balanced Strategy Scorecard As stated by Doh et al. (2016), balanced scorecard defines strategic planning and management system of organization to align the business activities towards their ultimate goal. Being the strategic consultant of the organization, the researcher outlines the balance strategy scorecard as the performance metrics of the organization. The balanced strategy scorecard of Walmart looks over four main sections that include financial perspective, internal business process, innovation, and customer service. These four sections consider objective of the business, measurement, ultimate goal, and actions required to be taken. Financial Perspective: Objective: In context of financial perspective, their present objective is to increase the total revenue, total assets, and number of employees. Further, they focus on increasing return from investments. Measurement: Currently, they have constant range of increase in revenue. Large number of employees is engaged in their business globally. Ultimate goal: Being the strategic consultant, the researcher targets to increase the total revenue more than its current range. The researcher set the target at 8% increase in the total revenue and 5% in number of employees, in the next year. Moreover, set the target at 2% on return on investment for the next 3 years. Required actions: Using more assets in proper way would increase the total revenue. In this context, the executive officers should keep in mind that they have to balance their expenditure well so that they can increase the profit as well. Furthermore, through bulk purchases, they would able to restrict operating cost and obtain economies of scale. Customer service: Objective: The current objective of the business is to increase their average customer size. Along with that, they target to reduce the customer complaints. Measurement: Presently, they face issues of customer complaints regarding staff services. This might cause decrease in customer size. Ultimate goal: The researchers prime goal is to determine the staff issues, increase the customer size 6% every year. Further, the researcher also states that the company needs to reduce the number of complaint by 5% in every year. The targets are set for the next three years. Required actions: In order to resolve the staff issues and reduce the customer complaints, the employees would get training programs. Through the training programs, they would able to motivate their staffs to provide better service. Internal business process: Objective: Walmarts major goal is to reduce the administrative expenses. Besides, they aim to reduce the customer waiting time both in the online and offline stores. Measurement: They have outlined their current administrative expenses and average time of customer waiting. Ultimate goal: The researcher aims to reduce the administrative cost by 3% every year for the next 3 years. Furthermore, the target of reducing the customer waiting time set at 10%. Required actions: The organization would provide training to the employees expecting to improve their efficiency. In context of online stores, they would use updated handling technology to sped up their service. Innovation: Objective: Walmarts objective is to increase the training hours and consider the viewpoint of the individuals. Moreover, they target to decrease the employee turnover rate. Measurement: The average training hours and current employee turnover rate is addressed. Ultimate goal: The researcher aims to increase the training hours by 4% every year for the next three years. Moreover, the employee turnover rate will be declined by 3% every year for the next 3 years. Required actions: Outside trainers would be hired to provide extra training time. They would provide training on the technical skills only. Besides, the executive officers motivate the employees to participate in decision making process. Table 2: Balanced Strategy Scorecard of Walmart (Source: Created by Author) Recommendation In the above sections, the researcher has analyzed the business scenarios of Walmart in the present business market. It has been found that the organization has faced issues in obtaining more operating income. Poor customer relationship of the organization might result decrease in the future sales. In order to reduce the expenses, they have restricted the benefit packages of the employees and it is the prime reason behind of employee grievances. As the staffing problem arises, they receive more and more customer complaints. Lack of staff friendliness caused fail in retaining its existing customers. The respective organization confronts these issues due to improper strategic management. Further, the researcher has analyzed that the strategic arises because of the mismatch between their internal capabilities and external trends. Besides, the threats that they face in present or might face in future are not addressed properly by the executive officers before. They fail to identify their opportunities and hence fail to pursue growth. This is the reason that the researcher has been appointed as the strategic consultant in this organization. Being the strategic consultant, the researcher brings out some recommendations that would help the organization to utilize their strength and opportunities, as well as reduce their weakness and threats. The researcher pays heed on some of the specific areas to deal with the above mentioned issues. Product Portfolio: It has been stated before that the organization has fewer market across the globe, comparing to its competitors. In this context, the researcher suggests to increase the number of stores by 5% within next 3 years to grab more market and obtain competitive advantages. Further, market segmentation can be effective to increase the product sales (Mackay Zundel, 2016). They can set their product price by segmenting their market. Business structure: It has been analyzed that the individuals are not engaged in the decision making process. Thus, confusion level increases among the staffs in respect of their roles and responsibilities. The researcher recommends the organization to utilize their internal capabilities along with their external opportunities. Organizational Culture and Behavior: The issues in obtaining operating income and issues of customer relationship are correlated with each other (Gumusluoglu Acur, 2016). Walmart should focus on improving their customer relationship by reducing the staffing problem. Through the communication strategy, they would able to address the issues behind employee grievance. Besides, they should increase the employee benefit packages. Value Chain Management: As opined by Thom Medeiros (2016), value chain management process defines the entire range of activities of an organization that include design, development, production, marketing and distribution. The researcher suggests restructuring their value chain management process to improve the business activities. Performance Measurement: Apart from this, performance measurement is the most crucial part of growth and development (Ocasio Radoynovska, 2016). The organization should involve a team to track the record of the progress in business activities on weekly basis. This would help them to resolve the strategy implementation related issues. Scope, strategic growth, and expected impact The above mentioned recommendations would help the organization to achieve their vision and mission as well. Their vision is to become the best retailer company in the global market of 21st century. As per their mission statement, they aim to be in the hearts and minds of their customers and employees. They try to provide best quality products against lower possible prices. The strategy scorecard of the organization helps to create new targets and achieve them along with the existing ones. The researcher expects that these strategies would help them in maintain the range of their increasing revenue. Resolving the staffing issues and customer complaints, they can acquire more customers an increase their sales as well. Their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) include comparable store sales, operating income growth, sales growth, and return on the average assets. After providing the recommendations, the researcher expects that comparable store sales would increase above the average. The operating income is expected to be increased above their net sales growth. Besides, their key measure of efficiency is less inventory growth comparing to the net sales growth. The researcher expects large return on their average assets that would help them to achieve sustainable growth. Companion Presentation (Refer to PPT) Conclusion The paper concludes that Walmart is facing a number of issues in the present business scenario. Being the strategic consultant, the researcher identifies those issues and provides some recommendations in order to resolve those problems. The major issue they confront in generating more operating incomes. Employee grievance is the prime reason of their downward curve of serving quality service. Specific recommendations are made by the researcher for dealing with these problems and obtaining cooperative advantages over its competitors. Reference List Breaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Sols, H., Casadesusà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Masanell, R., Grifellà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Tatj, E. (2015). Business model evaluation: quantifying Walmart's sources of advantage.Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal,9(1), 12-33. Buckley, P. J., Ghauri, P. N. (Eds.). (2015).International Business Strategy: Theory and Practice. Routledge. Doh, J., Rodrigues, S., Saka-Helmhout, A., Makhija, M., Khanna, T. (2016). Nature of the Special Issue.Nature. Grnig, R., Khn, R. (2015). Developing the Functional Strategies. InThe Strategy Planning Process(pp. 239-246). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Gumusluoglu, L., Acur, N. (2016). 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Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship Essay Example

Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship Essay I would like to start by saying that Swatch is a popular brand of quartz and automatic watches produced by the Swatch Group LLC. Originally, Swatch was designed to compete with the Japanese watch manufacturers in the entry level market share lost to the Japanese companies in the late 1960s-early 1970s. the direct competitor of Swatch in the entry level segment was Japanese company Seiko. The name Swatch implies not what many people think it is (i.e. Swiss Watch) yet rather the â€Å"Second Watch† concept developed by the chairmen of the corporation and intended for casual wear, fun and tight budgets. Unlike other brands of watches that competed directly with each other for the right to be worn on the client’s wrist, Swatch introduced the entrepreneurial concept of â€Å"Second Watch†, i.e. the watch in addition to the prestigious model most people possess. That model could be worn in bad weather conditions and to the parties or discos, a place where one would not risk to take an expensive wrist watch. The first collection comprising 12 Swatch watches was offered in 1983 in Zurich, Switzerland, the motherland of Swatch. The price ranged from 40 to 50 Swiss francs, yet later would be standardized to 50 Swiss francs. The original sales target was set 1 million for 1983 and 2.5 million in 1984. The company used aggressive marketing campaign and a lo t of advertising which together with a moderate price per Swiss Watch prophesied success for Swatch. The reason why Swatch was able to remain profitable despite having great advertising costs and low price was its innovative design. Compared to conventional watches sold by Swiss or Japanese competitors in the home market which contained over 90 parts, Swatch could be made with only about 50 parts produced on a fully automated assembly line, cutting costs on mass production (Alavi, 55). We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer The apparent peak in popularity for Swatch in the USA took place in the early 1980s, when Swatch opened its Swatch Stores as primary distribution channels for Swatch watches in the USA. Precisely when opening its operations in the USA and understanding an enormous size of the US market for branded watches, Swatch developed another entrepreneurial idea of cooperating with some popular artists such as Keith Haring or Andy Warhol to endorse the watch collection and perhaps move the swatch production to cover the markets other than trendy youth markets and the â€Å"second watch† concept (Koskinen, 311). Early in its history Swatch understood the importance of innovative approach to advertising and pop culture. Swatch would align itself with punk rock, leg warmers, charm necklaces, and neon colors let alone popular jelly bracelets of the 1980s. As previously noted in the essay, Swatch revolutionized the watch industry in Switzerland by creating the second watch concept. Previously it was believed that one watch was enough for people of any income or status since it did a primitive function of showing time. Swatch would create different watches for different occasions altering the size, color, or weight. Unlike other watch manufacturers who would set up high markup on the selling price to assure profits in the absence of frequent and regular watch purchases, Swatch offered people a watch for frequent purchases. One watch could be used to go to the night club, one watch could be used to play golf, one watch is great in the swimming pool, and one watch is just right for a business meet ing. At present the sales of Swatch watches around the world are certainly lower than some 20 years ago, yet Swatch still remains the world’s largest wrist watch producing company, while the company made rapid strides towards covering upper-end luxury watch brands in the recent years. Among these brands are Rado, Omega, Breguet, Calvin Klein, Tissot, Flik Flak and Longines to name but a few. The company understood the primary need of the modern XXI century market for watches-diversity, unpredictability and quality. As a result Swatch now would issue more than a dozen of different variations of the same watch with the only difference being the color, material used for watch production, and some particular watch attributes (e.g. diving watches, skin/thin watches). The most recent innovation introduced at Swatch was the creation of the watch which connects to the Internet to synchronize its time with the global benchmark of time. That very watch is capable of browsing the internet, a nd download some useful information for its owner such as weather reports, news headlines, email (read-only mode), computer/watch games, and even the stock/bonds quotes from NYSE and other major stock exchanges. The most recent prototypes are said to possess a digital camera, a voice recorder, as well as an mp3 music player. From what used to be the popular trendy branch, Swatch became a fashionable object comprising a series of models for every gender, and age group. One can find watches for children with durable crystal screen and diamond-decorated watches for affluent females.Speaking about the most interesting, entrepreneurial and innovative marketing stunt Swatch started in Switzerland in the late 2004 and early 2005 I would like to note that in order to stay different from other watches on the market, Swatch recommends its clients to wear Swatch on the right hand rather than on the left hand as it is common for wrist watches. The primary reason why people used to wear wrist watches on the left hand was because of the need to wind up the watch every day and since the majority of the population are right-handed (rather than lefties) the winding knob was placed in such a way to make it easier for the right hand to wind up the watch. Swatch argues that since we live in the XXI century and the majority of Swatch watches are fully automated/battery-operated in order to be different from the antediluvian watch models of the past century, Swatch offers its clients to wear Swatch on the right hand. The punch line for such stunt is â€Å"Swatch, wear it right, times have changed. It feels better and it looks better!†(Rumizen, 242). Once again, the primary meaning here is that Swatch is different from its competitors. At present the Swatch Group owns more than 160 production facilities in Switzerland, France, Germany, Italy, Thailand, Malaysia and China. Swatch besides its traditional approach to watch making currently is one the world’s largest manufacturers of watch components and supplies its 20 different branded watch companies around the world. Also the company has an interest stake in the production of decorative jewelry that the company uses its some of the brands of its watches. Swatch understood the importance of proper global distribution network and for this very reason would set up its own global distribution network of distributing organizations. Currently, Swatch Group LLC entered the electronic systems production sector and hopes to succeed there as much as it did with watches (Holsapple, 60). Swatch just like any other company which reached some level of expertise and success on the market strives to sustain its position on the market by investing heavily in research and development. The greatest RD expenditures of Swatch aim at improving competence in the semiconductor microelectronics and micromechanics. The Swatch group is very active in the telecommunication and automobile sectors providing its novel design and electronics solutions to various global companies. Just like major global leaders in consumer goods, Swatch would also get involved as a sponsor of the Olympic games providing accurate sports timing tools and solutions for various events. So what had contributed to such rapid success of a Swiss company which originally was designed to compete with the Japanese in the low-end market niche for wrist watches? The use of innovations and practices had certainly played the role and thus need to be analyzed in a greater detail. Quality of products and service is certainly considered a good factor taking into account the wonderful positioning strategy of Swatch Group LLC. As noted earlier these watches are tailored to meet the need of absolutely any customer from around the world and the whole company has distinct yet outstanding services for every price category of customers. Continuous improvement of its products and services is a part of the organizational culture of Swatch Group LLC and this issue gets taught to all the new hires as well as constantly is brought up in top management meetings (Kouzes, 75). Swatch Group LLC is all about gradual improvement of its goods, processes, procedures and practices. It is why the group had already achieved leadership status in watch industry around the world. Expansion practices at Swatch Group LLC are worth noting since Swatch Group LLC had constantly prompted expansion of different brands of watches, technologies, services and activities around the world either b y acquisition of other brands or by extending these brands abroad. Education training development. Employee training is another area that can be classified as a good practice since Swatch Group LLC had considered employees as key contributors to corporate profitability. After being hired each employee gets a 2 week paid training during which they learn more about the company they are going to work for and the brand they are going to represent. Training involves the work of each employee with a mentor who would in a much greater detail explain them their role in the company and assure that the employee gets all his/her questions answered (Kunz, 92). Employee motivation as a part of education training development is what I consider a truly superb area of good practice and the desire to promulgate excellence at Swatch Group LLC. The employees are motivated greatly at Swatch Group LLC with the financial package, stock options, and discounts on watches they are selling or manufacturing. The wrist watch discounts are worth especial note since they allow the person to cheaply purchase these watches in virtually unlimited quantities. This is, by the way another way the company strives to promote its watches among the family members and friends of its employees and agrees to sell some of the brands at deep discounts. People development can be considered a good factor at Swatch Group LLC still it shows clearly the areas that require improvement. For instance, Improper measurement of progress as a part of people development is what also needs to be improved at Swatch Group LLC. The watch manufacturer uses customer comments as the ultimate assessment tool of the company’s work while failing to take into account the fact that the customer notices only the overall picture, yet never comments on the efficiency involved. Swatch Group LLC should use peer-evaluation sheets where each employee is to look at the work of his/her peer and fill out the evaluation sheet. While the customer sees that the watch is well done, it is the peer worker who can notice that another employee uses twice the amount of time and resources to do the job, thus causing inefficiency (Davenport, 231). Technology factors represent the good factors that still might need improvement and attention from Swatch Group LLC. Despite the fact that Swatch Group LLC owns all the aforementioned watch brands as well as production facilities it does not have a uniform corporate information system that would unite all these brands under one management and information system. Each watch production group that was acquired rather than created by Swatch Group LLC has its distinct system and culture, so for the communication to go both ways, one needs to make certain adaptations and changes in style just like the format. Introducing a uniform system at all watch manufacturers that make up Swatch Group LLC would ease up the control of the management over different hotels and will contribute to t he overall efficiency. Still, one can dispute that differences in corporate cultures and information systems is what contributes to the uniqueness of each of the Swatch brands, be they acquired or created. Speaking about the future of the Swatch Group as based on the use of some company-specific practices, I would like to note that it is rather foreseeable for the watch industry, where Swatch Group LLC will likely to remain in the leadership position due to its constant innovation in design, style, and watch type as endorsed by the Swiss quality manufacturers and lower costs due to the mass production. The enormous resources of the Swatch Group allow the company to stay on par with modern technological developments and innovations. The successful and profitable cooperation with the world’s renowned artists and the use of jewelry in decorating the watches allowed Swatch to turn its watches into collectible and highly valuable masterpieces. Proper distribution network allows Sw atch not only to remain among the largest sellers, but also position itself as the supplier of the whole Swiss watch industry as well as some other companies outside that industry providing different companies with the parts and technology to manufacture branded watches (Neufeld, 123). The Swatch Group LLC views its plans for the next 5 years as highly successful and innovative. Swatch sees great prospects in the production and co-development of high-tech chips, crystals and semiconductors for the computers, medical technology, and solutions for automobile industry. The company had accumulated vast potential and competence in the field of electronics, semiconductors and the internet sector for its Swatch Access watches/Paparazzi Swatch and is ready to apply it to areas other than watches (Barna, 187). Swatch will place more attention to the upper-end market where the profit margins are the highest and which typically grows at a rate of 8% annually. The company plans to further push its Brequet, Blancpain and Glashutte brands in Europe and Asia. Cooperation of Swatch and Omega had been successful in the past and is expected to become even more profitable in the future. The companies open Tourbillon stores for distribution purposes around the world, something like Swatch did with Swatch Stores in the USA in the 1980s. Tourbillon on the other hand offers only luxury and exclusive watches focusing on the appeal of individually designed watches endorsed by some major artists in the world. Swatch proved successful not because it provided some superior quality watches that were much better than everyone else’s watches on the market, but because of its ability to think long term while at the same time concentrating on the short term fads and changes. The company that was created in Switzerland only tried to kick out Japanese digital watch manufacturers who dominated the market with their highly accurate, digital clocks sold at a price below the price of Swiss watches. The Japanese used mass production to capture the market and generate profits while the majority of the Swiss watch manufacturers rather focused on limited production of watches yet extremely high markups. Swatch understood the importance of market share rather than focus solely on exclusivity and rarity (as it was applicable to traditional Swiss watch manufacturers) and would engage in mass production while at the same time staying close to the modern music and artistic world. As the music and artis tic trends changed, so would the Swatch watches and their style. It did not take long to understand that by constantly changing with the environment, Swatch managed to mass produce just the right quantities of the very coveted watch. Once pop become more popular than hard rock, and punk rock more popular than pop, Swatch would produce different watches to meet the ‘cultural’/social needs of its clients, making the past series rare and thus collectible. At present swatch turned to the modern technology and the internet as well as high-end clients in an attempt to further increase its market share in other market niches. Bibliography: Alavi, M. and Leidner, D.E. Knowledge Management Systems: Emerging Views and Practices from the Field. 32nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, IEEE Computer Society. 1999. Barna, Z. Knowledge Management: A Critical E-Business Strategic Factor. Unpublished Masters Thesis, San Diego State University. 2003. Davenport, T.H., DeLong, D.W., and Beers, M.C. Successful Knowledge Management Projects. Sloan Management Review, 39(2), 1998. Holsapple, C. W., and Joshi, K.D. An Investigation of Factors that Influence the Management of Knowledge in Organizations. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 9, 2000. Koskinen, K.U. Tacit Knowledge as a Promoter of Success in Technology Firms. 34th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, IEEE Computer Society. 2001. Neufeld, W. P. Environmental scanning: Its use in forecasting emerging trends and issues in organizations. Futures Research Quarterly, 1(3), 1985. Kouzes, James, The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Editi on, Prentice Hall. 2000. Rumizen, Clemmons, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Knowledge Management, NY Random House, 2002. At EssayLib.com writing service you can order a custom research paper on Organizational Behavior and Entrepreneurship topics. Your research paper will be written from scratch. We hire top-rated Ph.D. and Master’s writers only to provide students with professional research paper assistance at affordable rates. Each customer will get a non-plagiarized paper with timely delivery. Just visit our website and fill in the order form with all research paper details: Enjoy our professional research paper writing service!