HBS Case Study - Amazon.com
Amazon.com Business Model: Amazon started off as an online bookseller and later expanded its product offerings to include music, DVDs, videos, toys electronics, software, videogames, home improvement products etc. The Company purchases products from a network of manufacturers/publishers. For the orders that cannot be fulfilled through inventory, the company has a proprietary software that fulfils orders via electronic interfaces and in some cases forwards the order to special order groups. Features: . Amazon had its own distribution centres to have more control over the distribution system and thus facilitate reliable and timely delivery to its customers. 2. Fulfilment costs represent - operating and staffing the distribution and customer service centres. 3. Operating and staffing costs shown as Marketing and Sales Costs . Prior to reclassification of fulfilment costs as a part of costs of sales instead of Marketing & Selling Expenses, the Income statements of Amazon are as follows: 999 998 997 Net Sales $1639839 $609819 $147787 Cost of sales $1349194 $476155 $118969 Gross Profit $290645 $133664 $28818 Operating expenses: Marketing and Sales $413150 $132654 $40077 Loss after marketing & Sales expenses $ (122505) $1010 $ (11259) Post Reclassification of fulfilment costs as a part of costs of sales instead of Marketing & Selling Expenses; the
explain how each stakeholders or groups influence a business - Which in this case, will be Sainsburys.
Section A, Unit 2 - Influences As you have noticed, stakeholders have interests in the business but they also have influences. In this part of the Unit I will explain how each stakeholders or groups influence a business - Which in this case, will be Sainsbury's. Shareholder Shareholders influence on Sainsbury's would be the actual share prices. This is because the shareholder will want the share price to increase, as they want its "value" to be greater. They can also have some sort of power and influence within Sainsbury's if they posses a large share, which could lead to a take over. Employees Employees have an influence on Sainsbury's, but only to an extent. This is because the employee has a limited amount of influence to Sainsbury's as it is up to the employer. The employer will determine the amount of influence through: * Training that they have received. * Rules and Regulations. * The contract between the employee and the employer. Which include pay and working conditions, fringe benefits like a company car, discounts, and travel/health insurance. * Promotion. * Job security. However, the employee does have the influence which affects the reputation of the business and the quality of the service provided, as if this is not sufficient for the customer, he/she will go some where else. Managers The mangers influence in Sainsbury's is to carry out day to day
Define "The multiplier effect" and explain how it works. Using practical examples of how the east and north London people and firms might benefit from a multiplier effect of the Channel Tunnel terminals.
Economics Homework for Barry . Define sustainable growth and write and explain using examples. Sustainable growth is when countries aren't using up all there non-renewable resources which is good as this can cause problems for the future generations, instead their using their renewable resources which allows future growth to continue. By using up all non- renewable resources it will cause future growth to end, will cause damage to the bio-diversity and may produce unsustainable pollutants, which is very bad for the economy. Sustainable growth is when the economy increases output in a way which allows future output to continue and increase. This can be done by using more of the renewable resources such as paper, glass and aluminium which can be recycled so that it isn't wasted allowing future growth to continue. Also to use less of non-renewable resources such as coal, oil which can not be recycled thereby it cause future growth to end. 2. Define "The multiplier effect" and explain how it works. Using practical examples of how the east and north London people and firms might benefit from a multiplier effect of the Channel Tunnel terminals. The multiplier effect is when changes in expenditure to the economy produces a more extensive output upon total economic activity, allowing expenditure to continue feeding the economy. This is usually done from investment expenditure,
Functional Areas within a business:- examples form CarPhone Warehouse and Meningitis charity.
Functional Areas within a business:- Functional areas are different departments of a business. Every business either it is a small small business or big business like a Coke Company or Mobile Company it needs functional areas. Because functional areas are different departments of a business to help the business to run or to develop their business from low position to high position. In short only one person cannot control the whole business every business needs Functional Areas for different functions. Some of the Functional areas are given below. Finance: This department of a business spends money on Capital Resources like Computers, Machineries and other goods which a company needs. They are in charge of every missing stock in the business. And mostly in charge of money coming in and going out of a business. They pay wages and salaries to their Employees and they also prepare accounts and gives information of all the cash flow of a business. Administration: This department keeps records of a business, they answer phones or making calls to the other departments, they open type of letters and E-mails etc and writhe E-mails and use to forward it to customers .Sectary's make sure the business in operating efficiently. Human Resources: This department of a business look after the employees, which means they can fire any employer from their business and can hire an
How is National Income derived? What is the GDP? What information does it give us about a nation? What is per capita income? If you wanted to know about the economy of a country, which would you consider more important, and why? (25 points)
How is National Income derived? What is the GDP? What information does it give us about a nation? What is per capita income? If you wanted to know about the economy of a country, which would you consider more important, and why? (25 points) National Income is derived through the overall income earned by a country's people, including labor and capital investment. Gross domestic product is the sum of gross value added by all resident producers in the economy plus any product taxes and minus any subsidies not included in the value of the products. It measures output generated through production by labor and property which is physically located within the confines of a country. The following excerpts are definitions of National Income and GNPas listed on this website http://members.shaw.ca/h-chartrand/Macro%20+%202.0.htm "National income is the sum of all factor earnings from production of current goods and services. Factor earnings are incomes of factors of production: land (rent), labor (salaries & wages), and capital (interest and investment income)..." "Gross domestic product (GDP) is the sum of all currently produced final goods and services sold at market prices. "At market prices" is the way GDP can measure, in a single number, the production of apples plus oranges plus railroad cars plus all of the millions of other goods and services produced in a major economy.
Marketing mix and segmentation of Sony.
MARKETING MIX AND SEGMENTATION OF SONY In marketing two of the most important things are the marketing segmentation and the marketing- mix. Even if you come up with a "gee-whiz" product, if you do not use the right marketing ingredients the result can be devastating. Nowadays, Sony is the one of the most successfully growing electronic companies in the world but it cannot be attributed just to the technology and the innovation. Sony's marketing segmentation consists of four different lines: electronics (camera, computer, camcorder, TV, Walkman, MP3 players), Sony Music and Sony Pictures, digital entertainment (Play Station) and mobile phone (SonyEricsson). One of the biggest steps in Sony's life was when the Sony Computer Entertainment sector was set up with the Play Station 1 (PS1) concept, and later developed with the Play Station 2 (PS2) concept. By the mid-1990s, the whole company was in a deep funk. Its profits had sunk from a high of $1,3 billion in 1992 to a loss of $3,3 billion in 1995. The solution was the Play Station division in 1993. Less than 5-years later, the Play station business had grown to achieve an incredible 40% of Sony's $3 billion in operating profits and nowadays, it brings nearly half of the company's profits and Sony owns the biggest share from this market in the world. So how was this success compromised? Task 1 SEGMENTATION Sony
"Discuss the likely impact on the UK economic performance of government policies designed to make income more evenly spread"
Economics Essay Part II "Discuss the likely impact on the UK economic performance of government policies designed to make income more evenly spread" The UK government redistributes income because it believes that this will increase economic welfare. Market failure occurs when there is not full efficiency, and an uneven distribution is unlikely to be efficient. An example of how government policy can affect economic performance is with the law of diminishing marginal utility. This states that "for an individual, the satisfaction derived from consuming an extra unit of a good falls the greater the consumption of a good". This suggests that taking resources (i.e. Through taxation) from an affluent individual to give to a poor person will lead to an increase in the combined utility of the two individuals. For example, an extra £10 to a poor family will mean more than an extra £10 to a millionaire. Government expenditure can be used to alter the distribution of income, making particular use of the law of diminishing marginal utility. One way is for the government to provide monetary benefits to those requiring financial assistance. Another important area of government activity is the provision of goods and services, which aims to give citizens equality of opportunity on society. While this does help to reduce inequality, classical economists would argue that this reduces
Organisational structure + job roles
Organisational structure + job roles Why organisations need some type of structure? All organisations need some type of structure to operate productively. Even a small firm will have specific job roles for the staff, so there may be a general manager, along with technical experts and others responsible for sales and accounts. An Organisational structure shows all the different job roles and it also shows who is responsible for who (chain of command). Organisational structure shows the span of control. Span of control means how many people a person is responsible for. It lets all employees know who their line manager is - businesses need to know this in order to operate efficiently. Organisational structures are usually shown on an Organisational chart. There are 3 main types of structure: . Flat structure This is an example of flat Organisational structure. A flat structure usually has 2 or 3 levels and the chain command is frequently short in a flat structure. The advantages of a flat structure are highlighted below: * Easy to make decision * Communication is easier * Owner or manager has greater control over the staff * Owner or manager will know what is happening on the shop floor * Staff tend to have more independence and job flexibility We usually see a flat structure in smaller organisations with few employees. 2. Hierarchical structure This is an example
Supermarkets compared - Pricing Low to high pricing Quality of the product and customer service. Availability 24 hours a day, easy to get, in stock Market segmentation
Task D External influences are things that a business has to react to. These could be drops in share prices, prices going up for oil etc; the main areas of influence are competitors, Political/Legal/Economics and Environmental/ Social. If competitors make their prices lower but still offer the same quality then its competitors have to react to this change and lower the prices as well and try to still give good quality. If a competitor opened more shops then the other business may have to open more stores in order to stop from loosing its customers. If people consume more products are being made then the shop will loose out on sales and customers. If a company does something wrong then they may be taken to court this would be bad advertisement and they would want to keep it out of the public eye. If socially people stopped shopping and instead they started driving more then the business would have to adapt to this new fashion to keep money coming in. If suddenly it changed back to clothes they would have to adapt back to clothes. If people became more eco-friendly then the business would have to become eco-friendly so as to keep it's customers happy and keep them coming in. All of those affect other businesses by trying to increase market share. The areas this affect are: Pricing - Low to high pricing Quality - of the product and customer service. Availability - 24
In this piece of coursework I will talk about the activities that Jaguar Cars currently has in place so that they achieve their aims and objectives.
Activities at Jaguar There are many activities that jaguar can undertake to insure that they meet their aims and objectives. Activities are specific things that jaguar are doing and can do so they meet their aims and objectives a lot quicker. In this piece of coursework I will talk about the activities that jaguar currently has in place so that they achieve their aims and objectives. The first aim that jaguar has it so meet production targets. There are many ways in which jaguar can ensure that they meet this aim. The first thing that they can do is to continuously update their lantern board. The lantern board is where all the information about the cars to produce is put up and the targets for the day are put up. There are many advantages for this. The first advantage that this has is that it makes the employee's job easier as it shows them what they need to achieve by the end of the day, by doing this it means that the production line will be continuous because all the employees will be doing the jobs that is required of them. If the production line is continuous it will lead to customer satisfaction as they will be getting their cars on time. The second advantage of having the lantern board up is that it keeps the employees motivated, the way in which it keeps them motivated is because it shows them a clear list of what they need to do, and this will make them
