Monsanto Company

Monsanto Company is a multinational and a public corporation in the agrochemical industry. The company produces seeds and supplies them to farmers for planting. Monsanto operates as a monopolistic company in the seed market. It supplies about 80% of all the corn seeds that are grown in the United States(Acquaye & Traxler 1). In fact, Monsanto produces terminator seeds whose harvest is unfertile. This implies that farmers will have to buy the sterilized seeds during each planting season.

Just like most monopolistic markets, Monsanto makes a lot of decisions without engaging in strategic behavior. Decisions made for instance in pricing, quality production and distribution are all in the hands of the monopoly (Filomeno 34). For instance, Monsanto produces and supplies genetically modified seeds to most farmers in the United States. Those that seek alternative seeds from the neighboring farms are harassed mercilessly because of the dominance of the Monsanto Company.

Monopolies also tend to have higher barriers of entry such that venturing into the industry is very hard. Since Monsanto dominated the seed market, no venture has survived in competing with it. In fact, Monsanto cracks down anyone who attempts to use the GMO seeds they produce (Filomeno 40). In addition, Monsanto sets the prices based on its own evaluation. It does not need to consider what other firms have set theirs because the industry is monopolistic.

The Monsanto Company uses the price discrimination strategy in the seed market to maximize their profits. Based on a laws and intellectual property rights, monopolies such as Monsanto have been allowed to sell their products at a price that is higher than the marginal cost (Filomeno 41). As a monopoly in cotton supply, Monsanto’s marginal profits have been analyzed and presented in the graph below.

Work Cited

Acquaye, Albert K.A., & Traxler, Greg. Monopoly Power, Price Discrimination, and Access to Biotechnology Innovations. The journal of Agrobiotechnology Management and Economics. AgBioForum.  Retrived from: http://www.agbioforum.org/v8n23/v8n23a09-acquaye.htm

Top of Form

Filomeno, Felipe A. Monsanto and Intellectual Property in South America. , 2014. Internet resource.

Bottom of Form

Managing risk exposure

Section I

Klann Corp is a manufacturing company is an international company headquartered in United States and with its presence globally. The firm is a multinational doing business in many countries including South Korea.  The firm has its operations in South Korea, where it faces a risk of currency volatility due to the influence of changes in exchange rates on its profitability and operations. The  transactions exposure risks faced by the firm results from the impact of  fluctuations  of exchange rates on the obligations of the firm  to receive  payments or cash flows in future which are denominated in  Won. , South Korean currency. These exposures include transactional exposure, economic exposure and transaction exposure.  This study aims at exploring the firm’s risks of foreign exchange exposure, forecasting the 3 months exchange rate and deciding on transaction exposure hedging for such cash flows.  The overall aim is coming up with recommendation on risk exposure management.   The exchange rate between U.S dollar and South Korean Won is determined by the demand and supply in the market, which depicts a free- floating exchange rate system. This fluctuation in the rate limits the ability of the firm to minimize or prevent negative effects of any quick changes.

Section II

South Korea is squeezed between giant economies that include Russia, Japan and China which presents various potential benefits and challenges to its economic growth. It has been experiencing an economic resilience since the 2008-2009 financial crises and it is poised at critical juncture economically. It has a relatively well-maintained micro and macroeconomic stability which is also open to global commerce even though the economy has been declining. The growth momentum has been subdued by lack of decisive reforms on policy aimed at improving flexibility and overall efficiency (CIA, n.d).   There is a bit of political uncertainty and instability ongoing which has made it hard to have meaningful economic reform.  The framework for competitive regulatory enhances innovation and entrepreneurial activity, while rules for business operations are relatively efficient.  The economy has a dynamic labor market even though there is some observable regulatory inflexibility and strong trade unions increase the cost of doing business.  There have been concerted efforts by the country’s Financial Services Commission to introduce reforms in the financial sector in order to promote innovation and competition.  Merchandise exports have enabled the financial sector to continue with its growth with the Bank of Korea forecasting a 2.6 percent growth in GDP (Jong-yong, 2016).  

The country’s interest rates have remained at around 1.8 % over three month period with a forecast inflation rate of 2.4 %.  The country’s stock market is dominated by many family run multinationals which are financially complex and which have been the centre of its rise to global stage.  The government has been introducing new laws and and regulations on the operations of these firms so as to hold owners accountable and improve transparency of these corporations.  Despite the volatility in the current political environment in the currently, there are few political risks emerging from internal governance and any such risks should be expected to come from outside.   The country is a fair good democracy that is well-functioning and such minimal risks is seen in the aforementioned economic resilience in the midst of any political instability.  This analysis presents the various risks in the environment that may influence the fluctuations of exchange rate, in addition to external factors such change in oil prices.

The above data analysis shows the volatility of the currency due to fluctuations in the exchange rates between the dollar and South Korean Won. The cash flow of the firm from operations in South Korea is bound to be influenced by the varying exchange rates for the currency thereby exposing it to the risk of depreciation. Depreciation of Won against dollar indicates that the Klann Corp. will experience reduced profits ones converted to dollar.

Section III

The forecasting of currency using the Purchasing Power Parity is the best option since the method allows for identical commodities in different countries to have identical prices. This is after taking into consideration the exchange rate, which will change in thereby offsetting price changes arising from inflation. The exchange rate as at March 1, 2017 is 0.000883 KW/USD and inflation at 2.4 %, then

= (1 + 0.024) x ($0.0008 per Wan1) = 0.000819 US dollar per KW.

This indicates the lowest value the South Korean currency could reach in a period of three months.

Section IV

The firm is faced with both the transactional exposure and economic exposure. The risk of transaction exposure faced by this firm arises from the dollar / Won exchange rates fluctuations , which is can changes since the firm has already entered into financial obligations and may cause loses . The company is also faced with economic exposure risk due to any impact of unforeseen Won fluctuations on the cash flows in future. The current cash outflow is 24,356,844 KW which translates to $ 21284.96 US dollar. The firm is involved in custom agreement on forward rates for fixing exchange rate for any transactions in future.  The hedging of the currency risks exposed to the firm can be done through exposure netting whose aim is to reduce the vulnerability of the company to fluctuations in exchange rates.

Reference

CIA,(n.d). The World Fact book. South Korea. Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html

Exchange Rate Data and Information: https://www.oanda.com/fx-for-business/historical-rates

Jong-yong, Y., (2016).South Korea’s Financial Revolution. Retrieved from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/south-koreas-financial-revolution-1464281959

Appendix

Dawson Lumber Company Limited

Memo

To:

From

Date:

Subject: NBC is obligated with the decision of reviewing Dawson Lumber limited’s request for acquiring a loan increase in its line of credit for up to 10.8M dollars.

Recommendations: With the fact that Dawson Lumber limited is one of the highest borrowers from the bank, the bank is required to be highly careful with the   management of the associations.

            Dawson company  holds the intention  to the  inventory  financing  as well as  receivables  after  the expansion of their credit  line  by the bank (Humphrey & Pliniussen, 1999).  NBC as the financing  institution  is expected  to  be  cognizant  in regard  to the competitive scope  of the  company’s industry  and  make some evaluations  on the  general retail  scope  to establish  its general benefits  to the strategic plan  held  by Dawson’s. the  relationship  amid  the  two institutions  should be upheld while developing  any  specific  decision  because  the company  is  of much essence to the bank  with the provision  that  it is  amongst the highest  borrowers.  The  bank   in this  situation  cannot  be effective  in  turning down the corporation  but  adequate  assessment  must  be  conducted.  However,  even in the  circumstance the  extension  of  the credit line for  Dawson limited  by the  bank  may lead to a  rise  in the  default  risk  of  the  corporation  thus  affecting  the  capability of NBC in retrieving  the 4.2 dollars  loan which is  owed already.

            Short -term

            Dawson should be consulted for more information on its need for a higher credit.  This is to acquire whether the decision and the interest can be sustained by the bank. This should be followed by an analysis of the corporation’s performance in the interest.  This plan is aimed at ensuring that the reputation of NBC is not affected based on an internal inability to offer services to other borrowers.  Re-evaluation should be conducted on its economic gains and economic opportunities in the market to ensure that there is a guarantee for the repayment.

Long-term

The borrowing and the repayment policies should be re- defined to ensure that there is clarify and increased understanding without affecting the company’s ability to communicate, develop and make decisions in regard to financial expenditure.  The company should also be allowed to implement or develop the current positioning in the industry for increased gains to assure  the bank of its worthiness.

Control and feedback

The bank should for certain period observe the economic response of the corporation.  The success of its economic ventures will be utilized as guarantees for  its ability to  repay the acquired loan  and maintain a suitable reputation.  The structural organization and positioning of the company in the market should also be reviewed.  This will help in the design and implementation of suitable approaches  that will  be essential to the corporation  in increasing its  revenue and capability to  sustain and improve its credit line.

Contingency plan

If Dawson Lumber is not well positioned in the market NBC should not eliminate it given its benefits.  NBC should provide a lower loan or a particular one with some changes in its payment policies to ensure that the banks potential to operate is not affected by financial shortages.  If the corporation disagrees with the developed strategy then a negotiation should take place to settle for a common ground amid the two without affecting any party’s interests and economic objectives.  This may include reducing the repayment period which will facilitate the financial source for the company.

Executive Summary

Situation Overview

Dawson limited was established in 1870’s and its private state has been retained since.  The sales of the corporation have grown in the last three or so years which is pressuring the company in the manner in which it funds its working capital (Humphrey & Pliniussen, 1999).  The situation is fueled by the characterization of seasonal sales which is the norm of the constructing sector.  Back in 1998 September, the corporation undertook a forward integrating approach into the retail sector with an expansion of the hardware sector which acted as a form of stabilization of the present operations.

Problem statement

Assessment of the credit line expansion request by Dawson limited to the retention of a valuable association amid NBC and Dawson limited.

Recommendations /Implementations

Dawson company limited is holds a good reputation and highly beneficial to NBC.  The lumber industry in Canada is, however, unattractive at times.  This is based on the anticipated increased  supply,  high  rate of competition, increased bargaining power  for purchases  which weights  down the  products  prices while  increasing  the  general  cost of operation thus affecting  profitability. With the development of  the  smaller  and medium  producers of lumber  which are  highly involved in the  competition of differentiated  products,  the  market  can be categorized  as a flooded  one.  The  association  of the above stated  factors , as well as the  low  industrial growth,  recently  has  resulted  to the  highest  rivalry  degree  among firms  which  has  thus  set  lumbers  for lower  prices.  While the firms are competing to lower the prices to get a higher consumer share purchasers benefit the most.

The  negotiation authority  has  further  been  fueled  by  holding the highest information  gain with the  presence  of lowered  power  of switching  the existing costs.  The industry is run  with  strict  governmental policies  which  enhances the general authority held by  buyers  thus creating increased  rivalry  in the sector.  Moreover,  based on the starting  high  investment  that was  made  on fixed  assets  and the high expertise  that the sector requires  it is  hard for the  corporations  to leave  the sector  which  intensifies  the competition presence. The retail industry  is additionally  characterized  by  its  own flaws since  the  rate of differentiation is still low   where  the competing  firms  are high in numbers. The market is characterized with high sensitivity for prices which necessitates Dawson to be well positioned.

Dawson limited’s request in growing the existing credit line is one that requires further evaluations based on the matter’s sensitivity.  The bank understands that the expansion of the company into the retail sector presents a high development opportunity. This will additionally be essential in gaining stability and diverting from the seasonal lumber sector which affects its general sales as well as production.  However,  there is justification  that  Dawson limited  is  ignoring  to make a consideration  on  the  transforming  competitive scope  in the market.  An anticipated lumber prices reduction would make the suggestion in the anticipated further sales of lumber.  In addition  Dawson  retail market  is  subjected  from high  competition threat  from established  corporations  which may  affect its selling as well as  profit  gaps.

NBC is required to examine the industry from both sector’s perspective.  The  anticipation  of capital  spending that  is  made  by the corporation  can be considered to be  lower  given the  general  average  that  exists  in both  sectors.  This  shows that  at  last  the corporation  will be  defeated by the competitors  based on the  fact that the manufacturing and the retailing  industries  requires  high  levels of investment  for Dawson  corporation  to be  able to sustain  its  competitive  position  and the associated  gains.

The  main  concern of NBC  should be  grounded  on the anticipations of Dawson to increase  its  inventories which are  already  high  as  compared to those  owned by  competitors.  This will require more period for the corporation to be able to repay the funds.  While  the  corporation  views the  objective of  enhancing  quality  services  through  implementation of differentiation  its expansions are exaggerated because  they  affect  the strategic objective of the management  in stabilizing  the  corporation  via  improving  operations  and  inventories.  This strategy  has  proved  to be a worse  path for those  that  have  taken in  the recent  years based  on innovative  and  more  dynamic  strategies that  are  currently  being utilized.

The objective  of the  corporation to  operate  in this path  may lead  to the shortage  of working capital  that  is necessitated  in  offering support  to  operating  assets,  defending  its position and  acquiring an  advantage  of  the existing market  chances  that  are present  in  both sectors.  Financial  and  economic  evaluation  is a high  necessity   for  NBC in making  decisions that  are favorable  to their relations  with the  company.  The company  can additionally  modify  its   existing policies in regard  to working capital  which will support  the  sustainability  of Dawson limited.   This will offer the guarantee that the company will work in acquiring success in both sectors without fail so that the general operation of the bank is not affected.  These strategies will additionally work in saving both of the institutions reputation.

Exhibit Summary

The sustainability  of Dawson  and  protection of the  relation amid NBC and Dawson  can  best  be  acquired  via  working capital  policies  modification and  evaluating  the  economic and  financial surrounding in the  industry.

Exhibit Summary 1: Working Capital Policies Modification

Dawson holds expansion into the retail  market  offers an  opportunity  for further  development  given that  the  construction sector  is characterized  by  seasonality.  The company can best achieve this through acquiring a higher credit from NBC.  Under the  existing  situations  it is  not  worth  the corporation to acquire more  credit   based  on the fact that  it has been leveraged  for about  99 percent despite the  fact that  it needs a back up of both  inventories as  well as receivables  to operate  in both  markets. NBC is required  to  adopt  more advanced  financing  strategies  which will ensure  that  is  capital  flow  path is  not affected. This requires the imposing of fines to creditors who are leveraged more than 99 percent.  this will  imply that the  acquired  credit  if the company  qualifies based on the economic  analysis  should be  paid  on a reduced  time period.

Exhibit 2: Economic Analysis

 The company has been performing well in the recent which makes its economic status good for acquiring a higher credit. However, this will be affecting the potential of the bank to attend to more firms.  The  company  can work  on  developing its  marketing operations  so that the  inventory  sales  period can  be reduced  for  quicker  generation of  finances.  With  the  frequent generations of  funds this implies that  the  necessity  of acquiring  finances will be lowered by increasing the  ability  to repay  debts  easily  and in short  periods.

            Reference

Humphrey, J.A & Pliniussen J.K. (1999). Case 3.1 Dawson Lumber Company Limited. Ivey         Management Services. pdf

Global Issues

Tesco PLC is a British multinational company that deals with grocery as well as general merchandise of retails. Its headquarters are based in Welwyn Garden City. The increasing complex in the nature of jobs at TESCO and the growing competition from the company’s rivals has resulted into a rise of a very important strategy of the human resource personnel so as to offer them with adequate compensation to all their employees. The core issue and challenge that is beuing faced by the TESCO employees is connected to the unpaid overtime to the employees. Around 50,000 employees have not yet being compensated for the overtime. This un-payment of the overtime of the employees has resulted in creation of stress, pressure as well as low drive among the employees (Edwards 2014). The organization has even cut down its costs through termination of some of its employees thus leaving the few employees with the burden of having to work extra hours so as to cover for the work of those employees who have been terminated. However, they are not paid for this extra hours and this has resulted into their poor performance. The company should therefore put in place human resource management so as to be able to retain, compensate and reward highly performing employees. Enough employees should be employed so as to ensure that they are not overworked and they do not work on extra hours as this will bring profit to the business.

            In comparing Australia and United Kingdom, Australia has a higher rating of the Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimension. Employees in these two countries may face the challenge of adjusting to working hours as they maintain time honored traditions and thus they do not believe in societal change (Itim international n.y). Hence any cultural change by the employer may not be adopted well in these countries as they have a low rate of long term orientation.

References

Formosa

Background information/company profile

 Formosa Plastics Corporation is a company which produces petrochemical products and other plastic products. It is located in Taiwan and it was founded in 1954 by Wang Yung-ching. In 2015, the company had higher sales and it was ranked as the fifth largest corporation in the world.  In 2016, it was among the Forbes Global 2000 companies and ranked as No. 861. In Taiwan, the company is well known as the largest corporation which produces high capacity of PVC resin (FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP, 2015).  The company is also located in U.S.A as owned subsidiary. In financial performance, the company has enjoyed high margins and income revenue as a result of cheap petroleum prices.  For example in 2015, the company’s income was US$ 1.5 million and this was an increase compared with 2014 which had US$ 0.3. In management concepts, the company focuses on ‘Diligence and Frugality’, sustainability, society development and ultimate excellence. The corporation has advanced processing in petroleum refining.  It has logistic planning and production models which help the company meet the dynamic changes.  The company also meets the demand of emerging petroleum market through located various trading houses in different areas in the globe (FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP, 2015). In domestic market, the company ensures that all consumers’ ‘demand and preference are met. The management has created flexible marketing policies which boosts sales activities and market share. The policies include enhancing brand image, new customer sources, environmental gas stations and flexible pricing. Vertical integration and utility business are policies which the corporate implement to ensure smooth operation and profit maximization. Due to the high global economic growth, the company will create decision for future development, operation performance and higher achievements (FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP, 2015).

Introduction

Environmental issues in Formosa Corporation have caused tough challenges in Vietnam.  Despite the fact that cheap petroleum prices have caused a  high demand on petroleum products, high profit margin and solid competition in this corporation, various unethical practices have  caused a recession  in the overall production. Though the company has a strong identity system which is tied with powerful development, the company lacks environmental business ethics (DesJardins, 2012). It is important to note that every organization or corporation should value the environmental ethics and understand the human interaction with nature. The corporation should be responsible in protecting the environment in which operations take place.  Furthermore, corporations should understand that lack of environmental ethics will negatively affect the business operation and after all the business may collapse (DesJardins, 2012).  Formosa Company is faced with environmental issues which range from environmental abuse and protection. The company is involved in the damage of natural environmental through discharging waste products thereby harming the ecological system.  The waste has not only affected organism such as fish but also human beings (Ives, 2016).  These are counted as immoral behaviors because the company for many years seems to be indifferent with the environment but rather focuses on a profitable business. The business and the management in general fails to  understand the business ethics which are based on the idea that as human beings they should have the interest, moral obligation  and be responsible in protecting the environment without  following law. Formosa Corporation has caused environmental issues which have affected Vietnam where many fish have died; about 200,000 people have been affected and faced challenges from unfair compensation (Van, 2016). 

Main issues

Marine pollution is among the main issues which Vietnam is facing as a result of Formosa’s unethical behavior.  In the month of May, 2016, Vietnam’s people demonstrated their grievances and accused Taiwanese firm for causing an environmental disaster. In April 6 2016, there were several fish carcasses in Ha Tinh province (Nam, 2016). Later, other carcasses were found in three other provinces in central Vietnam.  Protests expressed their feeling and demanded clean environment and investigation process in 1 May 2016. Hundreds of people argued that the company has brought the worst environmental disaster and caused death of fish in four provinces.  The appalling thing  is that  Formosa  corporation is indifferent with this matter from the evidence that  Formosa spokesman  said that “Vietnam  should  choose whether to catch fish and shrimp or to build a state-of-the-art steel mill”(Nam, 2016). The Vietnam government investigated and found 70 tonnes of dead fish and further investigation showed that Formosa Company had connected a sewage pipe which carried 12,000 cubic meters of waste every day.  This clearly shows that the company has polluted the Vietnam’s ecosystem and affected the health of marine mammals (Ives, 2016). This is a big issue not only to the fishermen but also to the government which is responsible in addressing this issue. The scientific research on ocean environment confirms that human activities have highly affected the ecosystem and marine life through chemical particles in the ocean. As a result, marine mammals are not thriving for long and this not only affects the aquatic life but also the world economy.  In this case, the company pollutes the ocean environment through connected a pipe directly to the ocean. Marine mammals such as fish are highly affected due to lack of oxygen and quality sea water (Ives, 2016). The toxic chemicals also affect the organisms through causing thermal pollution which makes temperature high and organism   are unable to live in high temperature environment. The Vietnam populace is interested in the management of foreign investment, food safety and measures to protect the environment (Ives, 2016). The government is concentrating on creating a civil society which will help in addressing the environmental issues.  

Ethics and economy go hand in hand and in this case environmental ethics has an impact on economic performance. Before affecting the economy, the business which fails to follow environmental ethics faces legal issues. For example, state government creates rules which a business should follow and failure to comply with rules results to large fines and other costly legal battle (DesJardins, 2012).  In addition, failure to follow the rule may affect internal and external environment and as a result the business may face criminal charges. Other point is that the company with unethical behavior loses credibility and this affect the business image (DesJardins, 2012). In terms of economy, Vietnam is counting losses in tourism and fisheries sectors as a result of the environment disaster.  A great impact is felt by central provinces of Vietnam since the environmental disaster which has occurred in the ocean has affected the tourism. In 2015, tourists had booked trips to these four provinces but the trip was canceled due to the disaster. It is important to note that tourism play an important role in economic development and when a country’s environment is unhealthy, economy cannot develop since tourists cannot visit surroundings which are unpleasant and unclean (Van, 2016). When the shores are contaminated, the economy is damaged in that a longer period will be required to restore the environment.

 The toxic disaster has affected the life of 200,000 people in Vietnam. 41,000 are fishermen who rely on fishing in order to sustain their life. According to the Vietnam government, 41,000 fishermen who not only sustain their lives but also sustain the lives of 176,000 people have been highly affected (Van, 2016). The authority also asserted that the fishing activities have reduced following that out of the total number of seafood in monthly basis; the number has decreased by 1,600 tons per month. The unethical issue did not only affect the people’s lives and economy but it also created detestation between people and government. People accuses government  as it failed to   provide measures for protecting public health and it has offered a slow response  on  Formosa  corporation (Clark, 2016). On May 2016, Vietnamese believed the long-anticipated visit of president Obama could save them from the environmental calamity. They petitioned the president and showed their interest in need of appropriate action against corporate wrongdoers. Vietnam’s citizenry wants a strong government which will implement international environmental standards. Government crisis argued that the government uses a long period for investigation and they argue that the incident could have been dealt with if the government took matter seriously from the beginning (Binh, 2016). The protest says that as a result of the late response, the Corporation will take decade in dealing with environmental issues. It is important to note that the environmental disaster is the worst ever and its impact on job and economy is immeasurable. They also blame the government for failing to hold rallies for discussing the incidence on mysterious deaths of fish.  This is one way of showing that the government has a sluggish response (Binh, 2016).

The sluggish response with the government towards solving the environment disaster is brought by foreign investment and corruption. The Vietnam government is facing some challenges which hindered quick response to the environmental issues. There is evidence that the government is corrupt in that during Vietnam’s reforms conduct by national congress, the hot issues were fighting corruption, creating a transparent government and rule of law (Clark, 2016). However, environmental laws for foreign investors were overlooked. This clearly shows that the government ignores environmental laws and this is the issue which makes the populace become angrier with the government.  The ruling party in Vietnam is not serious with government transparency because   the environmental issue is not the only problem that affects the populace in Vietnam. These people face everyday problems such as corruption, police violence among many. Protests voices are not heard particularly when they express their opinions against South China Sea and Chinese actions (Clark, 2016). The violent condition of protests has made the corruption issues with the government to emerge. The populace in eager is see how the government will react not only to the pollution issue but also to the other deeper problems which has affected the Vietnam in many decades.  The awful thing is that the government is reluctant and populace faced unexpected reaction such as arrests and violence from the government. Educated people in Vietnam who have adequate knowledge on global environment tell how the climate will affect Vietnam in future (Binh, 2016). The government itself is aware of the negative impact of climate change which will affect Vietnam and in particle the Mekong regions in future. However, despite the environmental concern, the government views the issue of climate change as an external threat. Vietnam has faced environmental scandals and   people become irritated since the government does not take the matter at hand.  For example in 2008, MSG polluted the environment by pumping untreated water into Thi Vai River over ten years. The company paid low fines and the matter was not disclosed to the public. These environmental issue and more have worsened the environment condition (Binh, 2016).

On June 30, 2016, the company admitted and agreed to take the responsibility and to compensate for disaster. The company also disclosed the information and said that there was a sewage pipe which imported 300tins of chemicals to the ocean. It apologized and agreed to compensate with $500 million (France-Presse, 2016). The compensation would help the local people recover from economic losses and get new employment. The compensation was also provided to help the four affected central provinces recover from the marine environment. To avoid corruption, Truong Hoa Binh, who is the deputy prime minister asked the government to approve corporation planning and follow standards and regulation when corruption arises (France-Presse, 2016). The deputy also urged the national institutions and all parties to implement law enforcement in order to deal with similar cases effectively.  He said that the compensation money $500 million should be distributed equally to the affect people so that all people can restore their normal lives (Hoia Nguyen, 2016). The issue of corruption is still in Vietnam following that on Oct 2, 2012, 1,000 people from North central province petitioned the local government for unfair compensation.  They argued that the government has provided small amount of compensation which failed to cover the total losses occurred (Nguyen & Pham, 2016). Despite the fact that corporation released the money, the local government showed slow pace in releasing the payouts.  The corporate said it will cover 200,000 people who submitted their complaints to local authorities. However, villagers complained that some people were denied compensation and the government said they were not eligible.  They also expressed their complaints and said the governments concealed some money and for that reason, Formosa should take the responsibility (Nguyen & Pham, 2016).

The environmental disaster in Vietnam introduced the issue of corruption with the government. The issue of corruption was made apparent when the civil society expressed their anger not only because of the compensation for environmental disaster but also for other governmental problems (Pike, 2016). The problem with the government is that it failed to implement anti-corruption law and this becomes a challenge to the public. Focusing on global corruption trend which was analyzed on July 2013, a high population of Vietnamese said that corruption is at a higher level.  According to a report from the Transparency International, there is a higher level of corruption in Vietnam, compared with other nations like Asia. The survey showed that 55% of people from Vietnam said that the corruption is high and 48% in Southeast Asia said the corruption is low (Pike, 2016).  In 2013, the Global corruption Barometer in Vietnam showed that populace in Vietnam does not trust the government in eliminating corruption. Several surveys in Vietnam have confirmed that corruption is a major problem in Vietnam and the areas affected by corruption are law enforcement, Property Township and public health (France-Presse, 2016). Other important point to note is that the corruption is at a higher level because the government lacks transparency and accountability. Many corruption opportunities are among the governmental agencies and this is brought by the fact that bureaucratic procedures are overlapped hence creates confusion. The Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced that under his leadership, there will be a new anti-corruption agency in order to end various corruption scandals (France-Presse, 2016). Since 2005 when the Anti-Corruption Law was implementing, corruption has remained to be a problems following that the government is has not shown accountability in implementation and enforcement. Despite the fact that various agencies such as the Steering Committee, Government Inspectorate and other have been assigned the duties to end corruption, corruption cases are still prosecuted. According the survey from USAID’s VNCI Project, paying commissions and petty corruption is viewed by the Vietnam government as a common business operation (Pike, 2016). The Anti-corruption law states that public official who practices corruption should receive criminal penalties. However, the government neglects the law and fails to effectively implement the law. Despite the fact that the government enforces the law and recommends the involved agencies to restructure the inspection measures and publicize officials’ corruption, corruption is a major concern (Pike, 2016). Vietnam citizens have the right to express to their concern and admit complaints when they notice failure with the government. However, the main problem is that when the citizens publicize the inefficient government, the government views the complaints as political criticism. Perpetrators are abused and arrested and their demonstration is regarded as an act against the law (Pike, 2016).

Conclusion

Formosa Corporation is a company which has developed given that in Taiwan, it is ranked as the largest private corporation. However, the company has one major challenge which has not only affected its overall operations but also the Vietnam. The literature review on environmental ethics above explains that for a company to have a sustainable development there must be environmental ethics. However, lack of environmental ethics results to environmental damage.  When the environment is damaged, people, organism and economy are affected. In this case, Formosa Corporation caused a big challenge in Vietnam. The corporation polluted the environment by directly connecting a pipe to the Vietnam Ocean. Not only fish were affected, but also people and economy. A higher percentage of people in Vietnam rely on fishing to sustain their life. Due to environmental damage, people were left jobless and the economy declined in areas of Tourism.The Corporation did an important thing because it decided to offer compensation for the environmental disaster. It agreed to pay $500 million to cover the 200,000 people who were directly and indirectly affected.  However, the issue of compensation raised the corruption problems where the affected people blamed the government for unfair compensation.   The government was also blamed for the lack of transparency and slow response toward the environmental disaster. The sentiment from the villagers disclosed the corruption practices with the government. The essay concludes that even though the corporate had unethical environmental practices, the Vietnam government is weak since it has failed to implement and enforce Anti-corruption law which would solve corruption scandal which Vietnam has faced for various decades. Corruption is a major problem in Vietnam and the only way to deal with it is through   implementing and enforcing the Anti-corruption law. The law together with enforcement action will help the government in preventing and detecting misconduct.

Reference

Ives Mike. (2016). “Outrage Over Fish Kill in Vietnam Simmers 6 Months Later”. The New York

Times 2017.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/04/world/asia/formosa-vietnam-fish.html?_r=0

Nam Chi. (2016). “Vietnam blames toxic waste water from steel plant for mass fish deaths”.

theguardian 2016

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/01/vietnam-blames-toxic-waste-water-fom-steel-plant-for-mass-fish-deaths

Business memorandum

Memo introduction

            We represent the Greene’s Jewelry firm. The Greene jewelry firm has filed a breach of contract against one of their former employees Jennifer. She also have countersued for a wrongful termination. The facts of the case are that according to the code of ethics among all the executives in the Greene’s jewelry firm, they must sign a covenant vowing not to compete with the company and also to conform to the confidentiality agreement. Jennifer as one of the executives in this company, she had signed an agreement indicating that she agrees to never share any confidential information that she may get from the Greene’s company in regards to the process that they use in creating the ever-Gold brand of the company. On the other hand, Jennifer’s termination was unreasonable and therefore wrongful. Her dismissal was abrupt with no written letter giving her an earlier warning that she was to be dismissed. She had done nothing wrong apart from the 15-30 minutes late arrivals at work. However, there is no incidence that shows that she had been given a chance by the company to explain herself or to be given a warning for her lateness. She is one of the best and expresses professionalism in her work. Therefore, her termination was not right at all as the right considerations were not made as evidenced by the fact that following her condition she needed more time off but the moment she went to ask for permission she was terminated rather than being given the time off.  

            Green’s breach of contract case is strong because, Jennifer had agreed to sign in the document to keep the company’s confidential information a secret. However, as she shared the information with the Howell jewelry firm, she breached her contract of confidentiality with the Green’s jewelry firm. This therefore makes the case a strong one for the Green firm who are suing Jennifer.  She also breached that contract by competing with the firm through sharing the information with Howell’s company who are Green’s competitors. Thus, as she disclosed the information and as she was employed by Howell jewelry firm, she became a Green’s competitor and thus breaching her contract which she agreed to not compete with the Green’s jewelry firm.

            Jennifer’s case on wrongful termination is strong since she was employed for more than two years by the Green’s jewelry firm and hence she was eligible to make a claim of wrongful dismissal. The jewelry firm failed to give her a written letter showing the core reasons as to why they dismissed her and it should have been given to her prior the dismissal so as to show that the decision to dismiss her was not abrupt or that the firm was hiding anything.  In regards to all the facts of the issue, the firm dismissed her unjustly and unreasonably and this makes Jennifer’s case strong against her employer (Adams et al 2015). Even if her dismissal would have been based on misconduct through her late arrivals, she still performed well and thus she should have been given a warning and later that’s when the firm should have considered making disciplinary measures and to a larger extent a dismissal would have been given in the right procedure for employment termination. In this case, all this was not offered to Jennifer and thus, she has the right to be protected by the employment act following the wrongful termination. Her case therefore is strong.

References

            Adams, T., Neslund, N., Zucker, K. & Neslund, K. (2015). Law, Business, And Society. New York. NY: McGraw-Hill Education. 231-248

BP Oil Company

            Bp Oil Company is a multinational corporation that supplies energy goods as well as services across the world. The company’s is divided into two streams where the upstream segment is responsibility is to explore natural gas as well as oil, field improvement and production. However the downstream segment is involved with the refining of this extracted natural gas and oil and marketing of these fuels, lubricants and also the petrochemicals (Azaria 2014). This paper therefore will discuss on the historical background of the BP Company, the industry in which it operates, the market that they are traded on and the public initial offering that the company offers.

            The company was established in 1909 where it was formerly known as the Anglo Persian oil company but later in 1935 it was changed into being called the Burmah oil company as it exploited oil in Iran. However, in 1954, the company was named the British Petroleum with the discovery of oil in Persia following a search that had taken so long. Its headquarters are located in London, England. Following the market capitalization, the company is believed to be in the sixth position in the energy industry worldwide. The company has made large profit margins over the years following the Western society’s adoption to the use of petroleum burning vehicles and this enlightened by  the petroleum power industry (Azaria 2014). The company currently operates in about eighty nations and is the largest oil and gas producers globally. In history the company has faced challenges with major environmental occurrences and especially the one that occurred in Texas that posed a serious negative public image to the company (Mejri et al 2013). However to curb this problem the company has tried to adopt many new and core branding techniques. The company has also taken the appropriate steps to address the opportunity of improving the consumer perception about their brands through improving on their employment practices all through their supply chain.

            The current world wide economy is depressed and thus is facing a great recession. However, the Bp Company has better placed itself in the market and this has seen the company grow to even greater heights in the market. There was a drop in the oil prices following the rampant supply as well as weak worldwide demand along with the concerns of the slow economic growth globally and especially in China. The company’s activities touch on the UK’s economy while the operations impacts positively on many thousand smaller firms that do play a significant role in the UK’s economy and wealth creation. Economic stability of most of the developed nations creates a favorable opportunity for the company to and its operations. The BP’s company economy contribution has remained constant over the years despite the fact that the company and other businesses have been affected by the decline in the fuel prices. The company thus offers job opportunity, contributes to the national output, and supports investments as well as communities. However the current crises facing this industry are the fact that oil is an exhaustible resource that will eventually be depleted. Thus with this kind of its nature, the oil price is expected to continue increasing over time (Dale 2015).

            The marketing and sales team in the company is integrated with the rest of the company so as to maximize on their values and energy outputs. The company has maintained its success in trading as they are flexible in their operations and usually ensures that their products are reliable across the world. The company also offers heir consumers with access to renewable energy goods such as biogas production and supply. The company thus has adopted the system of hedging of their products and risk management services thus promote a log duration economic growth.

            It is thus very important to note that Bp Company is one of the publicly traded companies and an international company that have contributed so much into the economy worldwide. Its leading position worldwide has been attributed by its ability to maximally utilize all the external factors within its competing world and hence its success. The oil and gas industry landscape is changing and is essentially being reshaped through the emergence trend such as climate chnge as well as a powerful campaign against the co2 emission. However, with the current events and threats in the world, the company should strategies on the effective way to address all these threats that have been realized in the legal dimension its environment. With this the company will be constant in their leadership position.

References

Dale, S. (2015, October). New economics of oil. In Society of Business Economists Annual Conference. London (Vol. 19).

Mejri, M., & De Wolf, D. (2013). Crisis management: lessons learnt from the BP Deepwater Horizon spill oil. Business Management and Strategy, 4(2), 67.

Azaria, A. (2014). The Relationship between Environmental Performance and Socially Responsible Investing in the Oil and Gas Industry : Does environmental performance have an effect on investors' investment decisions?.

Financial Statements

Best Buy net income for the 2015 financial year is $ 897 million. This is a decline in net income as compared to the previous 2014 financial year which where net income stood at $ 1.25 Billion. This is indicated in the difference in quarterly net income which was $194 million in 2016 fourth quarter while the 2015 fourth quarter net income was $ 198 million (Best Buy, 2016).  The changes in net income are of great concern to investors, since it assists them in determining how the company is fairing and whether they should continue their interest in such an investment. These changes influence the assessment of the company by investors, and a decline in profit would make some to invest if the trend of the changes is favorable. 

The company's end balance in shareholders' equity is $ 4.3 Billion for the financial year ended in September 2016. The labor unions are interested in the shareholder's equity due to their concern for their members (Best Buy, 2016). They shareholders equity play a big role in the collective bargaining agreement which allows the both employers and employees arrive at an agreement that will see the reduction of shareholders dividends and a rise in employee benefits and salaries. If the balance in shareholders' equity is considerably big, the labor unions may suggest that a firm is highly profitable and thus there are enough amounts of funds to cover the increase of member's benefits or even salaries. Best Buy's total value of assets for 2016 financial Year is $ 13.5 Billion, which represents carrying amount as per the date of the balance sheet for all assets that have been recognized (Best Buy, 2016). These assets present the probable future economic benefits under the control of the entity due to past events or transactions.  The value of total assets is relevant to potential creditors since they want to assess whether a firm has sufficient assets to offer financial stability. This is true when a firm interested on credits or loans for expansion or launching other business ventures want to take other debt obligations. Assets provide a firm with a means of keeping up with debt during uncertainty or volatility in business profit. The creditor is concerned that a company has valuable assets that can be converted to cash for down payment of debts when it becomes necessary.  In addition, a creditor will have vested interest in the total value of assets when a company applies for a secured loan, which has to be secured with a property. In this regard, the firm will have an interest in that it acquires the right to possess the asset if the loan obligations are not met.

For the Best Buy cash flow statements, the changes in both operating assets and liabilities were $ 1.11 B while the cash flow from the operating activities was $ 2.63Billion. The cash used up in various investment activities is $ 598M, and cash used in financing activities is $727 million (Best Buy, 2016). The cash flow from operating activities includes all the net cash used in company's activity that is inclusive of discontinued operations. These involve the transactions, adjustments and any changes in value defined in terms of financial or investing activities.

The main users of financial statements comprise of both the internal and external users. The internal users comprise of those individuals with a direct bearing with the company and include the shareholders, managers, and the employees. The shareholders and managers use the financial statements in making business decisions while the employees use need the reports to make bargaining agreements.  The main external users of the financial statements include the institutional investors, financial institutions and the government for the purpose of taxation (Brigham & Daves, 2014).  Financial statements are very useful in management since they have used in the assessment the performance of a company and in making decision that will steer the business in the right direction. The financial statements are normally audited to present an accurate picture of a company over a curtained period. As a manager, I would evaluate the data represented in the financial statements and make operating decisions on how to create maximum value for the shareholders (Brigham & Daves, 2014).

References

Best Buy,(2016).Financial Releases. Retrieved from: http://investors.bestbuy.com/investor-relations/news-and-events/financial-releases/2016/default.aspx

Brigham, E.F., Daves, P., R., (2014).Intermediate Financial Management. Cengage Learning.347-348

Panera Bread

1. How have and will the macroeconomic affect this company? if so, how?

Macroeconomic has affected the company negatively in the sense that the cost of operation has risen thus making the company to realize less profits. The company’s total revenue grew by 1.6%, thus it needs to be able to manage its costs very effectively thus being able to gain high operating margins. Food inflation is one of the major problems that the country is facing, and needs to control it in order to be able to gain profits (Adam, n.p). Food sales increased by 0.66% to 29.86%, which was mainly caused by dairy and butter. This consequently affected restaurants, and they therefore had to increase their menu prices in order to be able to cover on the increase of the prices. Labor costs also increased by 1.15% to 31.11%,  thus making the profit margins to drop hence making hard for the company to be able to realize huge profits.

2. What is this company (Panera Bread)'s fundamental strategy and are they maximizing shareholder value?

The fundamental strategy of Panera bread is allowing the customers to decide whatever they want. Indulging the customers to participate in helping the company to come up with the product that they want, helps in building the relationship between the company and the customers (Adam, n.p). This therefore allows the company to be able to prepare what the customers want, thus being able to stick to the company. Moreover, the company also maximizes shareholder values through providing foods which are of a high quality thus enabling the company to receive good reviews from the customers thus raising the shareholder value in the company.

Work Cited

Adam, J. Panera Bread’s EPS Declined, But Revenue Increased in 4Q14: Investing in Panera Bread? Key Takeaways its 4Q14 Earnings. 2015. Print.

Publix Supermarket Analysis

Publix supermarket which was commonly known as Publix was founded in the year 1930 by George W. Jenkins (Prescott, Robert & William, 34). This company is workers owned, American Supermarket chain and it is based in Lakeland in Florida. The company operates in different parts of the US, with more than 746 retail stores in Florida. It also has retail food supermarkets in South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. The headquarters of the company is in Lakeland Florida, and has a task force of 180, 000 people. The company has grown since 1930, with profit margins rising annually. In December 2015, the company recorded a revenue of $32,362.6 million. This was an increase of up to 5.9% from the financial year 2014. Moreover, the profits of operation also increased by 11.5%, with the company recording an operation of $2,678.2 million in the 2015 (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32). In addition, the net profit of the company in the year 2015 increased by 13.2%, which was $1,965 in the year 2015. In the year 2016, the company gained its entry in the Virginia market in a bid to increase its market share (Publix Supermarket Inc, 2). The company therefore signed two store leases in Virginia, with one which is set t open in the year 2017, in Bristol, and the second one which is set to open in the year 2018, in metropolitan Richmond. Publix supermarket decided to increase its market share in Virginia, in order to reduce its concentration in Florida, and to also take the advantage of the low wage in Virginia. Virginia has a high market potential, and the cost of operations is also low, this consequently allows the company to be able to perform better in the area (Kendzior, 52).

Publix focuses of providing the best customer service, and this is basically done through rewarding the employees for better performance (Prescott, Robert & William, 34). Most of the company’s employees as per the year 2015, were very happy since 75% of them received a salary increment. The employees’ salaries were increased because of their performance, which made the company to be able to achieve its goals. The remaining employees’ salaries remained the same, and this is basically because of the mistakes that they had made. Rewarding the employees made a high number of the employees to be happy, thus making them to provide the best customer service as it is required of them by the company. The employees therefore strive to provide the best customer service, in order to be able to receive salary increments. Moreover, the company is also acquiring stores which house its retail shops. This is in a bid to increase the profits that the company realizes, thus making the company to reduce on the costs of operating (Kendzior, 52). On the other hand, the company also closed down nine of its underperforming shops, in order to focus on the performing shops only. Due to the large number of shops that the company owns, this gives it a chance to be able to regulate the sales of the organic foods in the country. Even though Publix faces competition from Wal-Mart, it has reduced the cost of operation, through providing the best customer care services, thus making customers to stick to its products. This has really saved the company a lot of money as it does not need advertise its services, since the customers pass the information to other people through the word of mouth (Publix Supermarket Inc, 3).

Publix is good at providing the best and fresh foods, which makes our customers to eat nontoxic foods. Moreover, groceries and sea foods such as sushi are gotten from the nearest sea and farms respectively, thus reaching our customers when fresh (Prescott, Robert & William, 34). Furthermore, our customer service is also good, since the employees are very friendly and they will always handle the customers with a lot of respect. Publix brands are better than other established brands, and this consequently makes their products to be attracted by many customers (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32). They also sale their products at very affordable prices as opposed to other brands and this consequently makes it easy for the company to be able to beat its competitors in the ever competitive market. Cleanliness s also another priority of Publix, with its stores being very clean thus attracting the attention of the customers. Hygiene comes first in the company thus allowing the customers to eat foods which are prepared under very good hygiene, thus reducing their chances of contacting poor hygienic diseases. The company prepares high quality foods with very unique ingredients which makes the foods to be incredibly delicious thus nobody can resist their foods. The company does not compromise on the quality of the foods and the drugs that they make, it therefore makes sure that its customers are served with the best of the best foods and drugs (Kendzior, 53).

In as much as the company works hard in order to improve the quality of its services, it needs to focus on opening stores in different parts of the country, since most of its stores are concentrated in Florida (Publix Supermarket Inc, 3). This limits the sales of the company when it comes to weather changes or other calamities which might hit Florida (Kendzior, 54). The company therefore needs to broaden its market in different parts of the country instead of concentrating in one region in the US. However, the company’s strategies are very good thus it is very hard for other companies to be able to beat it (Prescott, Robert & William, 36).

Strengths

The company has a very robust assortment of reserved label brands, which allows it to increase revenue and profits. Grocery and food items in the US have gained attractiveness in the few years due to the falling conditions and proper pricing which attracts most customers (Kendzior, 56). This is therefore impacted the company positively, since it is able to receive huge of customers to the increased demands of food and grocery items in the country (Publix Supermarket Inc, 4). Most customers in the country are now opting for private label brands, thus avoiding the expensive brands. This has therefore seen private labels increasing their sales by 2% in the year 2015. Moreover, the share of the brand dollar was 18%, and the unit share became 21% (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32).

Weaknesses

The main weakness of the company is the high concentration of its stores in one region. This consequently exposes the company to vulnerabilities of a single economy. Publix operates a total of 1,114 supermarkets, with 68% of its stores in Florida (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32). This really exposes the company to many problems which include the changes in the by-laws which may lead the company to experience huge losses. Moreover, changes in the weather conditions in Florida might also affect the company thus making it to incur huge losses (Publix Supermarket Inc, 5). On the other hand, its competitors have stores equally distributed in different parts of the country thus making it hard for them to experience pressure from one economy (Kendzior, 56).

Opportunities

Natural and organic food and products are really growing at a very fast rate in the food and beverage industries. The demand for organic foods is very high, due to the preference of foods rich in nutrients by the consumers. In the year 2014, the food market of organic foods grew by 11% reaching a value of $35,891.9 million (Publix Supermarket Inc, 6). Organic food preference is however project to reach a value of $1,119. Million, which will be an increase of 70.3% as from the year 2014. This will therefore be a good opportunity for the company to be able to invest in organic foods due to the ever rising increase in the demand of organic foods (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32).

Threats

The high rate of wage in Florida is one of the main threats facing Publix. This therefore makes the company to incur huge costs of labour while operating in Florida (Kendzior, 56). The minimum wage rate in the US, which has been constant since the year 1998 at $5.15 per hour, rose to $5.85 in the year 2008. In the year 2009, the minimum wage also increased to $6.55 per hour and in the year 2010, it increased to $7.25 per hour (Whiteside, Wilson, & Blackburn, 32). This has therefore seen some areas in Florida experiencing higher wage growth rates as opposed to the federal’s minimum wage rate. In most areas where Publix, operates, the wage rates have really gone up, thus putting the company at the risk of experiencing low returns on investments or otherwise incurring losses (Publix Supermarket Inc, 7).

I am very optimistic about the future of the company because of the measures that they have put in place in order to control their returns.

Work Cited

Publix Supermarket Inc.: A Progressive Media Digital Business, 2016. Print.

Whiteside, R M, A Wilson, and S Blackburn. Major Companies of the Usa 1988/89. , 1988. Internet resource.

Kendzior, Russell J. Falls Aren't Funny: America's Multi-Billion-Dollar Slip-and-Fall Crisis. Lanham, Md: Government Institutes, 2010. Internet resource.

Prescott, Robert K, and William J. Rothwell. Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management, Key Topics and Issues. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Internet resource.

Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. Corporation utilizes of the master learning program goals as well as learning outcomes in different ways in   its daily operations.  The corporation   aims at developing the oral skills of the employees in order to create better relations with suppliers and consumers.  One of the major goals of the master’s program is to develop oral   skills of communication.  Communication is one of the most important parts of   conducting business.  Effective communication helps in the development of favorable working conditions since tasks and objectives are communicated effectively to individuals (Apple, 2016).  In addition, the corporation encourages critical thinking because it generally believes in innovation and creativity. The corporation accomplishes this by ensuring that all the employees are provided with opportunities to   raise their ideas.  In addition, it offers different issues for the employees to develop their creative and individuals solutions.  Through this those that develops the best solutions are always rewarded which intensifies the ability of individuals to think critically as the rewards as motivation (Horngren, Datar, & Rajan, 2015).  The  corporation  additionally encourages analytical  operations in which  employees are encouraged  to analyses the needs  in  the market  so that  the corporation can  develop devices that fit their needs.  Learning to understand the market concepts and needs helps in better research based on the acquired knowledge.  The understanding of concepts and needs is then demonstrated in the different thoughts and solutions that the corporation develops.  For the longest  period,  the  company has  been regarded as the  most effective in terms of  producing  effective and  innovative products that  generates  much  consumer satisfaction.  Through the  success, the company  has  effectively been able to utilize  the  master’s learning outcomes  as well as  goals  in  its operation  thus achieving  market success.

Critical success factor can be described as a management term that is required for an organization or the progress of a project to achieve its stated mission.  This is a critical factor or a project’s activity that is required by any business in order to achieve the success of the stated objectives.  These factors help the business in the identification of business areas that the organization should focus on fully (Apple, 2016).  In this critical success, the factor can be defined as the restricted number of sections in which the satisfactory of the generated result will generate a competitive person for individuals and the whole organization.  In order for the business to achieve success, it is highly required to have several essential things that play a huge part in the determination of performance.  The essential things are people, purpose, processes, physical resources, and consumers.  In the context of people, these are the persons that ensure that all the operations of an organization are successful. In addition, the corporation is required to have a focused objective for being organized.  There must also be activities in which individuals are involved in the quest of fulfilling their objective.  This, therefore, requires the availability of consumers who are fully willing to pay the stated prices in acquiring the corporation’s product and a location where the employees can work effectively.  However these are not the things that are responsible for success but what the corporation fully gets involved in (Horngren, Datar, & Rajan, 2015).  The key success factors for Apple Corporation includes managing and people’s development, strategic objective, daily operations, physical resources and consumer relations.  The corporation shows evidence of the factors of success (Apple, 2016).

In the context of  managing and people’s development,  the company holds well-structured  and  directed  personnel’s who  are given adequate freedom and motivation in the quest of developing their work and personal skills.  In managing individuals effectively it is essential for the corporation to balance compelling forces with liberating aspects (Apple, 2016).  The organization leaders are required to offer guidance to all the employees based on the fact that each individual in the organization holds different needs set interests and this, therefore, means that effective leaders should apply the same governance to all individuals. They offer management to all people   based on the individual's need and their general motivation.  This always seems to be a complicated thing but the apple corporation is adeptly doing this (Horngren, Datar, & Rajan, 2015).

In the rapid transforming, the world having an objective an organization is not enough.  This is because the organization leaders are highly necessitated to focus all the resources in the organization on those opportunities that hold greater value (Benner, 2016). This, in other words, is term as strategic approaches which are highly flexible.  There are constant changes that are characterizing the economic market in the international market today.  Consumers’ expectations and trends keep changing and this thus   requires the adoption of a strategic method (Apple, 2016).   It is, therefore, a requirement for organization leaders to   focus fully on the desired results such has developing sales, maximization of profit, consumer’s satisfaction and attaining a more competitive position in the market.  The responsibilities of the focused leaders are to ensure that the success factors are aligned and linked together in order to maximize the general performance.

Operations of those things that individuals engage in are also a success determining factor.  This is because the operations help in the creation of consumer’s value that is the key success determinant.  Operations cannot be separated from the strategic focus of the general business as the objectives help in offering direction for daily operations (Horngren, Datar, & Rajan, 2015).  Effective operations are thus meant to ensure that consumers   accurately acquire everything that they want at the stated time period, actual quality and the actual price.  Effective management of operations in an organization is mainly objected on the so-called cycle period. This is the act of generating products from the beginning up to the end while controlling both quality and cost simultaneously. The strategic objective is purely oriented but it necessitates constant effort (Apple, 2016).  This, therefore, raises the fact that communication is highly needed in achieving efficiency in an organization. This refers to the high information flow to ensure that every one operation and every individual is directly connected.

For Apple facilities, finances, as well as equipment, are the largest existing physical resources (Apple, 2016).  With adequate finances, the corporation is fully able to sustain the business. one of the  largest and critical  expense that  the  corporation incur is the  provision  of adequate  equipment  and facilities  for individuals without interference.  This clearly shows that without cash business operations may not operate effectively. The much that is owed by the corporation by the consumers does not matter as what really matters is the finances in the bank that can be used to fund operations.  For Apple, it believes that business failure is achieved when an organization falls out of finances.  The  economy  is characterized by rapid changes and  in  adopting of these changed  the corporation should  be  able to  maintain and sustain  different projects (Benner, 2016).

Apple Corporation holds a positive consumer relation where the money to run operations are generated and this is an essential success factor.  The purpose of the corporation is mainly to attract and retain consumers (Bennie, & Mozur, 2016).   A healthy consumer value for the organization is achieved through meeting the expectations and the changing market trends.  Through offering quality and valuable brands that completely meets the needs of consumers the corporation is fully able to create a favorable consumer value.  Consumers are gathered best using effective marketing strategies such as sales promotion for the corporation.  In developing an effective consumer relation they key thing is providing them with what they generally what and what the corporation needs.  Effective marketing, therefore, begins by conducting effective research on the needs of the consumers, the existing trends, and preferences and what are some of the issues that they want the product to solve. By acquiring this information from the products consumers this helps the corporation in developing consumer loyalty thus gaining a better position in the market than the competitors (Benner, 2016).  Consumer relation is the external connection of the corporation to the outside world which can help in tracking competitors operations and analyzing all the market’s surrounding changes and adequate adaptation.

Constraint theory is an approach that is utilized in the identification of the most significant limiting aspects that hinders the capability of an organization in achieving   the stated goal (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013). With the identification, the corporation is able to develop based on the constraint until the hindrance is gone for the apple corporation the major limiting factor has always been competition and innovativeness.  The primary objective of the corporation is to develop a sustainable profit in today’s market as well as in the future.  Therefore developing high-quality products for the corporation is not only a priority by the major objective.  The corporation, therefore, works at ensuring that there is a balance between its production and sales.  This is to avoid utilizes more cost in production that may reduce the general profit.  Workflow balance is also a major priority of the corporation mainly because quality production is fully determined by operations to flow (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013).  Through this, the corporation aims at increasing its general sales value to cater for the operations and increase the generation of profit.  For the corporations, the invested that are made in the development of inventories of equipment and raw materials are generally valued through the purchasing cost.  The operations are directed linked to the products prices in the exclusion of the prices that are utilized in purchasing materials.  The general products prices additionally act as a constraint to the operations of the company since the competitors offer their products at lower prices.  The corporation is currently overcoming the challenge through product and prices differentiation to avoid losing consumers.

In the economic market today, it is clear that managers have established the impacts that can result from a performance by measures. A balanced scorecard  can be described as a theory   that  measures the activities of the corporation  in  the context of  strategies  and vision  in order to  provide  managers with a performance view that is  more  comprehensive in  the business context.  This enables the companies to clarify their approach and vision thus transforming them into practical actions (Farahani, Rezapour, Drezner, & Fallah, 2014).  Through the utilization of a balanced scorecard, Apple Corporation has been able to achieve consumer satisfaction, process as well as financial growth. The use of a balanced scorecard has helped the corporation in attaining a competitive advantage.  Despite the fact that the technology market is characterized by stiff competition Apple Corporation has been able to overcome the subjected challenges through focusing on meeting the needs and satisfaction of the consumers.  Unlike the opponents who are  fully  objected  and developing  their revenues, the corporation  has been  able to  gain  consumer loyalty and increased sales  through  making  consumers  as the major priority.  The corporation has  additionally  been able to  achieve  a well-organized  management  with  more focused  organization aims  and options which help in adapting to the rapid  market transformations (Farahani, Rezapour, Drezner, & Fallah, 2014). This is influenced by the change of consumer’s preferences needs as well as expectations.  In addition, the strategy helps the corporation in being objective as this strategy helps in gathering relevant information that helps in products development.  Through this, the corporation is fully able to understand the market and how best it can increase its sales in a unique approach distinct from the competitors.  This facilitates effective communication and team work thus resulting in quality, effective production and relations (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013).

The general thought of value chain is grounded on the procedural view of a particular organization. This is the thought of viewing the manufacturing services as a general system.  The activities of the value chain are performed by an organization in the determination of cost as well as profit implications (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013).  For the Apple  corporation, the most significant chain value operations are  human resource administration,  technological development ,  sales and marketing , procurement ,  service  as well as logistics. Inbound and outbound logistics are some of the important value chain operations because the corporation believes in developing better relations with suppliers and distributor.  This helps in marketing through effective communication.  Marketing, as well as sales, is an important activity for the corporation as it aims at satisfying the general needs of consumers. Therefore it conducts different activities in informing the consumers about services and products thus inducing them to buy and develop the rate of the general sales. Procurement is also considered as important because this involves the acquisitions of materials that are required for production.  Human resource administration is the most important activity of the corporation. This is because production and all other activities in an organization are fully determined by human labor (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013).  It is, therefore, important to ensure that the employees are always motivated and taken care off.  The corporation achieves these through incentives, rewards, and promotion.  Technological development is another activity that cannot be ignored by the corporation as its success is mainly based on technological development.  This generally involves software, hardware, procedures, equipment as well as technical and practical knowledge of transforming the final products.

Consume delivered value is described as the difference that exists amid the total consumer value and the general consumer cost (Chan, Pun, & Selden, 2013).  In other words,  this is the final value that is provided to the consumer  from  buying  or  utilizing the organization's product from subtracting  the  general cost from the general  consumer  value (Apple, 2016).  The final value that is given to the consumers of Apple’s products can be regarded as high. This is because through innovativeness the corporation works at ensuring that the needs of consumers in the market are fully met.  Through this the value that the consumer's gains from subtracting the cost of purchase from value can be regarded as favorable.  The products are normally characterized by quality, innovativeness, and high cost. Through the high-cost, consumers can thus be able to substrate the cost from the value which is positive (Farahani, Rezapour, Drezner, & Fallah, 2014).   The delivered value to the consumers through the offered goods as well as services should always be positive.  This is because the value is an indication of satisfaction which helps in gaining consumer loyalty. Despite the high cost of products, the corporation is able to increase consumer delivered value through offering quality brands, services as well as solutions to the general needs of the consumers.

Quality cost generally refers to total quality coast quantification that is connected to deficiencies and efforts.  In short, this is the price that is involved in the development of quality (Bennie, & Mozur, 2016).  Apple Corporation incurs a quality cost that can best be described as good quality cost.  This is the general cost that the corporation incurs  in  assessment and avoidance  of  things such as  error proofing , employees training,  quality  operations, quality planning, innovations  growth among others (Apple, 2016).  This cost is   acquired by the corporation based on the fact that its products productions are not free from weaknesses because they are based on technology.  The quality cost that is incurred by Apple Corporation can be divided into two sections that are appraisal and avoidance costs.  Appraisal in utilized in motivating the employees to increase efficiency and productivity, the avoidance cost is incurred through the elimination of errors that may be developed during the general process of developing products.

            References

Apple Inc. (2016). Apple Inc. Retrieved from http://www.annualreports.com/Company/apple-inc

Charles T. Horngren, Srikant M. Datar, & Madhav V. Rajan. (2015). Cost Accounting. A Managerial Emphasis. Pearson Education.

Bennie, K & Mozur, P. (2016). Apple Sees Value in Its Stand to Protect Security. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/21/technology/apple-sees-value-in-privacy-vow.html?_r=0

Benner, K. (2016). Looking for Signs That Apple’s Runaway Growth Is Waning. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/technology/looking-for-signs-that-apples-runaway-growth-is-waning.html

Chan, J., Pun, N., & Selden, M. (2013). The politics of global production: Apple, Foxconn and China's new working class. New Technology, Work and Employment, 28(2), 100-115.

Farahani, R. Z., Rezapour, S., Drezner, T., & Fallah, S. (2014). Competitive supply chain network design: An overview of classifications, models, solution techniques and applications. Omega, 45, 92-118.

Business analysis- Nintendo Corporation

            Assessment of Company Corporate-Level Strategy

Nintendo utilizes two corporate strategy levels which are the differentiation and general leadership cost strategy. Nintendo is a console video game manufacturing corporation in japan which is among the largest gaming industry major players (Jung, 3).  In the year 2006 most of the competitors were utilizing the norm in the industry which aimed at developing the general features of the video games products but Nintendo corporation opted to adopt a path that can be termed as disruptive as it aimed at targeting a fresh market with the introduction of fresh products that were not held by the competitors which are regarded as Wii.  In the context of the corporate level, Nintendo follows an innovative approach which is significant to the organization as it assists in the building the corporation competitive advantage. The corporation utilized this strategy in order to attain a distinct position from the competitors through concentrating on consumer’s needs.  This strategy is regarded as differentiation which was achieved through the utilization of product uniqueness and innovation that incorporated individuals from different ages.  The product was designed to fit the abilities and needs of individuals through motion capabilities.  The corporate level strategy of the corporation has attracted a revenue and income of 1,672,420 and 257, 347 respectively (Jung, 4).  The major competitors of Nintendo in the market are mainly Microsoft and Sony Corporation.

The corporate strategic level of Nintendo Corporation aims at generating fun in gaming in all ages through breaking down the barriers of gaming (Jung, 3). The corporation is purposed at generating more sales and revenue through increased efficiency and developing consumer relations. The corporation is a single business corporation and its business portfolio is thus characterized by a single business. Based on the existing business portfolio of the corporation Nintendo products are characterized by low technology while comparing to those that are produced by the competitors.  The video game market has developed and transformed rapidly in the recently years and games are becoming more intense in regard to quality and graphics and they are additionally characterized by complexity (Jung, 3).

The corporate strategy is characterized by different strengths which include the cost advantage, the utilization of basic software’s, the ability to enhance virtual abilities, motion revolution sensing wireless technological advancement and fresh applications (McLoughlin, and Aaker, 51). However despite the strengths, the corporate is characterized by numerous threats and weaknesses.  This includes the production of simple games thus ignoring to produce games that are characterized by hard-core, state art lack of high definition clips and lasers and graphic features that are scrawny. In addition, the gaming industry in japan is highly competitive because of the evolving technology which reduces the life cycles of products based on software’s sophistications capabilities.  The corporation is   however characterized by significant opportunities which can result in long-term success and effectiveness.  This is mainly because first the console gaming sector in japan is characterized by three large corporations currently (McLoughlin, and Aaker, 51).  This means that the corporation holds the capability of transforming its operations to suit uniqueness and efficiency by stating a competitive position in which the competitors may not be able to establish.  The second opportunity is that Nintendo Corporation can venture into fresh markets in order to increase its consumer segment and develop its rate of revenue generation (McLoughlin, and Aaker, 51). 

In focusing on sustaining Wii as a unique product of Nintendo, the corporation is faced with three major strategic issues.   The first strategic issue is the need of continuous innovation and reduced tricks.  With promotions, the corporation faces issues of offering continuous innovation focus.  The original entertainment 8bit system produced by Nintendo was very innovative mainly because it offered video games with quality control approaches (McLoughlin, and Aaker, 52). The system was succeeded by super NES 16bit because it was able to offer better sound features and graphics which made the system to be successful. The second issue is the need of becoming a game killer yet its sophistication fails to meet those of the competitors. In addition, it is faced with the issue of home-ness which is a big issue. This is mainly because the gaming world is more globalized today than previously. This, therefore, means that the gaming corporations are required to compete beyond their home market. For instance, the Chinese market is a potential success for games.  This is mainly because the nation is highly innovative and modernity is rapidly taking the wellness of the consumers.  More innovativeness is therefore required in the gaming world which might help Nintendo in gaining competitive advantages and more innovation on developing products (McLoughlin, and Aaker, 51).

The gaming market today is characterized by globalization and therefore venturing into these markets has been eased (Grant, 92).   The third opportunity lies on the first that it was the initial corporation to attain success in the particular gaming console industry.  This, therefore, shows that the corporation is characterized by high abilities to develop its products further through the utilization of   the differentiation strategy.  The corporation is highly innovative which can help in gaining a competitive advantage as their competitor relies mainly on established ideas to develop brands (Grant, 92).

Recommendations

There is a need of developing Nintendo’s products with features that attract more consumers.  The promotions strategies that are being utilized by the corporation cannot be regarded as adequate.  The corporation should, therefore, shift its focus on advertisement and promotional sales which will rise to promote the switching of brands.  In addition, the corporation should focus on developing more serious games. This is mainly because it is faced with the challenge of competitiveness based on the fact that the competitors are manufacturing more sophisticated games that are characterized by fewer products cycles.  The corporation is therefore required to sophisticate its games through developing classiness and innovation while still incorporating the expectations and the needs of the consumers.  They should shorten their products cycles to increase efficiency. This is mainly because the rapid technological developments are decreasing the ability of products to existing in the markets since more and more products are generated every day.

In summary, the console video game industry has currently proven its capabilities through innovation, technology and the increased competition.  The competitive advantage of Nintendo is, however, decreasing based on the fact that its games are not innovatively sophisticated as required by modernity.  Nintendo as a technology corporation is highly necessitated to acquire a rigorous pace in inventing and innovating through maintaining creative thoughts.  The  console market is more  open to the consumers more than the previous decades which  means that  marketing and  entry barriers  are no longer sophisticated enough for  a corporation to  gain competitive advantage.  The ability to drive innovativeness will help Nintendo Corporation in attaining a competitive advantage.

            Work Cited

Grant, Robert M. Contemporary Strategy Analysis. , 2016. John Wiley & Sons. Print.

Jung, Corinna. Strategy Analysis of Nintendo - Executive Summary. Place of publication not identified: Grin Verlag, 2013. Print.

McLoughlin, Damien, and David A. Aaker. Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley, 2010. Print.