Essays about Company.

Part A

Introduction
Fortune 500 companies are the top 500 companies in the US which are listed by Fortune magazine every year. The companies are generally ranked on the basis of their gross revenue (Fortune 500). The Fortune magazine started to enlist these 500 best company in 1955 for the first time. The concept of selecting best 500 American companies was first created by Edgar Smith, the editor of Fortune 500. In these 500 best companies, the top companies are Wal-Mart Stores, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway, and Apple (Fortune 500)
The company chosen for this research paper is Disney. Fortune

Introduction

Capital structure management is a crucial aspect of effective cost control. That is because the structure determines a company’s cost, hence determining its performance and ability to create wealth for its shareholders. In that view, this analysis seeks to demonstrate how the structures influence companies’ performance as well as decision making. To achieve that, the analysis evaluates three companies in Hospitality industry. In that respect, this report begins with an overview of the companies’ debt structure and how it influences the companies’ cost of capital. That is followed by overview of how the companies’ long term financing polices

Introduction

Background of British Airways
British Airways (BA) was formed in 1972. The initial approach of the company was to manage two national airline companies named “British Overseas Airways Corporations” and “British European Airways”. BA is an international airline that is headquartered in London. The company is providing its services in above 400 destinations in different parts of the world. The company creates alliances with code share, franchises and other joint ventures.
The vision of the company is to become the most accepted airline in the world. To accomplish their vision British Airways always tries to control its cost to

Section 1: Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

With upwards of 20 stores and operations across multiple countries, Guaranteed Shoe Company should expectedly have supply chains that involve even more countries, staff, and business partners. This renders it necessarily difficult, resource-intensive and laborious to ensure the business runs effectively, especially given the automated online ordering. Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) offer a backbone in the integration and automation of internal information systems and business processes across the logistics, manufacturing, distribution, accounting, human resources and finance functions of the organization.

It offers seamless support for internal processes and integration with external business partners to ensure that value is delivered to the customers. For instance if a client places an order for shoes that are unavailable at a store, the system can have the shoes shipped from other stores, and/or make an order from the supplier without the involvement of staff. Similarly, while the company, currently has to stock products in the stores, determine how fast they move before deciding on the pre-order amount and/or discontinue the product, this can now be done automatically. It is possible to determine how well individual products sell, and ERP systems’ automatic inventory management systems enable the company to automatically re-order more and/or make other decisions regarding the stocks. The system aggregates customers’ orders, handles purchasing and accounts payables, scheduling, order tracking, inventory control and warehousing, distribution/shipment and accounts receivables.
According to O'Brien & Marakas (2010), ERP systems create commerce platforms, backed up with additional support capabilities that include streamlined inventory management, warehouse management and flexible pricing, strengthened back office and core applications (e.g. finance and accounts receivables). Other benefits include increased visibility into the Guaranteed Shoe Company’s supply chain and ease operational scalability. Since the company is headquartered in the US and has 20 branch offices across the world, decision-making is heavily dependent on the ability for the senior managers to get excellent quality information on the company’s performance. With ERP systems, this information is readily available and continuously updated, which means that managers do not have wait for reports from the branch offices before they can a decision.

This way, the system ensures quality and efficiency in the internal processes, cost reduction, provision of real-time cross-functional information to support decision-making, and organizational agility in responding to varying consumer needs. These systems transform Guaranteed Shoe Company into one giant store, despite the geographical dispersion. However, while the company already has a website that allows automated ordering, order processing, and management, it does not have a proper ERP system, which does, however, offer it considerable value. However, the company needs to be alive to the issues associated with the implementation of ERP systems, which owing to their complexity present a considerable risk of implementation failure. Improper implementation may result in catastrophic disruptions. If the company chooses to implement the systems, it is critical to plan, customize the system to the firm’s functions, and manage the change process effectively. This frees up the staff to concentrate on other activities, such as customer service, while at once making the firm’s functional business practices easier for the company, which is critical given the company’s global operations.

Section 2: Customer Relationship Management Systems

Guaranteed Shoe Company thrives based on its great customer services, as perhaps best shown by its commitment to arrange for, and ship shoes that are unavailable at stores to the customers. Given the wide range of products, coupled with every client’s unique needs, it extremely difficult for the company to meet its obligations without the right technology. The CRM software will help the company’s sales, marketing and customer service practitioners to track relevant data about the past and future customers and prospects, as well as other life cycle and business events. Customer information may be captured from numerous contact points, including the website visits, email, fax, retail stores and personal contact with others. The data is then stored in databases that integrated and availed across the organization, effectively facilitating better customer service since all staff can access the clients’ information. Further, Guaranteed Shoe Company’s sales staff would be equipped with the tools and data necessary to support their marketing activities, o;optimizing cross- and up-selling. For instance, emails gathered through multiple contacts can be used to sent marketing information (offers, discounts and product recommendations).

It is easy to customize services to every customer because the company will have a wealth of information about them. For sales agents, decision support is easily the most important aspect of the CRM system, not least because it gives them important information about the customers’ past history, shoe sizes, type, regularity of purchases and responsiveness to marketing campaigns. With the multiple number of stores, it is important that Guaranteed Shoe Company’s retention and loyalty programs are effective by tapping into the pool of existing customers and making sure that they remain committed to the firm. Given the intense competition in the retail market, hanging onto the existing customers is critical, and if the company fully implements the CRM system, it will have the best chance of getting it right. With the help of these systems, the company can save up to 600% of the costs necessary to get new customers, achieve greater customer satisfaction, brand loyalty and equity.
Similarly, the gathered information is important in direct marketing campaigns, not least because allows the company to automate some of the marketing activities, including the planning, scheduling and tracking marketing campaigns. Manipulatable customer data is available to the Guaranteed Shoe Company’s staff, who can assess the performance of marketing campaigns, as a basis for further campaigns. For instance, the number of customers that respond to emails about new shoe lines at the company’s store can be targeted with further marketing messages (including discounts, free deliveries and other offers). Even most importantly, once orders have been placed by the customer, the system’s real-time order tracking and customer support capabilities schedule clients’ requests for service and assign them to staff where necessarily, ensuring that as many customer needs are served to the best possible extent. O'Brien & Marakas (2010) points to call center and help desk modules/software that can make the company’s sales support activities markedly easier.

Section 3: Supply Chain Management Systems

Supply chains, especially for a company whose operations spans several countries are considerable. The most important difficulties for Guaranteed Shoe Company include high volatility in the clients’ demand, higher consumer expectations in regard to customer service, in part because of the intense competition and quality. The company already uses its intranet, extranet, and electronic commerce portals to ensure customer orders are managed efficiently. In addition, the company has to ensure that it meets these expectations at acceptably low costs, because the ability to pass on additional costs to the consumers is limited both by the competition as well as the customers’ unwillingness to accept such costs, which means that if the company has to be profitable, it faces an increasing logistical burden to deliver value. Other challenges include globalized competition, commodity prices’ volatility, complex consumer demand patterns, increased financial volatility (including exchange rate volatility and inflation), globalized labour markets (raising cross-cultural and employee compensation issues), increased exposure to varied regulatory requirements across different countries, supplier landscape complexity, and geopolitical instability. Navigating all these factors is difficult enough, but even worse, is the fact that these variables are characterized by considerable uncertainty.

These risks cannot simply be managed by buying larger insurance policies, and Guaranteed Shoe Company needs to explore a range od strategies to ensure The company should shift its focus towards better cost management (logistical support) and value chain management. Operating costs reduction is critical for survival in this business, and to achieve this,the company needs to cut back its overall inventories, bolster quality, improve customer service, increase the order turnaround time, reduce capital costs and ensure that the company adheres to the highest possible ethical standards. This is impossible to accomplish without a supply chain management system. These systems integrate planning ordering, production and delivery in the organization as well as across the company’s value chain. According to O'Brien & Marakas (2010), these systems use information technology to manage and support the firm’s value creation operations from the supplier to the customer.

This system will help the company to anticipate better the customers’ needs by forecasting, which in turn allows the company to anticipate demand and plan according. Effectively, this will make it possible reduce inventories considerably since the stores will only hold stocks that are likely to move fast. This also cuts back on the cost of holding too much stock (including warehousing) and reduces the probability of shoes being unavailable in the shops and forcing clients to place singular orders that are more expensive to fulfil compared to large orders. In addition, Guaranteed Shoe Company can integrate its supply chain management system with its suppliers, to ensure seamless cooperation in the planning and delivery of the customers’ needs. This eliminates any need to for the company’s staff to fill out orders in order to get more stock. Given the fact that the company’s suppliers are spread across the world, as well as its stores, the instantaneous communication and cooperation is extremely important in overcoming many of the challenges facing a multinational company such as ours. For instance, the changes in the supply chain can be automatically reflected in the product’s pricing, which makes it possible for the company to incur the risks of exchange rate and inflation fluctuations, etc.

Section 4: Business Intelligence

Business intelligence will prove to be a critical strategy for Guaranteed Shoe Company, especially if the company chooses to implement the enterprise resource planning system, the customer relationship management system, and the supply chain management system. These systems present considerable opportunities for the company to harvest consumer, supplier, and other data, process it, and use it to create real time and actionable strategic information that can be used to create competitive advantages. The company need to invest in technologies that would create value out of the wealth of data that it will collect from its customers, suppliers, and other business partners, to help in strategic decision-making.
According to Bradburry (2014), technology, including simple tools such as Microsoft Excel and Access can transform data into usable information that would make the difference between it and its competitors. This is even more important for organizations that have the infrastructure to collect data (including ERP and CRM systems). This goes to show that in order for Guaranteed Shoe company to reap the most benefits from the recommended technologies, it needs to create synergies from the implementation of multiple similar complementary technologies. With these technologies and the wealth of data that they can gather from differing contacts with customers and business partners, it is possible to develop business intelligence. Effectively, information technology will be rendered into a tool that does not only achieve efficiencies and improve customer satisfaction but perhaps most importantly, take a central role in strategy formation. Even most importantly, is the fact that business intelligence facilitates the innovation of products and services, which help achieve further client value. For instance, the company may decide to include clothing lines if it realizes that its customers desire to shop for both shoes and clothes. The fact that the information available to the firm may be unique to it means that the data can help it generate sustainable competitive advantages.

References

Bowen, D. (2014). E-commerce: how to approach the next big thing in B2B marketing. Retrieved 2015
Bradburry, D. (2014, Apri 7). New weapon for small businesses: data mining. Retrieved 2015, from http://business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/how-small-businesses-can-find-success-in-their-data
Brassington, F., & Pettitt, S. (2006). Principles of Marketing (4 th Ed ed.). New York: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.
Kirby, S. L., & Richard, O. C. (2000). Impact of Marketing Work-Place Diversity on Employee Job Involvement and Organizational Commitment. Journal Of Social Psychology, 140(3), 367-377.
McKinsey & Company. (2010). The challenges ahead for supply chains: McKinsey Global Survey results. Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/operations/the_challenges_ahead_for_supply_chains_mckinsey_global_survey_results
O'Brien, J., & Marakas, G. (2010). Management Information Systems (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies,Incorporated.

CONTENTS
I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2

A. Purpose 2

B. Introduction 2
C. Problem Statement 5
D. Essential Research Questions 6
II. RESEARCH DESIGN AND DATA COLLECTION 7

A. Research Methodology 7

B. Statistical Tests 8
III. ANALYSIS 8
C. Test for the Correlation Coefficient of the Medium Sized Companies for Data Breaches and Associated Financial Impact. 10
D. Test for the Correlation Coefficient of the Large Sized Companies for Data Breaches and Associated Financial Impact 10
IV. CONCLUSION 11

Works Cited 12

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Purpose
This statistical research report has been completed to explore the validity of claims that the use of cloud computing technologies may potentially make the

Abstract

The contemporary globalized environment poses numerous challenges for business to achieve success. In this regard, various dimensions of globalization become more and more entwined and companies need to adapt to these changes. One of the most complex aspects is the socio-cultural dimension which requires systematic and multi-stakeholder involvement. The aim of this paper is to address the case of IKEA and its approach to resolving the issue of child labor used by its suppliers in India. Consequently, the rationale for IKEA’s approach is outlined with further implications for the company and global businesses in general. IKEA’s case demonstrates the new trends in globalization and business conduct which require multi-dimensional cooperation towards the sustainable development as a precondition for the successful business performance of a company. From the perspective of the local population, the primary benefit is long-term commitments of the international corporations and the consequent stability of the local socio-cultural development and economic growth.
Key words: IKEA, child labor, globalization, corporate responsibility.

IKEA’s Response to Global Challenges

In the contemporary globalized and internationalized world, of the company to achieve success it has to address numerous issues except the quality and cost-efficiency of its production. To achieve success, a company has to consider diverse political and cultural aspects of its business conduct and manufacturing of the final products. Although this concern becomes essential in the contemporary business environment, it can be incredibly challenging to fulfill monitoring across various branches located in around the word. On the other hand, in order to preserve a successful and continuous profile, the company has to make sure that its profile is integral across all branches and cooperation with suppliers corresponds to its profile and values. The aim of this paper is to address the issues of globalization and continuity of company’s profile in the example of IKEA and its child labor issue in India.
Although globalization poses numerous economic benefits for a business to expand, optimize its manufacturing capacities in the third world, and reduce cost of the final product, globalization also has numerous threats and challenges that company has to deal with and develop a consistent approach within its strategy (Smith, 2010). In this regard, a company also has to address such dimensions of globalization as political, cultural and ecological. In other words, having a strong public profile in the country of origin is no longer enough for one’s success. The company also has to demonstrate the consistency of its public profile on the global scale. In other words, the company has to abide by the rules and public perceptions of the country of its origin or according to the international standards also in other countries in order not to damage its image (Spinello, 2014).

IKEA had a negative experience of being criticized for some of its carpet supplier from India using child labor in carpets production. The company faced with cultural and political-legal challenges posed by globalization. Moreover, unlike nowadays, when a company has various cases and strategies to follow in resolving such issues, IKEA faced the problem when the issue of child labor was quite new in the business environment and consequent options for its handling were limited (Smith, 2010). In this regard, the available options branch manager Marianna Barner could choose from included cancelling contract with suppliers, withdrawing from the market or addressing the issue in some way. The first two options would mean financial losses, while the last one had very little certainty in its application (Spinello, 2014). On the other hand, the issue could not be ignored since media programs on the subject had already damaged company’s image before.

The primary threat of such issues on the global scale is that the national image of the company can be easily damaged and its core values challenged. For IKEA that placed equal access to its products across various categories of society, equality and humanness were the core of its philosophy. Moreover, the relationship with suppliers was based on the crucial principle of using sources in an unconventional way. Thus, giving up on suppliers would have been damage to that principle and could result in further deterioration of relations with other existing suppliers (Vogel, 2006).

The most functional resolution of the issue is to preserve company’s presence in the country and continue doing business but in a new way. In this regard, the company would have to develop its own way of dealing with the matter in accordance with the international law and company’s concept and values. Barner did the right choice of getting involved with the national and international organizations dealing with the issue of child labor. This gave her and the company the relevant knowledge of the issue and related aspects such as age differences of children allowed working in different countries, local legislature, a relationship between child labor and schooling (Spinello, 2014). In this context, IKEA created a precedent how other companies have to deal with similar issues – promoting the higher standards through cooperation with the local NGOs, international organizations and local suppliers:

organization promoting the well-being of children. Together with UNICEF experts,
local governments and NGOs, IKEA started an ambitious and large-scale project
aimed at improving education, recruiting for schools and raising awareness among
parents that education is important for their children. In order to decrease
dependency on child labor, a microcredit program was started mainly aimed at
strengthening the economic position of women” (Jeurissen, 2007, p. 135).
Moreover, as part of this response, the company introduced zero-tolerance policy regarding suppliers using child labor. For these purposes, monitoring workshops with suppliers in the target countries were introduced and strict rules were imposed. If the instance of child labor was found and not resolved, IKEA would cancel a contract with its supplier and would not conduct business with the anymore (Vogel, 2006).

IKEA’s solution of the issue is incredibly functional in dealing with various dimensions of globalization. It is three-fold in its nature. First of all, the company preserved its image and projected its values on the global scale. Secondly, it demonstrated the Western public that it follows the same standards in all countries were its conducts business, thus the company kept its customers. Finally, IKEA as an international company demonstrated its long-term commitments in the various foreign markets and moreover responsibilities with the local communities (Smith, 2010).

The last aspect is particularly essential since there is a tendency in the global business to demonstrate long-term commitments to the local communities rather than simple gaining profit schemes. In this regard, international companies accept the tendency of merging of different global dimensions and corporate responsibility in terms of development of the local communities (Vogel, 2006). The main benefit for the companies is that they build a functional relationship with the local people and also contribute to the improvement of the sustainable development of these communities. In a long-term perspective, these communities will become more functional labor force with desired skills and also future consumers of the companies’ products.

Stakeholder dialogue and co-operation are important ways for business to shape

their social responsibility, since businesses are often partially responsible for causing
a social problem. However, business cannot solve problems by themselves they did
not cause by themselves, so it is important to seek collaboration with others. An
important mechanism within these partnerships is that different parties can mutually
influence the conditions of their performance” (Jeurissen, 2007, p. 135).
Thus, the essence of IKEA’s response to the child labor issue with its suppliers was to take on board as many stakeholders as possible in order to address the issue in the most systematic and functional manner. A similar approach was taken by Marriott International that placed the cultural differences and traditions in the heart of its global strategy (Spinello, 2014). In this regard, cooperation with various stakeholders aimed at improvement of life through work with Marriott International made it one of the most desired working places in the hospitality business (Vogel, 2006).
Overall, from all mentioned above it can be concluded that with the strengthening of global trends, companies have to pay more attention to their socio-cultural commitments in the communities they do business in. IKEA’s approach was in involving numerous stakeholders and treating the issue in its systematic and contextual complexity. IKEA’s approach became a precedent in the field of child labor and an example to follow by many international companies.

References

Jeurissen, R. (2007). Ethics & Business. Assen: Royal Van Gorcum.
Smith, C. (2010). Global Challenges in responsible Business. Cambridge: Cambridge
Spinello, R. (2014). Global Capitalism, Culture, and Ethics. New York, NY: Routledge.
Vogel, D. (2006). The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limitations of Corporate Social
responsibility. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.

Tables showing both environmental and organization pressures

Environmental Pressures
Every organization is a dynamic entity, which has at its core a variety of forces that impinge upon it both externally as well as internally. How an organization functions as well as the course of action that it takes up is essentially interplay between these varied forces and also the kinds of situations that come into play at different points in time.
Environmental pressures to an organization, as the name implies are those external factors that emanate from the environment that an organization functions and exists in. As a former employee of Hilton hotel and Resort I

It is a fact that Coca-Cola Company is the largest beverage company in the world, offering more than 500 different sparkling brands to their customers. Today the company portfolio includes 20 billion dollar brands featuring Sprite, Fanta, Simply, Vitaminwater, Del Valle, Diet Coke, Minute Maid, and, of course, Coca-Cola. Now the company is the number one provider of the most popular sparkling beverages, juices or juice drinks, and ready-to-drink coffees.
Thanks to the biggest beverage distribution system, the customers from more than two hundred countries are free to enjoy the famous taste of The Coca-Cola Company’s beverages. It

Internal Analysis

Samsung group was founded by Lee byung- chul as a company in 1938 which was later developed as Samsung Electronics in 1969. It was earlier known as Samsung Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. which has changed into Samsung electronics. It operates three business divisions which are based on self-determination. Three divisions include Information Technology and Mobile Communication (IM), Device Solutions (DS) and Consumer Electronics (CE) (Samsung Electronics (a) p.20). Samsung Electronics is a global company and headquarter is situated in Korea. It has around 161 units around the world including 14 regional headquarters. Samsung group has around 67 affiliations out

About the paper

The paper is commissioned to conduct financial analysis of Jaedan Industry. As part of this analysis, we will be calculating the free cash flow of the firm for the year 2010. In addition to this, we will also run the financial figures for the year 2009 and 2010 under the microscope of financial ratios to unearth the strengths and weaknesses in the firm’s organizational architecture.

Income Statement:

Balance Sheet
Cash Flow Statement
Calculating Jaedan’s Free Cash Flow
In order to calculate the free cash flow of the firm, we will be using the excerpts from the financial statements, while