Strategic Management Industry Structures And Dynamics Business Strategy Essay

Strategic Management Industry Structures And Dynamics Business Strategy Essay Introduction: Dell Company was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell. It is the worlds largest direct-sale computer vendor; Dell Inc. is now also the leading seller of computer systems in the world, capturing a global market share of more than 15 percent. Dell markets desktop personal computers, notebook computers, network servers, workstations, handheld computers, monitors, printers, high-end storage products, and a variety of computer peripherals and software. In this part I will use Porters Five Forces to analysis Dells great success in the industry. Force 1: The Degree of Rivalry. The PC industry consists of a number of companies; hence the threat from industry competitors is high. Due to the product being highly standardized and shifting costs between brands is low, there is fierce competition which leads to lower margins and profitability in the market. The PC industry can be described as a high competitive industry. For Dell the main competitors are IBM, Apple, HP, TOSHIBA, Gateway etc. Dell uses several strategies to reduce the competitive rivalry between existing players. Firstly Dell differentiated its sales from other competitors. Dell used the direct sales strategy since 1984. To sell PCs directly to consumers, by passing retail stores and system integrators and offering limited customer support but dramatically lower prices. For years, that direct, low-cost sales model worked perfectly. It allowed Dell to make high margins while selling computer gear for less than its rivals. As a result, it now holds a leading 17.9% share of the world PC market and has grown much faster than competitors Hewlett-Packard and IBM. With thousands of phone and fax orders daily, $5 million in daily Internet sales, and daily contacts between the field sales force and customers of all types, the company kept its finger on the market pulse, quickly detecting shifts in sales trends and getting prompt feedback on any problems with its products. If the company got more than a few similar complaints, the information was relayed immediately to design engineers. When design flaws or components defects were found, the factory was notified and the problem corrected within a matter of days. Management believed Dells ability to respond quickly gave it a significant advantage over rivals, particularly over PC makers in Asia, which made large production runs and sold standardized products through retail channels. Dell saw its direct sales approach as a totally customer-driven system that allowed quick transitions to new generations of components and PC models. i Secondly Dell provided good customer service to compete with its rivals. In 1986 the company began providing a guarantee of free on-site service for a year with most of its PCs after users complained about having to ship their PCs back to Austin for repairs. Dell contracted with local service providers to handle customer requests for repairs; on-site service was provided on a next-day basis. Dell also provided its customers with technical support via a toll-free number, fax, and e-mail. Dell received close to 40,000 e-mail messages monthly requesting service and support and had 25 technicians to process the requests. iiBundled service policies were a major selling point for winning corporate accounts. If a customer preferred to work with his or her own service provider, Dell gave that provider the training and spare parts needed to service the customers equipment. Force 2: The Threat of new Entry. Firstly, Dell created a brand image to reduce the threat of new entries by advertising. Dell was the first computer company to use comparative ads. Its advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet, magazines, catalogs and newspapers. Secondly, Dell cuts its price or offering free bonus products in the effect to maintain its market share. In 2006, Dell cut its price in an effort to maintain its 19.2% market share. However, this also cut profit-margins by more than half, from 8.7 to 4.3 percent. To maintain the strategy Dell continuing to accept the online and telephone purchase. The brand loyalty and the low price built up a barrier of entry for the new companies. Force 3: The Threat of Substitutes. Other devices like PDA, handheld electronics etc. are now coming out with features similar to PCs. The mobilebility is the key factor of the competition. Dell generate a smaller size laptop called mini which only has a 10.1 inch screen and only sells at the price under  £200 which is even lower than some of the handheld electronics. With the efficiency of mobile and the same function, for example Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Dell protects its market share against those substitutes. Force 4: Bargaining Power of Customers. Dell built up its brand loyalty to reduce the bargaining power of customers. First, Dell had its own system and strategy to manage the relationship with customers. Since Dell use the direct sale strategy, customers can buy Dells products from the website or ordered by phone or fax. The customers then can personalize their computer by choosing the configuration of the computer (e.g. RAM, processors, and hard-disk capacity). On the Dells website from which people can directly choose, buy and give feedback, it divided the customers into four major groups home users, small medium business, public sector and large enterprise. Dell then treats different groups differently by offering the special service they need from different groups. For instance, Dell provides special solutions and services for higher education. Such as data consolidation and management, HPC (high performance computing environments), wireless solution, connected classroom etc. Because of its direct sale strategy, Dell can easily track the service for any individual buyers. All the buyer information will be stored in its system; dell can differentiate customers and send relevant product information and services to different customers. These special strategies in selling upgrade its brand image among customers. Second, Dell uses the advertisements to help building up its brand image. On the website, TV, newspaper, high street, people can easily find dells advertising. Those can not only increase dells market activity but also increase its brand pride. Force 5: Reducing the Bargaining Power of Suppliers. Dell has a special understanding on the SCM (supply chain management). Dells strategy is to limit the amount of supplier but pick up some outstanding supplier all over the world. Each supplier has a very close relationship with Dell in long-term. Dell uses its huge globe market to share its business with its entire suppliers. For instance, Dell built a assemble factory in Malaysia, its supplier from Ireland soon built a factory in there as well in order to gain a geographic efficiency. Dell had its assemble factories all over the world which relatively close to its suppliers. This will save a lot of transport costs. The double-win strategy makes the supply chain works well. With the double-win strategy and constant relationship, Dell will be able to ask lower price from the suppliers and reduce the bargaining power from them. Market part: Segmentation Introduction: Michael Dell emphasized the significant status of customers to the companys business by stating Finding ways to get close to your customers is critical to your success. Since different people would have different need from the computer, Dell divided its customers into several segments by discovering special needs from each segment. In the year 1994, the customer group was only divided by two primary customer and normal customer. In that year the assets of Dell is 3.5billion USD. In July 1996 Dell launched its online website www.dell.com. On the website primary client are divided into three segments which are large company, medium company and government education. Customers can easily choose and buy the products directly with advices and helps from dell.com. The assets of Dell rocketed up to 7.8 billion USD in that year. However in 1997, Dell continued differentiating its customer for more segments. Government education segment was divided to State Local Government, Federal Government and education. Small company and home users were also been created as individual segments. The net revenue of Dell was 12 billion in that year. On todays Dells website, people will be able to follow the tips and choose a suitable computer in few minutes. Whats more, customers can personalize their chosen computer by changing the configuration of the computer (e.g. color, RAM, processors, and hard-disk capacity). With this direct sale through different segments, Dell can start to assemble the computer once the transaction has been made. The inventory can then be limited as low as zero. Not like Dells competitors, Dell does not need many warehouses all over the world which will save a lot of costs for the company. Although on todays Dell.com, customers are divided into a lot segments. However, literally customers are differentiated into two segments; Relationship customers in opposing Transaction customers. Although Dell intends to build and maintain a good relationship with all customers, it also becomes clear, that the company would regard some customers more relationship worthy than others, by analyzing customer value. The relationship customers are mainly large enterprise and government etc. which occupied 40% of Dells entire customer. Transaction customers are small business and home users which have percentage of 30 among customers. The remaining 30 percentage customer is regarded as a mixed customer. The advantage for dividing customers in different segment is that the company would be able to analysis how it can encourage the customers to buy its product. For individual users or small business price is the priority. Those customers are regarded as more price insensitive. So for home and small business users the price is slightly lower than its competitors e.g. HP, Toshiba and Sony. For bigger customers such as the government or enterprise, they consider more than the price but consequent services and supports. Take large enterprise for instance, Dell supports a lots of specific services and solutions for running the business. Like Infrastructure Consulting service which is basically a plan for simplifying IT infrastructure, helping reduce operating costs while freeing up resources for new business initiatives.iii Also, Dell runs a program called Dell business Creditiv. This is the same as a loan offered by Dell, but with no interest rate and anytime to pay off the balance. Business without enough cash flow would like to take that program. One of the Dells competitors is IBM, it has a clearly customer segmentation but different from Dell. IBM is more focusing on Business and Industry market. In a simply word it is even more focusing on the Big customers. Similar as Dell did for big client, but even did more specific for the segmentation. For Dell there is no segment for industries like Aerospace, Chemicals and petroleum. More segmentation on large customers also brings more services and solutions for all kinds of industries. One of IBMs famous solutions is offering the security management for Wimbledonv. It provided the security solution for players, staff, media and spectators around the world. Conclusion: Dells market share was No.2 in 2009, IBM was far behind. But since Dells customer groups is much bigger than IBMs. In 2006 IBM sold its PC department to Lenovo, Lenovo used IBMs brand to product and sell IBMs ThinkPad series. It is very difficult to compare which segmentation is better. But for the large business users, IBM is a very strong competitor against Dell, Its high performance computer and advanced technical solutions and services makes IBM the biggest company for larger business and industries. i scribd.com Dell operation ii McGraw Hill Dell Computer Corporation mhhe.com/business/management/thompson/11e/case/dell5.html iii Dell.com Large Enterprise service iv Dell.com business credit v IBM.com Wimbledon case study

Essay --

Credit Rating Check: Improve Your Credit Score Your credit score is one of your most important financial attributes. Fortunately for those who are unsatisfied with their credit rating, there are plenty of options available. Improving your score is an attainable goal that everyone should aim for, even those who are content with their credit rating. Checking Your Score The first step to improving your credit score is simple, yet essential; request a copy of your credit report. Improvements can only be made when you are aware of your starting point. Luckily, this process is free, easy, and can be done from the comfort of your own home. You can visit www.annualcreditreport.com to complete the necessary forms online, or find information on how to complete the process via phone or mail. Aside from informing you of your score, it is also important to request a credit report to ensure that there are no errors. Clerical mistakes can occur, and you want to make certain that your credit score reflects completely accurate information. It is best to request a credit report as soon as possible, since disputing any issues can be a lengthy process. Paying Bills on Time This may seem like a no-brainer, but one of the most important steps to improving your credit score is to pay all of your bills on time. Even making payments a few days late can have an impact on your score, so try to always pay on (or, even better, before) the due-date. If you find yourself with a missed payment or two, it is very important to get caught up as soon as possible. Although older information will remain on your credit report, it holds less value than current financial activity. The longer you can go without missing a due-date, the less relevance y... ...ge. On top of that, a sudden increase in credit portrays you as a much higher risk than someone who has steadily built up accounts and credit as needed. Improving your credit score can be a difficult and frustrating process that takes plenty of patience. It is important to build strong financial habits that will increase your score over time. When you find yourself dealing with credit from the past, this process becomes even more complicated, but this is when it is most essential to take charge and begin to work on these steps. First and foremost, you must get a credit rating check if you want to improve your score. With that information, you can decide what steps need to be taken; they will be slightly different for everyone. It may be tough to motivate yourself to take charge of your credit score, but you will definitely thank yourself for doing so.

Andrew Jackson: the 7th President of the United States of America Essay

Andrew Jackson was born on March 15, 1767, was the seventh President of the United States. Born in Tennessee, Andrew Jackson was a politician and general who beat the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, and the Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend. His enthusiastic followers created the more up-to-date Democratic Party, and the 1830-1850 periods later became known as the era of Jackson a democracy. During the American Revolutionary War, Jackson was teenager when he joined a local militia. His oldest brother, Hugh, died from heat exhaustion during the Battle of Stono Ferry. Jackson and Robert (his brother) were captured by the British and held as prisoners; they almost died in captivity. When Jackson refused to clean the boots of a British soldier, the soldier slashed at Andrew with a sword, leaving him with scars on his left hand and head, in a result to that he had an intense hatred for the British. While in prison, the brothers had got smallpox. Robert died a couple da ys after their mother allowed them to leave. After his mother was assured Andrew would recover, she volunteered to nurse POW (prisoners of war) on board two ships in Charleston, where there had been an outbreak of cholera. She died from the disease on November 1781, and was buried in an unmarked grave, leaving Jackson an orphan at the age of fourteen. Jackson’s entire immediate family–aside from his father, who had died earlier–died from hardships during the war, Jackson blamed the British. Jackson was nicknamed â€Å"Old Hickory† because of his toughness and aggressiveness that produced many of duels. He was a wealthy slave owner who appealed to the masses of Americans and fought against what he denounced as a closed undemocratic. He expanded the spoils system during his presidency to strengthen his political base, regardless of the cost of inefficiency. As president, he supported a small and limited federal government but strengthened the power of the presidency. He was supportive of state’s rights, but, during the Nullification Crisis, he declared that states do not have the right to nullify federal laws. Totally against the national bank, he vetoed the renewal of its charter and ensured its collapse. Whigs and moralists denounced his aggressive enforcement of the Indian Removal Act, which resulted in the forced the Native Americans to move west to present day Oklahoma. Jackson’s campaign was very much a personal one. Although neither candidate personally campaigned, their political followers organized many campaign events. Both candidates were rhetorically attacked in the press, which reached a low point when the press accused Jackson’s wife Rachel of bigamy. Though the accusation was true, as were most forgive the ones who attacked his wife. Rachel died suddenly on December 22, 1828, before his inauguration, and was buried on Christmas Eve. Personal attacks leveled against him during the campaign, it was based on events that occurred many years prior. Jackson said he would forgive those who insulted him, but he would never. When Jackson became President, he implemented the theory of rotation in office, declaring it â€Å"a leading principle in the republican creed.†He believed that rotation in office would prevent the development of a corrupt bureaucracy. To strengthen party loyalty, Jackson’s supporters wanted to give the posts to party members. In practice, this meant repl acing federal employees with friends or party loyalists. However, the effect was not as drastic as expected or portrayed. By the end of his term, Jackson dismissed less than twenty percent of the Federal employees at the start of it. While Jackson did not start the spoils system, he did indirectly encourage its growth for many years to come. Jackson is one of the couple presidents to go out of office way more popular than he was when he entered. â€Å"When he went into office he had no political opinions, only some popular notions.† He left his party strong, perfectly organized and enthusiastic on a platform of low expenditure, payment of the debt, no expenditure for public improvement or for glory or display in any form and low taxes. His name still remained a spell to conjure with, and the politicians sought to obtain the assistance of his approval for their schemes; but in general his last years were quiet and uneventful. He died at his residence, The Hermitage, near Nashville. Tennessee, on the 8th of June 1845.

Support and Contradictions of Hard Determinism and...

Freedom is the ability to do what a person desires and is capable of. For centuries philosophers have questioned if humans really have free will or not. There are two bodies of thought on the subject. Determinists insist that choices are irrelevant to reality because there is a fated design for everyone. Libertarianists allege that humans make choices and guide themselves through a decision making process and are in absolute control of their futures. The thesis of determinism seems to contradict ordinary experiences, whereas the theory of libertarianism disregards event-causation. Philosopher Walter T. Stace proposed an alternative compatibilist philosophy. In order to recognize the ways in which Stace effectively amalgamates the two thesis utilizing his campatibilist approach, an objective examination of the three ideas is compulsory. The following article will define the support and contradictions of hard determinism and libertarianism, as well as clarify the ways in which compatib ilism is a practical alternative. Hard determinists believe that genetics determine personalities and actions only through the Newtonian laws of cause and effect. They affirm that freedom and free will are fiction and because of this humans have no moral responsibility for their actions. They insist that the sources of motivation behind their thoughts and actions are causualistic and predictable and that free will is an illusion triggered by convenience and ego. The past determines the future.Show MoreRelatedCritically Assess the View That We Are Not Responsible for Our Evil Actions1247 Words   |  5 Pagesmoral situations and that all moral actions have uncontrollable prior causes. Hard determinists, therefore, follow the belief that humans can not be morally blameworthy for their actions, evil or not, because their actions are predetermined. However, this is a ridiculous stance to take as humans are free to make moral choices, meaning they are entirely responsible for their evil actions. Many argue that hard determinism is the best approach to take when assessing this hypothesis as once you abandonRead MoreDeterminism, Compatibilism And Libertarianism1955 Words   |  8 Pagespopular of which are determinism, compatibilism and libertarianism. By discussing the similarities and differences of these perspectives, as well as the strengths and weaknesses, we can determine which of these is most accurate. Determinism is â€Å"the view that every event, including human actions, is brought about by previous events in accordance with universal causal laws that govern the world† (Chaffee 173), which would point to the idea that we do not have free will. Those who support the idea of determinismRead MoreDifference Between Foundationalism And Coherentism2017 Words   |  9 Pagesoriginal premises that support the claim are irrefutable truths which we have used as our foundation for the claim. Coherentism assumes that there is no basic foundational truths that our other beliefs can stand on, its rather a system of beliefs that stop regression by standing in supporting relations to one another. When the beliefs stand in correspondence together they get justification from one another as long as these relations are logically consistent and with out contradictions throughout the entiretyRead MoreThe Question of Free Will: Descartes, Hume, and Nietzsche Essay2067 Words   |  9 Pageswi thout necessity and acting on one’s own discretions, free will still enamors debates today, as it did in the past with philosophers Nietzsche, Descartes, and Hume. There are two strong opposing views on the topic, one being determinism and the other â€Å"free will†. Determinism, or the belief a person lacks free will and all events including human actions are determined by forces outside the will of an individual contrasts the entire premise of free will. Rene Descartes formulates his philosophical