Sustainable Supply Chain Discussion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sustainable Supply Chain Discussion - Essay Example For example, the value stream mapping (VSM) allows identification of all processes performed during the production of specific goods or for performing specific activity. These mapping processes can be used to identify and differentiate between value-adding and non-value adding activities/processes. Secondly, all staff members should be trained on continuously identification of such non-value adding activities in order to maintain continuous improvement of these processes. 2. Considering the need for going green and the enormous issues that are challenging our environment, there can be numerous ways to contribute towards environmental sustainability. Firstly, the staff can be asked to plant more number of trees/bushes wherever possible. This can start from their homes; one day can be dedicated towards planting activities. These plants need to be cared for at least the first few weeks by these volunteers. Secondly, as an initiative at office, stationery used can be cut down. Stationery wastes could include pens, papers, wired equipment etc. All used/non-usable wired equipment must be sent for recycling. Also, storage of wired equipment must be reduced. Contracting with suppliers for supplying just-in-time can be of help during need.

Global Business Environment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Global Business Environment - Assignment Example At the same, there has been progressive scientific understanding into global warming as well as ways that this issue can be mitigated. There have been a lot of international conferences and seminars to educate people on its effects and things that can be done in order to mitigate its effects (Chatham, 2009, p. 34). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been active and effective in the study of global warming and its related effects. The panel researched and discovered that global warming is a result of an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the environment and the general stratosphere. Human beings play an important and active role in the accumulation of these gases in the environment through various activities and processes. The report by IPCC explained that of all the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide was the most prevalent contributor of global warming. At the same time, other different human activities like deforestation play a big role in the accumulation of carbon dioxide. Forests and vegetation cover usually use the excess carbon dioxide in their photosynthetic processes in a process called carbon dioxide fixation. This means that maintaining forest cover is an important step necessary in checking on the effects of global warming. However, people should try their level best in order to reduce on the energy that is released in the atmosphere, there should be effective and successful environmental campaigns aiming at sensitizing people on various methods of environmental management and conservation

Burberry Market Position and Competitor Analysis

Burberry Market Position and Competitor Analysis Ans: Burberrys target customer is someone who wants luxury while being functional. The brands point of difference with other luxury brands is that they could be luxury, aspirational, and functional. Burberry decided they were going to reach these customers from Bravo identifying their niche between labels of Polo Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani on the apparel side, and between Coach and Gucci on the accessories end. The Burberry team priced the products between these price points to reach consumers. Burberry wanted to create the image of accessible luxury. The characteristics of a market are assessed through various models such as analysis of Porters five forces of competitors analysis. Here, we view Burberrys market positioning through its competitors analysis. Burberrys products include continuity products which have a product life cycle of a few years, and fashion products which are designed to respond to a fashion trend. Therefore, the market positioning of the Burberry is unique and varies as it targets trendy as well as classic customers. Burberry targets all its customers through a common theme of functional luxury. Burberrys main competitors include Coach, Armani, Gucci, and Polo, all of which are among top fashion brands in UK and globally. Coach and Gucci, both are more focused towards fashion accessories while Polo and Armani are more focused towards apparels; although all have a range of products in both apparel and accessory categories. Burberry has positioned its brand in the minds of consumers to be functional luxury. Burberry maintains a product line with great width and depth consisting of many products. Their products fall into one of two main categories: fashion or continuity. Fashion products are designed to be responsive to fashion trends and are introduced on a collection-by-collection basis. Continuity products have life cycles that are expected to last for a number of years. Burberry also has three primary collections: womens wear, menswear, and accessories. With so many different products offered in different collection and the fashion vs. continuity of Burberry products the product mix is very great. This contributes to the positioning of the Burberry brand. Burberry has received awards for the Contemporary Design Collection of the Year and the Classic Design Collection of the Year. This illustrates how diverse the Burberry brand is Therefore, the market positioning for Burberry varies. Burberry can appeal to the hip 25-year-old man or the conservative 65 year old man. However, many Burberry ads feature younger models. Recent Burberry ads have featured everything from a British landscape with aristocratic looking models to edger ads with models in bikinis. Taking all of this into account, Burberry is targeted towards many different segments of the population with one common theme, functional luxury. Burberry has many competitors that include: Coach, Polo, Armani, and Gucci. Relative to that of Burberrys competitors, they have positioned themselves very well in the minds of consumers. Coach primary positioning is on handbags. While Coach also carries other accessories that range from watches and shoes to scarves and dog collars, Coach remains primarily in the accessory end of fashion. Coach was also not even a player in the top 10 luxury goods players. However, Coach held 6% of the accessories share and in a price comparison was more on the low end of cost for accessories. This does not however reflect Coachs marketing positioning. Coach is just simply more affordable and more accessible to the general population. Polos marketing positioning is centered more towards clothing. While Polo was a number two player in the top luxury brands they captured the most market share for apparel, however, lower priced than Burberry. The Polo brand has great brand equity and is very well established in the minds of consumers. Armani, another competitor or Burberry, placed 8th in the top 10 global luxury goods. While Armani really only focuses on apparel the brand still maintains a strong luxury position in the market. Gucci also placed in the top 10 global luxury goods. Guccis marketing position is towards luxury accessories. They captured 12% of the accessory market share and were the highest priced brand for accessories. Overall, Burberrys competitive positioning is suitable over the long term. While brand like Coach and Gucci focus more on accessories and Armani and Polo focus more on the apparel market, Burberry has succeeded in penetrating both the accessory and apparel market while remaining a luxury good. Burberry has also succeeded is positing itself between brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren and Armani in apparel, and between Coach and Gucci in accessories. Burberry also has many different lines within the Burberry brand. This allows for more high-end goods and goods that would be feasible for purchase by the general population. Burberrys positioning of functional luxury is extremely competitive and will sustain over the long-term. Q2. Is Burberrys competitive position sustainable over a long term? Why? Ans: Burberry, initially Burberrys was popular amongst the British Royalty during the 1900s for its original designs and uncompromising quality. Thereby, the brand increasingly became a symbol of both luxury and durability. However, during the mid-90s, the company started facing several strategic and structural issues. In spite being a profitable business the earning quality was low. The brand came to be perceived as stodgy-looking and conservative, and skewed to a older customer-base. However, reinvention of the brand took place when Rose Marie Bravo came on board as the chief executive, with the basic motive to transform Burberry from a tired outwear manufacturer into a luxury lifestyle brand that was inspirational, stylish and innovative. The following measures were taken: Recruiting people, who were experienced and skilled in the field, thereby made a A-list industry talent team. Changing the name from Burberrys to Burberry and a contemporary logo and packaging was introduced. Repositioning the brand between cutting-edge fashion and classics. Burberry was positioned as a aspirational as well as functional brand and represented accessible luxury. The product line was upgraded and Burberry came up with three primary segments: Womens wear, Mens wear and accessories. Burberry expanded its portfolio in two segment: low priced labels including Thomas Burberry (in Spain and Portugal) and Burberry Blue and Black labels (in Japan) mainly to appeal younger, more fashion conscious customers and the high-end label Burberry Prorsum to position itself in high-profile luxury market. Advertisement campaign including Stella tenant, featuring a British aristocrat and model Kate Moss featuring the modern, fashion-oriented side. The check prints were an integral part of Burberry design pattern, and accounted almost 25 percent of companys revenue from check products. It also launched Burberry Brit, a new perfume line featuring a check design bottle. Thereby, Burberry positioned itself as a brand between lifestyle and fashion brand. Thus Bravos team brought Burberry from a broken position to a popularity stage. Thus, Burberry holds a competitive edge and positioning in the market. This competitive position for Burberry is sustainable over the long term due to several reasons. Not only due to its particular price points, but Burberrys intensive consumer surveying is also important. Burberry has consistently focused on remaining true to their core brand values and heritage to the Burberry brand. Burberrys market share in 2001 as rated against the top 100 luxury goods players was 5.2%, putting them in 4th place overall. This compares with 14.4% market share for LVMH (1st), 9.1% for Polo Ralph Lauren (2nd), and 4.4% for the Gucci Group (5th). Armani falls short with a smaller percentage (3.5%) of the market. Coach is far below these and does not appear on the top 10. If you compare by the type of luxury good; in accessories: Gucci is at 12%, Coach at 6%, Polo at 4%, and Burberry at 4%. And for apparel considerations: Polo is at 9%, Burberry at 3%, Armani at 2%, and Gucci at 1%. It is clear here that these distinctions occur based on the depth and width of each companys product line. Coach sells far more accessories (i.e. leather goods) than clothing, and Polo sells far more clothing than accessories. Burberry is almost balanced, and sells an equal amount of both, on their 2003 annual report Burberry shows almost even income from womens wear (33.3%), menswear (27.4%), and accessories (28.6%). For this reason, Burberrys competitive position is sustainable, as they have a decent demand for both accessories and apparel. Q3. Bravos team is currently carrying out several initiatives including multiple collections, multiple channels and multiple licenses. What is the role of each of these initiatives in Burberrys overall business model? Ans: Multiple Brands Burberry created multiple brands (Prorsum, London, Blue and Black, Thomas Burberry) to attract certain kind of customers whom they were not targeting initially and to cater certain characteristics of certain customers. This idea supports Bravos goal to attain new customers along with retaining old customers For example, Burberry London was offered as a lower-priced label designed to appeal to a younger, more fashion-conscious customer. Blue and Black is sold in Japan, for younger individuals, and is a foreign product that diversifies the product risk. Burberrys Prorsum product line was introduced to secure their positioning in the niche and luxury market. It shows consumers that Burberry competes with the latest fashions, and represents the highest end of luxury items. Prorsum was used to show the Burberry brand as luxurious and according to Bravo, the Prorsum introduction was created to tell people that something new was happening at Burberry. The idea was to introduce a high-profil e, high-end brand, and do it in a first-class way, by putting it in the best stores in the world. The intended role for Burberrys collections (Womens wear, Menswear Accessories) was due to extensive consumer research to also help recruit a newer consumer. The only way to do this was to update the product line to fit the fashion-desires of current and potential customers, and a way for Burberry to give a consistent look and feel across an array of products. Not only did they maintain creating products that were expected to have a lifespan of a number of years, but they also created other fashion-oriented productsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦designed to be responsive to fashion trends, thus maintaining their flow with fashion evolutions. Burberrys continuity products (classic trench, duffle coats, handbags and scarves) have longer life cycles than that of its fashion oriented products. Care must be taken in analyzing product life cycles. In terms of womens wear, menswear, and accessories, each col lection allows Burberry to compete with its major competition. A collection of accessories allows Burberry to adequately compete with larger accessory players such as Gucci and Coach. Multiple Channels Mass exposure was allowed to customers in wholesale and retails. The company had taken more control over its distribution by purchasing some distributors and severing ties with others. It had 3162 wholesale stores, 434 department stores, and 2728 specialty stores. Multiple Licensees Throughout the 1970s, when Burberry was owned by GUS, the Burberry brand became licensed on too broad of an array to maintain the true image and values of Burberry. With this came overall turmoil when the pricing, designing, and quality of Burberry products became skewed across numerous markets which then resulted in the brand having losing much of its exclusivity and the Far East [accounting] for a disproportionate 75% of sales. Due to this fact, Bravo determined and executed a plan where Burberry would now exercise control over everything from design to sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution. Ultimately, devising this licensing strategy allowed for the elimination of price, design and quality inconsistencies. Multiple licensees allows Burberry to introduce products in markets their competition has better hold of, and still share in some of the profit. These new collections and brands serve to further Burberrys new strategy and to mitigate risk of alienating core customers. Q4. Has Bravos team managed to elevate the overall status of the Burberry brand? Ans: Bravos team has managed to elevate the overall status of the Burberry brand through a complete transformation of the brand from being a classic aristocratic brand to a complete fashion oriented though being well-verse and sticking to its core brand values providing the customers both luxury and durability, for which it is known. The product was positioned as an affordable luxury brand catering customers of all age groups and from different fronts of life. The team rigorously worked to completely overhaul the pricing, distribution, product, and promotion. Multiple product lines and brands were created and the company moved in a global direction. Burberry also saw that by 2002, gross margins were now 56% compared with 47% in 2000. Multiple brands like Burberry Prorsum, Thomas Burberry, Burberry Blue and Black labels were launched to cater every segment in the market place. In terms of distribution, by 2002 Bravo and her team had managed to create world-wide distribution of the Burberry product. According to the study, they had 3,162 wholesale doors worldwide, including 434 department stores and 2,728 specialty stores, and also more than 132 company-owned stores. Lastly, Bravos team challenged themselves in finally devising a plan to promote the Burberry image. With the help of a famed advertising team, the Burberry campaign executed. The first flight launched in 1998 and featured Stella Tenant, a British Aristocrat and ultimately told a story that was able to convey the brand values, tradition, and heritage of the Burberry brand. The following winter, in 1999, the team was able to maintain the value image of Burberry, but also introduced model Kate Moss into their ads to simultaneously convey Burberrys more modern, fashion-oriented side. Ultimately, each challenge remained focused on Bravos original goal to make Burberry a global brand, while maintaining the core values and heritage of Burberry. Thereby, Bravo and her team brought Burberry at a status of most preferred, durable, luxury and also fashion oriented and accessible brand for all age category customers, thereby redefining an elevated status of Burberry.

Early Warning Signs in Elie Wiesels Night Essay -- essays research pa

Denying Life As a son watches his mother take her last breath on her deathbed, an overwhelming grief sets in. Although knowing that his mom smokes and drinks, he never told her to quit or ease up because he thought his mother can never die. In this case, the offset of this denial is his mom’s early death but, the denial by the Jews during 1942, caused a far more superior calamity, six million deaths! Alas, just like the boy who lost his mother, the Jews have signs and warnings to escape the invasion and Elie Wiesel does a superb job of incorporating that in his book, Night. These overlooked chances, or motifs, are Moshe not getting the respect for his word, uncomprehending the news that is given to the Jews, and the misjudgment of how evil a man Hitler is. If one is saved from a massacre of his or her own people, it is indispensable that he or she return back to his or her homeland and warn others of their approaching fate. This should give them enough time to pack their belongings and flee from their invaders. In Elie Wiesel’s painful memoir Night, there is a minor character that experiences this sequence, and his name is Moshe the Beadle. The only difference in the cycles is that when Moshe returns, nobody believes him of his incident. When Moshe returns, one citizen exclaims, â€Å"’He’s just trying to make us pity him. Or even: ‘Poor fellow, He’s gone mad.’† The cause of this persecution may be because of his â€Å"waiflike timidity,† but even so, heeding Moshe’s advice could have granted the Jews of Sighets’ protection from the Nazi concentration camps. An additional reason why Moshe was not given the proper respect might be because he was deeply religious. The o ther members in town may have been led to believe that Moshe had s... ...f the major Optimism of the Jews is that they could not comprehend the killing of all their people. They see it as a task that contains no possible way to be fulfilled. They justify it by saying â€Å"Was he going to wipe out a whole people? Could he exterminate a population scattered throughout so many countries? So many millions! What methods could he use?† (6). The answer to their question is yes but there is many chances to escape this fate, although the Jews of Sighet deny it. Understating Hitler, denying the media, and not realizing the depth of Hitler’s evil, were all the motifs shown above and is proof on how the Jews of Sighet deny their warning signs of an upcoming holocaust. Heeding these signs may have granted many of them life in a place that manufactured death. And when the race toward death began, it was the village idiot that came out to be the smartest.

Performance Appraisal Notes

A. Explain the benefits of performance appraisal systems within an organization in which you address the following: A1. Present the optimal results of a well prepared and well-delivered performance appraisal. *If the company establishes a well prepared and well delivered performance appraisal, what are the best results the company can expect? (employee prospective and company perspective are good here) Performance appraisals are a tool that most companies use when assessing their employees.A well prepared and well delivered performance appraisal can be beneficial to both the employee and the company. The company benefits in many different ways when they deliver this type of performance appraisal. The performance appraisal process allows the company to reiterate the goals that they have, as well as change the priority of previous goals. Things change all the time and the evaluation would be the perfect place to make this aware to employees. The company also can use these performance e valuations when they are preparing to promote within the company.When the company promotes from within it creates a moral boost to current employees by letting them know that there are chances for growth within the company. The evaluations also give the company a paper trail of documentation for use if legal actions are ever taken. This will show just cause for the decisions made by the company. These decisions could be linked to promotion, termination, salary raises, and even poor performance documentation. It is always in the best interests of the company to keep documentation that will justify all decisions.The company also benefits by learning areas of needed improvement to help raise productivity and moral throughout the company. Employees will see the loyalty the company has towards them when the company invests time and money into their employee’s improvement. Personal goals of the employees is another benefit the company has through performance evaluations. The compan y can see where the employee wants to be in the future, which may uncover a potential management trainee that was overlooked. Companies can greatly benefit by promoting employees that have personal goals that match company goals.The company is not the only entity that benefits from these performance appraisals. The employee benefits as much as the company does. The performance appraisal process gives each employee a face-to-face meeting with their supervisor or manager. This is a perfect chance for the employee to learn exactly what the company expects from them. This gives a chance to clear up any issues or questions that may have been weighing on the employee. A well prepared and well delivered performance appraisal will raise the moral of the employee as well.The employee will know what specific things he has done well, which will enable them to keep them up. The areas that the supervisor feels needs improvement will be discussed and they can both agree on a way of getting the em ployee more training. The employee feels more involved in these decisions when the supervisor allows for their input on decisions. This makes the employee feel the company has loyalty and therefore the company wants to help the employee achieve all their performance goals. The employee also benefits by letting the company know their future goals.This will allow for the company to help the employee out in all ways possible. For example, the employee may want to be in a different department in the next year. The company could possibly start cross-training the employee in that department, therefore helping both parties reach their goals. This could benefit both the company and the employee by showing support and possibly raising performance. These regularly scheduled performance appraisals will promote better performance through employees knowledge of what is expected of them.A2. Recommend pre-appraisal activities that ensure they are performance appraisal processes that are beneficial to the employee and the company. *What happens before the appraisal? (suggestion: ongoing activities and in the time proximal to the performance review) It is important to make time for pre-appraisal activities to make sure that the benefits are at max potential. It will hurt the chances of maximizing gains for both the company and the employee if the following activities are not done beforehand.The most important thing when it comes to being ready for the performance appraisal is being well prepared. The manager needs to make sure that he sets aside enough time to perform the pre-appraisal activities. These activities include establishing a time for the appraisal and relating it to the employee, making sure to lay out all new and old goals for the employee, giving the employee an advance copy of the review, collecting the employee’s review of themselves, and collecting all notes taken that may validate your points and emphasize your decisions as well as the last  performa nce appraisal.It is important to make sure that the employee has enough time to prepare for the appraisal. This allows for quality feedback from them and will also lead to quality questions. In order to make it the most beneficial appraisal possible, then both sides need to be well prepared. Goals and expectations will be completely understood if both parties have an idea of what’s expected of them. The employee can have questions ready for things that they may not understand. There may be instances where they can ask for additional training in areas they know they are weaker in.The act of giving the employee the advance copy of the review will make sure that the employee is not blind-sided and will significantly lower the amount of defensiveness. The employee will have questions ready to ask their managers, which will in turn make for a more rewarding appraisal. The employee’s review of themselves will also let the manager know where the employee sees himself performi ng. This could in turn get the manager ready for an employee that felt he was above expectations on everything, but in reality the manager seen the total opposite.This will allow for the manager to prepare himself with the necessary responses for the possible situations or questions. It is also important for the manager to have all the documentation that supports his thought or decisions. A copy of the previous appraisal will also allow for the manager to show what strengths and weaknesses the employee may have had in reaching previous goals. The manager will have more backing and a proper paper documentation basis for all decisions. A well prepared appraisal will lead to a happier and a more beneficial meeting between the two parties.A3.  Recommend post-appraisal activities that ensure there are performance appraisal processes that are beneficial to the employee and the company. *What happens after the appraisal? Activities that occur just after the performance review (meeting) u p through 364 days after. The appraisal is has now been concluded and it is time to make sure that it remains beneficial. It is important that the employee knows that the manager is going to do everything possible to make sure the employee can be the best he can. It is now time to implement the training programs that were discussed with the employee.This will show the employee that the company is investing the time and money on them. The company and the employee will both benefit if the employee reaches their full potential. Daily, weekly, or monthly follow-up meetings with the employee may also be necessary and beneficial. This will allow for a personal relationship to be formed between manager and employee, which will in turn give a sense of trust towards management. Managers can also continue to take notes on observations about what the employee is improving at, or can document what the employee seems to be struggling with.This will give the manager things to go over when they ar e having these follow-up meetings. It is also important to let the employee know that he can come to the manager if they have any questions or concerns about their progress from the previous appraisal. This will allow for the manager to give the employee the proper accommodations to fulfill their goals. A4. Illustrate what can go wrong when giving feedback. *If you consider the performance review a communication loop or conversation, what can go wrong during this critical feedback period?Illustration means giving detail and specifics. There are a lot of issues that can go wrong through the process of giving feedback during a performance appraisal. An employee’s moral can drop significantly if the manager spends all his time telling the employee only the things they do wrong. The appraisal process should focus on what the employee is doing right and what areas the company can help them improve in. It is important that the manager emphasizes that both the company and the employ ee benefit from maximizing the employee’s performance.The employee should have some input on the areas of training they need to improve in. This will allow the employee to have a sense of ownership in the training process. They will be more inept to go along with the accommodations and training programs decided upon. Employees may also become defensive if they feel the manager is throwing a bad performance review on them. An employee may walk into a performance appraisal thinking they have been doing a good job, but the manager throws them a curve that suggests they are not performing to the companies standards.If the employee has no idea what’s coming, then they will be prone to defend themselves in order to not look as bad. There will be a less chance of the employee agreeing with the training suggestions for improvement. Another affect from this scenario would be that the sense of trust between the manager and employee could be lost. In this event, the employee went in to the meeting thinking all was good, but now they feel that they can no longer trust the manager. There is also the possibility of a biased review when it comes to performance appraisals.This could happen if the manager rated the employee a certain way because they were not liked on a personal level. There may be a promotion coming up and the manager wants someone that they are friends with to get that new opening. This could lead to a biased review that could potentially lead to legal issues. There are always the possibility of reviews being biased, which could lead to legal actions being taken. A5. Discuss steps that a manager might take when delivering a performance appraisal for optimal value. *Of all those things can go wrong in A4, how can we avoid those? What steps can a manager take?It is very important for the manager to follow steps that will lead to the delivery of an optimal valued performance appraisal. The things that must be present in order to achieve this are t he idea that the evaluation is based off the performance of the employee, maintain an environment during the meeting that promotes moral and includes the employee’s thoughts, keep the evaluation focused on the employee, equip the employee with the appraisal before the meeting, remain unbiased in the employees evaluation, and to keep in mind the possibility of legal issues that could come from a biased evaluation.A performance evaluation is given to do just what it says, evaluate only the performance of the employee. It is extremely important to make sure that the focus on the evaluation is that of the employee’s performance. If this is followed when doing the employee’s appraisal, then it leads to making sure the employee understands that all topics will relate to performance only. It is also important to make sure that the manager promotes an environment to promote moral for the employee. This can be done by specifically telling the employee what he has done we ll since the last appraisal.It is important to make sure the meeting is not based just off what the employee is not doing right, but instead about areas he is excelling at and areas that he could improve in. Moral can be boosted by taking the employee’s thoughts into consideration for the training and accommodations that they need. The employee will feel valued by the company and manager if they have some sort of contribution. It is possible to have an employee that has underperformed in every area leave the meeting with a moral boost, but this depends on the environment which has been setup by the manager.It also a must to equip the employee with a copy of your appraisal before the meeting. This will allow for the employee to come to the meeting prepared and with a knowing of questions that will maximize his performance growth. The manager can even ask for a list of questions from the employee. This will allow for the manager to be prepared to give the employee the best corr ect response. The employee will not feel that they have to be defensive when they have some sort of idea what is coming in the review. Managers must maintain that all appraisals are based on the employee’s performance and are free of bias.It is a manager’s duty to make sure that they exclude any biased evaluations for their employees. Managers could get the company into legal troubles by allowing for biased evaluations. It is critical that they keep in mind all legal issues that could arise from their meetings with their employees. The company can be found liable for any discrimination that the manager promotes or demonstrates. It is important to keep the appraisal about performance only. A6. Discuss the benefits to the company of working with employees to further their career goals.*Company perspective—what are the positive consequences of discussing career goals with employees? The company benefits in many ways when it works with employees to further their car eer goals. A big benefit for the company is the increased performance that comes when it helps employees reach their career goals. Performance is an area that is important to all companies and getting the most out of each employees is key to helping the employee grow. These employees that can reach their potential have the foundation to move up within their company.Some companies have special programs that monitor potential management trainees. This keeps the company on top of these employees and makes sure they keep challenging them. If companies take an interest in furthering their employee’s career goals, then these employees feel a sense of loyalty and are less prone to leave the company for career advancement. This keeps the turnover down for the company, which in return saves money for the company by not having to reinvest time and money in new employees. It will also boost moral by allowing employees to see that promotions are made from within the company.This will all ow all employees to see that the company is just as committed and loyal to them, as they are to the company. This will make it easier for the employees to see that there is potential for promotion. The company also invests time and money into employees as they are prepared to advance through the company. The company can learn that an employee is interested in moving up within the company, which the company could then evaluate a plan of training for the employee. The company could also implement career development programs that their employees could enroll.Managers could also recommend employees for these development programs. The perfect time to talk to employees about personal career goals is during the performance appraisal. This will help the manager set goals that will lead the employee towards reaching his career goals. It will become very valuable for the company to learn that their goals are a match to an employee’s. B. Discuss the evaluation of teams within an organiz ation in which you address the following: B1. Summarize research of effectively assessing team performance. There are various models that can be used to assess team performance.The assessment of team performance is becoming more and more standard with the emergence of team environments. The three models that I have decided to research to evaluate team performance are the absolute judgment method, the behavioral appraisal method, and the management by objectives (MBO) method. These are all valuable assessment methods that are used by many different types of organizations. It is important to remember that no single assessment method is 100% perfect, so be sure to take into consideration which works best for the company.The absolute judgment method is an assessment of performance that is based only off the performance standards that are set. It does not compare one employee to the next, therefore there could be multiple employees with the same ratings. In the textbook Managing Human Re sources it states, â€Å"the dimensions of performance deemed relevant for the job are listed on the rating form, and the manager is asked to rate the employee on each dimension. †1 This method allows for a manager from a different area to assess the performance of the team, since there are set standards set.We can use the example that each of our sales  teams has a performance standard of making 15 sales per week. If the team has averaged 18 sales per week over the last six months then any manager could see that their performance is above performance standards. The idea that there are preset performance standards that are known makes it easy for the manager to rate the team’s performance. The benefits of this system is that it doesn’t put employees against each other during the evaluation and that there is documentation that supports the assessment of the employee. In the event of legal issues, this method makes it easier for the company to prove why the asse ssment is rated the way it is.The negative side of this method could be variances in evaluation standards of different managers and also there could be issues judging individual performance when assessing the team. It is important to make sure that assessments reflect not only the team, but also the individuals on each team. The behavioral appraisal method is another method that could be used to assess team performance. This method looks at the behaviors that are performed by the team and its individuals. A manager may focus on things like whether the team is back from lunch on time, whether the team is prepared for meetings, or whether the team shows up for work daily.The focus is laid on behaviors that the company deems important to improve performance. The most commonly known example of this method is the Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS). Robert Bacal describes its differences by stating, â€Å"it focuses on behaviors that are determined to be important for completing a job task or doing the job properly, rather than looking at more general employee characteristics. †2 This method is used to appraise whether a person is doing what is expected of their job. For example, a salesperson may be evaluated on whether or not they successfully ring up every piece of merchandise on every transaction.This is a very valuable step for a salesperson’s job description. This step is extremely important to make sure the company is not losing money. The behavior’s that are being evaluated in this type of appraisal are more specific to the job at hand. The benefits of this type of appraisal is that it makes it easier on the company to spot areas that need improvement and to provide possible solutions, it promotes the behaviors that are necessary for the employee to be successful and productive, and it provides documentation that supports the legal aspect of backing up the evaluation.The job description and role  of the employee has to be resear ched to make sure this type of assessment is appropriate. Management by objectives (MBO) is another strategy that can be used to evaluate performance. MBO is a strategy that relies on setting goals or objectives that the employee is expected to reach. This strategy can be a little time consuming if the job description relies on a steady change of objectives. In order for MBO to be an effective strategy for appraisal, then the manager would have to meet with the employees either daily, weekly, monthly, or possibly quarterly to go over the objectives.It is important for the manager to make sure that all objectives are given to the employees and they are understood. A major benefit for this type of assessment is that the evaluation of specific goals does a fantastic job of cutting out the chance for biased evaluations. It is also a benefit that the objectives can be changed for each job description rather quickly. An issue with this type of assessment is that employees tend to focus ma inly on the objectives and goals that are set by managers, which in turn could lead to other areas falling. Paul Kevin Michaelree states, â€Å"the MBO process focuses attention not on the person but on the job.†3 This shows that the MBO is focused on reaching objectives and does not leave room for a biased evaluation. This assessment focuses more of setting goals for specific jobs and not for specific people. A manager should set objectives or goals for all production workers to be the same. This would mean that each person under the job title production worker would have the same goals or objectives. This would leave solid documentation for future possible legal matters. Behavioral Appraisal Instruments Management by Objectives (MBO) *Research and discuss 2-3 models of team performance. How can the company evaluate team results effectively?  (need sources: in-text citations and references)B2. Recommend a strategy for the company to adopt to assess team performance. *Which one should the company use? Why? I believe the best appraisal method for our organization would be MBO. I believe that our company would benefit the most by aligning the objectives of the company to the objectives of the employee. Our managers have a great deal of knowledge in the company’s goals and objectives. They can look at the jobs that are done in their departments and make sure that the goals and objectives for their employees are steps in the direction of the company’s.The MBO strategy will give the company goal seeking employees. We will see a change of direction in the way things are done by the employees. There are beliefs that we could lose employee performance in other, non-objective areas. The answer to this is to make sure that the company’s ethics policy is followed at all times. The new performance assessment strategy may have the employees thinking heavily about quantity, but the managers must continue to stress the importance of quality as w ell. This method of assessing the employees will also take away the error and bias that come along with other methods.The assessment of a team will no longer have room for the manager to use bias when evaluating, since all teams doing the same job will have the same objectives. There may be individuals, like team leaders, within the teams that may have added personal objectives. The idea of the managers spending more time with the employees is also a benefit for the company. Each manager will have to spend more time with individual employees as well as the teams. Managers will have to meet with the teams weekly, monthly, or quarterly to ensure the objectives are understood.This makes it easy for the managers to make sure changes in objectives are relayed quickly. It will mean that our employees will not have to wait until their next assessment to find out their new goals. This could make it easier to see which teams are performing and which are not. We can easily make accommodations or setup training for teams that need it. This method of assessing our company will work the best for growing our employees, managers, and the company in whole. B3. Illustrate the benefits to the company of working with employees to further their career goals.*Illustrate differences between team and individual performance assessment. Bloom’s Taxonomy clarifies that â€Å"illustrate† means: solve, calculate, interpret, relate, apply, classify or put into practice. So, even though you won’t really â€Å"paint† for this illustration, you are trying to show that you can apply what you have learned from section A, B1, and B2. Discuss and give examples. Our company would benefit by working with employees to help them further their career goals. Our company does both individual and team performance assessments.It is vital to our company’s growth that we make sure to work with our employees to help them further their career goals. Individual performance a ssessments allow our managers the chance to talk with their employees about their career goals. Managers will then look at how their employee’s goals complement our company’s goals. Managers will have an idea of whom they feel has long term ties to the company are willing to move up in position. It is cheaper on the company to keep a low turnover ratio and not have to keep training new people.It also will bring up moral, throughout the employee ranks, as they see promotions within the company. Employees will continue to perform and work hard if they see that there are rewards waiting. Career advancement consists of moving up the ranks, whether at the same company or at a new one. It benefits our company to keep our loyal employees. Manager trainees are most often found within the company through these performance appraisals. For example, the manager of the shipping department may have an employee that has shown advancement capabilities in the last two annual appraisals .This year the manager learns that shipping will increase and he will need another lead. The manager could easily pick the employee that has showed promise for the last few years, which could lead to another promotion a few years down the line if he keeps his performance up. Team performance appraisal also benefits the company in a lot of the ways the individual performance assessment does. Team performance is increased when you show that the company has furthering their career goals in mind. It is always a benefit to the company when performance levels are increased.The company also benefits from employees helping train and educate their teammates. This saves the company money from having to setup special training classes for certain people. Teams understand that their performance are not based off individual success, but rather what they do as a whole. There is understanding that if one person in the group fails to pull their weight, then the whole team suffers. Companies also get a good idea of whom the leaders are in each group. This works out to the company’s advantage as they can easily spot individuals who are ready to advance in the company.It is up to the manager to make sure the employees know that the company is here to help them advance their careers as much as possible. Comments on this criterion: The presentation identifies a few differences between evaluating team performance and individual performance, such as the training that is conducted and how success is obtained, but the presentation focuses more on the company's benefits for furthering goals of each type of performance, rather than on the differences that exist when evaluating team performance and individual performance.Please provide additional detail and discussion on the differences that exist when evaluating team and individual performance, in order to appropriately satisfy the task prompt. There are differences that exist when evaluating team performance and individual perfor mance. Individual performance evaluations usually tie in with the salary raises of the individual. The individual performance evaluations are based on the job description for which position they were hired for. Individual objectives and the duties of the job are the things that the manager will evaluate and then decide what the individual needs improving on.A team performance is based on the goals and objectives set for the team. The manager will evaluate how the team has done as far as accomplishing their goals. Team performance evaluations can look bad if one member is not capable of pulling their weight. It would be up to the other teammates to make sure to help the individual out as far as training and development. The team realizes that if one member fails, then the whole team fails. Individuals of the team are aware that the evaluation process is uniquely different than what an individual performance evaluation brings.Accountability is hard easy to evaluate in individual appra isals, but in team appraisals it is easy to overlook a weak member if the rest of the team picks up the weight. Peer reviews are a way of looking at how the team works together. This form of appraisal is a good way to account for all individuals in the group, but biased appraisal could be an issue. Team performance greatly depends on accountability, communication, and decision making. It is important to make sure that there is good communication between the team and that a leader emerges to take control of making sure team objectives are met.This will make sure that all members are held accountable for their work within the group. Individual performance appraisals typically happen once or twice a year. Team performance appraisals could happen as often as every project change. This leans toward team evaluations happening a lot more often than individual performance appraisals. Rewards and compensation are linked to appraisals, but can differ in the ways they are seen from the individ uals. Individual appraisals will reward and compensate the individual on how good they were at doing their job and reaching their goals and objectives.Managers have to manage their time allotted for evaluations differently based on which type of review they are doing and depending on how often they will evaluate. Team performance can also reward and compensate, but sometimes it is deemed unfair. Members can sometimes feel cheated when a weaker team member is rewarded the same way. This can come back to a faulty evaluation if peer reviews are not used. The differences in the two types of appraisals can vary from time, accountability, rewards and compensation, and methods of evaluations.It is very important to make sure all communication about goals and objectives are understood between managers and employees, which will lead to better performance throughout the company. C. Discuss the concept of succession planning with an organization in which you address the following: C1. Present reasons for adopting succession planning. *Why would a company do succession planning? Addresses company needs ahead of time Allows company to select best candidates Focuses on the future Meets company needs by finding competent employeesSuccession planning is very important when it comes to continuing the company’s success in the future. It seems that a lot of companies are realizing that replacement hiring is not the best option for long term quality employees. Companies are starting to realize the commitment level that employees are willing to give when they have companies that train and promote within. Succession planning looks within the company and finds its future leaders and manager from the ranks. The company will then send the selected employees through various training and developmental programs to get them ready for future succession.This could be a lengthy process and employees should not look at this plan as a two week training period. Succession planning is a d rawn out process for the future needs of the company. A replacement hiring method usually brings people in right away for a specific job opening that the company was not preparing or planning for. Succession planning allows for the company to pick candidates that are right for a position that may have someone retiring in the next two years. This will give the employee a two year period to learn and train with the person they are taking over for.It is important for the company to choose the best of their talent pool when they are planning for future trends. Succession planning also allows for the company to give employees a shot at reaching their career goals within the company. It is always a good thing for an employee to know they do not have to leave their company in hopes of advancing. Moral and performance are usually higher when employees know that they are not working in a dead end position. Our company will give all employees the chance to further their careers. C2. Discuss h ow succession planning can be used by the given company. *How to use it?What are the side benefits? What may happen in the process of implementing the components of a succession planning system? What can go well if these side benefits occur? Succession planning can be used in all sorts of way depending on how each company wants to go at the process. I believe that our company can benefit greatly and build a future that has no boundaries. I believe that our company can use succession planning to our benefit by keeping a deep group of candidates for possible promotion within the company. It is always good to have someone trained and ready to take over in the event we have someone leave the company.The company should have an idea of what members of leadership are coming upon retirement or which ones are approaching the end of their time with the company. We must understand that there are going to be instances where we may lose people that we are not planning on losing. Succession plann ing will come in handy and have people ready to assume these positions in these instances. It is crucial to have people being trained and obtaining the knowledge that our leadership can pass on. This will entail for our company’s morals and prior knowledge to be passed down to our new leadership recruits.I also feel that it will continue to give our company a good reputation as being a place that challenges our employees and works dramatically to enhance their careers. People look for places like this when they are transitioning their careers. This program will make us the place all career oriented people will want to work. This will allow for us to keep recruiting the top talent for both our organization and our succession planning program. Succession planning also comes with side benefits for the company. Implementing this program here at our company will allow us to keep employees loyal.Loyalty can save the company a lot of money, which will keep costs of training new asso ciates down. Our company invests time and money into training employees and we want to make sure we are not wasting these assets. Employees will have an idea of what things they need to do in order to become potential candidates for succession planning. This will give our employees drive and motivation to keep performing at high levels. The company also benefits by passing knowledge from our older leadership into the younger leaders of tomorrow. It is very important that knowledge is not lost in the transition.Young leaders can learn resourceful information that will keep them from making past mistakes over again. We also benefit by maintaining a good reputation as a solid company that promotes career goals of employees. This reputation will help the company keep pulling in promising talent for both the company and the program. This will help us keep that company moving forward in the direction that past leaders have set us up for. The side benefits will help our company in growth t hroughout the future as long as we keep the goals and objectives matching future outlooks.We must remember that this program is setup to keep us going forward. There are lots of possibilities that could come from us implementing succession planning. Some of the possibilities are good and some are not so good. Time constraints could be a negative possibility that could come in various instances. A few examples of how time constraints could hurt us would be that all members of the succession planning team keep having things come up or that it just takes too long to prove to the employees that this will work. Employees will want to see this program successfully in action before they buy in to it totally.There is also the possibility of communication issues. Employees that do not receive the information effectively will think they are excluded. It is key to a successful succession plan that all communication lines are effectively thought out and successfully implemented. We must make su re the employees know how this will benefit their careers and what is required of them for this program. This could also be a benefit for the company because it could give a better communication line between leadership, employees, and HR. Communication is always important in the company and we can benefit greatly from it.Goals, ethics, and company morals are all things that must be successfully communicated between the company’s employees. The company will also benefit by finding stronger candidates for the program. The implementation will help the company find the best candidates that could end up leading the company into the future. C3. Illustrate a succession planning process for the company. *What are the steps of a succession plan? Be specific. (â€Å"illustrate†) The succession planning process will not go anywhere if we do not have the backing and support of upper management and the CEO.It is crucial to the plan that these managers are around showing support at various times. Once we have the backing we need we must research the objectives and core concepts that are to be gained through implementing the succession planning program. We must look at ways to get the employees to back the program, we have to develop ways to estimate what we will need as far as future management openings go, and we have to look into current managers that could make a good succession planning team. We must then select a development team that should come from various areas of our company.This will help us diversify the way our program works by bringing in people with different skill sets to help lay the foundation for our succession planning program. This highly diverse team will research the company’s potential for growth in all areas and will estimate potential moves that will be made in the future. This will help our team develop a highly successful design that focuses on the company’s future goals and projections for growth. Possible future move s will be accounted for and our program design will leave room for reviews and possible adjustments.It is extremely important that we focus on a communication plan to help announce it to the company. We will want our employees to realize that this is in place to help them and that we welcome all forms of communication from them. We will stress the importance of communicating possible problems or possible solution they may have thought about. This open communication will help the company by making it easier for the employees to buy into. We want to make sure that no one is left out when we make this official to everyone. A good communication plan will get this information out to all employees through various avenues.We will use e-mail, intranet, bulletin boards, departmental meetings, and any other ways that we feel are potentially used to communicate important company information. We must also make sure that we successfully communicate what requirements are associated with getting p icked for the program. This will help in keeping the moral, loyalty, and performance levels at a high. As the program is implemented we must make sure it is reviewed and evaluated, which will help us make changes to the process if we deem there are necessary changes that need to take effect.It is crucial that the designed program has room for changes as the company or business changes. If we spend the time to build the program and leave no room for change, then we will end up scraping it down the road and it will be a short-term plan instead of a long-term investment for the company. CONCLUSION It is important to remember that the company’s growth and prosperity is greatly tied to the three main areas we have discussed. We must continue to improve our performance appraisal systems, which will in turn allow us to notice possible candidates to promote within the company.We must realize that both the company and the employees benefit from these performance appraisals. Some on th e benefits the company receives is that we can promote from within, it allows us to reiterate or change goals, paper trail for documentation, it identifies weak areas and allows us to give training, and it boosts moral and performance. The employee benefits by having moral and performance boosted, face-to-face time with managers, better understanding of company expectations and goals, and they feel a sense of loyalty from the company.Pre and post appraisal activities are also important to ensure that these appraisals are as effective as can be. Pre-appraisals activities include establishing meeting times, collecting new and old goals, make sure to give employees an advance copy of their appraisal, and collecting all notes and previous appraisals. Post-activities would include the implementation of discussed training programs, scheduling follow-up meetings with employees, continue to observe and make notes on employees, and reinforce an open door policy to all employees.These are key steps to make sure that these performance appraisals benefit the company as much as possible. An effective appraisal system put in place within our company will benefit all areas and aspects. An importance should be put on making sure the proper steps are taken for optimal performance appraisal. These steps should include things like managers basing evaluation off performance, promote moral and including employee’s thoughts, focusing on the employee, give them access to your evaluation before the meeting, remain unbiased, and to keep possible legal issues in mind while performing the performance appraisal.It is also a benefit to incorporate the employee’s goals into the performance appraisal. Employees will feel that the company is loyal to them by making their objectives match some of their personal career goals. It is important to stress the importance of promoting the employee’s career goals to all managers that do performance appraisals. This will help rais e the performance level of our company. Team performance appraisals are also important for the benefit and growth of the company.There are many different techniques that can be used to assess the performance of teams, but I recommend that our company base appraisals off the management by objectives (MBO) model. This will help us assure that employees are focused on goals or objectives, it will help remove added chance of errors or bias in appraisals, and it will give the managers a chance to spend more time with employees. There are benefits for both individual and team performance appraisals.Individual appraisals benefit the company by helping to identify which employee’s career goals match the companies and it helps increase the individual’s performance. Team appraisals benefit the company by raising performance of teams, having employees train other team members that need additional development, and it gives management an idea of which people may be ready for an upw ard movement within the company. Furthering the career goals of employees will show everyone in the company that we are invested in them.Succession planning is the last area that we discussed, but it is an area that can help the company as it moves into the future. Succession planning will help us generate candidates that will be trained for potential management positions that become available. The company benefits of this plan include the addressing of needs before they occur, allows the company to select and train best candidates, it focuses on the future of the company, and it will keep employees loyal to the company. The right steps for a succession plan are also important to ensure that it will be successful.It would not be a good thing to invest time and money into a program that was not developed for success. The rights steps include getting proper backing from upper management, researching objectives and core concepts of the company, select a team from various areas with var ious skill sets, research future needs and goals of the company, develop an effective communication plan, implement communication plan to get program out to all employees, and continue to evaluate and review the program to ensure it changes as the company’s goals and objectives change.These are the steps that are important when implementing a successful succession planning program. The CEO and board of directors should implement these area into the company. The performance reviews would be an issue that HR could complete and make sure all managers understand the new performance appraisal policy. There could be training scheduled to help managers get comfortable with the new appraisal process. We also need to make sure the employees are made aware of the benefits that they will gain by this new appraisal process.The upper management really just needs to make sure that the company knows that they support the new process. We need to make sure that managers incorporate the furthe ring of employee’s career goals into the objectives and work goals that they establish for the employee. This will keep employees loyal to our company, as we show the employee that we are loyal to them. Team performance appraisals also need to be established to be effective. This will be done by adopting the MBO appraisal process for team performance appraisals.Our employees will be more goal oriented and will perform at a high level in order to accomplish these goals. It is important that managers continue to stress the importance of quality to all workers and establish that the code of ethics should be followed all the time. We do not want short cuts taken to raise performance levels. Succession planning is an area that will need more time from upper management. The CEO and the board of directors need to fully believe in and support the succession plan that is put into effect. This plan will not work without the proper backing from upper management.HR will start the process and select the most diverse group to bring the most skill sets as possible. This team will then come up with a design to implement for succession planning. Upper management should stay involved and show the company that it supports all that is going on. Inputs and thoughts can be added or given to the design team. This success of this program will be the success of the company. Upper management has invested many years in making sure the company has grown as commanded, but now this design will lead the company to the same success in the future.

Toyota Production System -Business and Marketing Strategy, Swot Analysis and Its Implementation Plan

{draw:g} Contents Executive Summary *â€Å"Toyota Service Management and Project Implementation Plan*† Report provides the complete analysis of Toyota and its Production System. The report includes the brief history about organisation and consists of a comprehensive description about Toyota Production System (TPS). Further we have analysed the Business and Marketing strategy of the Toyota and performed the â€Å"SWOT† analysis in order to understand the strengths, weaknesses of the organisation and also threats to the organisation. The information that had been gathered via various means of the overall Business functioning of Toyota has been transformed graphically into â€Å"Blueprint† that helps us to have a better picture of Toyota’s business. Blueprint of Toyota has been embedded as a major part of the report. On the basis of analysis and blueprint a project plan has been devised to implement the project in a new location. The Project plan has been developed using MS Project and report encompasses the Activity on Node Diagram (Network Diagram) and Gantt Chart to give a detail explanation of the project implementation by breaking down the implementation process into different phases. Finally the report includes financial statements that include the Balance Sheet and Cash Flow sheet to implicate the financial transactions and cost the project would imply on organisation for starting a new venture in Melbourne. The Purpose of this report is to Analyse a Service Industry, its Business and marketing strategy, develop a blueprint, devise a project plan and financial budget for successful implementation of the company in Melbourne using various statistical and organizational information available. History and Background Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational company headquartered in Japan and it is one of the best car selling companies in the world. The company was founded in the year 1937 by a successful businessman – Mr. Kiichiro Toyoda. [1] Toyota Group is the largest group of industries in the world. Toyota Industries develops and manufactures automobiles and automobile-related products, such as vehicles, engines, car air-conditioning compressors, car electronics components and devices, and stamping dies. In the vehicle and engine businesses Toyota has achieved a top-class level of quality and productivity within the Toyota Group and is contributing to Toyota Motor Corporation's car production. 9] Toyota employs the expertise it has mainly accumulated through its automobile manufacturing business to conduct business in a variety of other fields including housing, finance, communications, GAZOO, marine, and biotechnology and afforestation. [10] {text:list-item} Toyota's management philosophy has evolved from the company's origins and has been reflected in the terms â€Å"Lean Manufacturing† and Just In Time Production, which it was instrumental in developing. The Toyota Way has four components: Long-term thinking as a basis for management decisions. A process for problem-solving. Adding value to the organization by developing its people. Recognizing that continuously solving root problems drives organizational learning. The Toyota Way incorporates the Toyota Production System. [2] {text:list-item} Toyota has long been recognised as an industry leader in manufacturing and production. Regardless of the origin, the principles, described in Toyota's management philosophy, The Toyota way, are as follows: Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface Use â€Å"pull† systems to avoid overproduction Level out the workload Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment Use visual control so no problems are hidden Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others 10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy 11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve 12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation (genchi genbutsu) 13. Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly 14. Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement [2] Business and Marketing Strategy text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:t oc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:list-item} Toyota adopted series of globalization strategies to become a formidable contender in the global automobile market from being Japan’s number one automaker. The Business strategies have evolved over the years to earmark its global development and drive through all the steam in mist of challenges. Business Strategy currently pursued by Toyota has been described in detail: Growth Strategy by region:- Operations tailored to various conditions in each region Hybrid Vehicle (HV) Strategy: The strategy is to become number 1 selling automaker in HV market. Thus motive is to increase hybrid vehicle and unit supply capacity and making HV systems smaller and lighter and thereby reducing the cost. Management Foundation Strategy*: This is a unique strategy being adopted by Toyota for self improvement. The Binding reasons for developing these strategies are improving quality, reducing cost and developing human resources. {text:list-item} {text:list-item} Toyota has been aggressively pursuin g marketing strategy to effectively implement the business strategy. Toyota’s successes are largely due to its ability to identify growth opportunities and develop marketing strategies to capture them. Firstly, they achieved greater market penetration by marketing their cars as fuel-efficient, well-built alternatives to the gas-guzzling, problem-prone American cars. Secondly, Toyota was also able to identify new opportunities for market development and spent time on product development to tap into these markets. The results of Toyota’s product development were the creation of Lexus and Scion, brands that both offered a unique line up of cars, a unique brand philosophy, and services that target the luxury and youth market. Third, in spite of their successes in capturing new markets and achieving greater market penetration, Toyota occasionally downsizes their products such as the Celica and MR2. The goal was to make difference using sophisticated, normal way while still encompassing luxuries of everyday life. Toyota adopted marketing strategies to brand their car among the identified segmented market. [8] Marketing Strategy for Youth Toyota focuses mainly on the youth market by advertising through youth-oriented media (Rolling Stone, MTV, late-night programming), creating a flashy website to highlight their brand philosophy, and sponsoring live concerts. Not only does it specifically target the young buyers, but they also simplified their sales tactics by offering no-haggle pricing, which means that Scion dealers will not be allowed to negotiate prices or pressure a potential customer into buying, and giving their customers a high degree of vehicle customization. Because of these marketing tactics, Toyota was not only able to bring in younger customers but it also encouraged Honda and Nissan to consider introducing youth-oriented cars into their line up. [7] Marketing Strategy for US Toyota and other Japanese carmakers aggressively marketed their cars to Americans as being fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly, and having better build quality than American cars. In addition, Toyota marketed their cars as being hip and fun with memorable slogans like, â€Å"you asked for it, you got it, Toyota,† and with commercials involving young Toyota drivers jumping in the air. Toyota also decided to create a new brand because they had a reputation of being a company that only offered fun and fuel efficient compact cars. Hence they decided to launch a new car with heavy emphasis towards quality customer service. They also focussed on major metropolitan cities in US in order to maximize their revenue. 8] To sum up, Toyota is a great case study on how a company should develop, identify, and evaluate market opportunities and how to develop the right products and marketing tactics to capture such markets. SWOT Analysis Toyota Motor Corporation – SWOT analysis com pany profile is the essential source for top-level company data and information. Toyota Motor Corporation- SWOT Analysis examines the company’s key business structure and operations, history and products, and provides summary analysis of its key revenue lines and strategy. SWOT analysis provides a study of major internal and external factors affecting Toyota Motor Corporation as well as breakdown and examination of leading product revenue streams of Toyota Motor Corporation. [4] Strengths Global organization, with a strong international position in 170 countries worldwide. High financial strength (1997, sales turnover, ? 131,511 million), sales growth of 29. 3%. Strong brand image based on quality, environmental friendly (greener), customized range. Industry leader in manufacturing and production. Maximizes profit through efficient lean manufacturing approaches (e. g. Total Quality Management) and JIT (Just in Time) manufacturing and first mover in car research and development. Excellent penetration in key markets (US, China, EMEA) and now the second largest car manufacturer in the world, surpassing Ford. Weakness Japanese car manufacturer – seen as a foreign importer. Production capacity. Toyota produces most of its cars in US and Japan whereas competitors may be more strategically located worldwide to take advantage of global efficiency gains. Some criticism has been made due to large-scale re-call made in 2005, quality issues. Opportunities Innovation -first to develop commercial mass-produced hybrid gas-electric vehicles (gas and electric), e. g. Prius model. Based on advanced technologies and R&D activity. With oil prices at an all time high – this investment and widening of product portfolio fits consumers looking to alternative sources of fuels away from gas guzzling cars. To expand more aggressively into new segments of the market. The launch of Aygo model by Toyota is intended to take market share in youth market. To produce cars which are more fuel efficient, have greater performance and less impact on the environment. To develop new cars which respond to social and institutional needs and wants. The development of electric cars, hybrid fuels, and components reduces the impact on the environment. Toyota’s Eco-Vehicle Assessment System (Eco-VAS) has helped in production, usage, and disposal. Continued global expansion – especially in the emerging markets e. g. China and India, Russia, where population and demand is accelerating. Threats Saturation and increased competition, intense marketing campaigns increasing competitive pressures. Shifts in the exchange rates affecting profits and cost of raw materials. Predictions of a downturn in the economy e. g. recession, will affect car purchases (especially new cars). As household budgets tighten – this could lead a decline in new car sales and possible rationalization of dealerships. Changing demographics e. g. number of large families is declining. Undermining the demand for large family cars. Changing usage – families using the car less for taking children to schools. Home deliveries. Businesses – restricting business travel (tele-conferencing). Governments encouraging alternative forms of transport – cycling and incentives to use public transport across Europe. Service Blueprint A â€Å"Services Blueprint† is a process design tool which is a flow chart of the business operations. The blueprint for Toyota has been developed using the information available from different Toyota websites. The Blueprint involves all the steps from customer placing an order to delivery of car to customer. The blueprint is explained as follows: Customer Actions: The various customer action that have been identified are customer placing an order, Checking specifications on internet and enquiring about the details of car and placed orders. Final Customer action that has been identified is customer receiving the car and documents pertaining to car. The identified Onstage customer actions are the different payment details that will be available after customer places the order and also Customer Representatives that will be answering the customers queries regarding the current status of production stage i. e. whether car is in assembly stage or the car is still in welding stage or in delivery stage. Backstage Contact Employee Action: The Different Backstage Contact Actions that have been identified are the overall manufacturing process and the delivery of car from factory. Again the manufacturing process is broken down into Building the engine, making the body i. e. Press Plant, Welding the different parts of car to the body, Painting the car and finally assembling the different sections of car together with the body. Support Process: The different Support processes that have been identified are the records of the current production status for a particular customer. The need for carrying out thorough quality check is imperative to satisfy customer satisfaction level and has been identified as a Support process that complements the manufacturing process at every stage. {draw:frame} Implementing Project Plan The report encompasses project plan for starting a new venture of Toyota in Melbourne. Project Plan is a critical part in implementation and success of project. The estimated time, cost and resources help us to identify the budget and expected duration of project. The project Plan has been designed to implement a new project for Toyota from scratch by breaking down the whole process from setting up plant to delivery of car into different stages. The project plan also includes the time that will be required for completing the different tasks. The constraints that will affect the various task at different stages has been identified and defined in the plan. Following are the relevant activity and its brief description which can be tailored to fit the needs: Conceptual: – The first phase of project is to identify the Business objectives, conceptualising a plan, assessing the place for constructing a plant, staffing requirement and the different requirement for equipments. This again can be broken down into following tasks which consists of above mentioned subtasks: {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:bookmark} {text:toc-mark-start} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:toc-mark-end} {text:list-item} Following is a brief overview of different activities or task with its subtasks. {draw:frame} {text:list-item} {draw:frame} Gantt Chart is a graphical representation of the duration of tasks against the progression of time. It is really useful while monitoring a project’s progress. The above Gantt chart helps us to identify the constraints and the tasks that are dependent on completion of other tasks in the overall Toyota project. Hence it helps to visualize the criticality of project and path and the success of project in Melbourne. Note: Due to Space constraint we have not been able to include the complete Gantt Chart. {text:list-item} Activity Network Diagram can be used within Toyota for detailed evaluation planning. Below is the screenshot of all major tasks identified in the project plan. {draw:frame} The screenshots attached below are of the tasks broken down into its subtask identified in the Project Plan. {draw:frame} {draw:frame} {draw:frame} Financial Factors of Project and Business The Financial factors play a major role in success of project. The financial factors that have been identified and will be impacting the implementation and success of project are: Changes in economic conditions affecting, and the ompetitive environment in, the automotive markets in Australia. Toyota's ability to realize production efficiencies and to implement capital expenditures at the levels and times planned by management. Political instability in the markets of Australia. Toyota's ability to timely develop and achieve market acceptance of new products. Fuel shortages or interruptions in transportation systems, labour strikes, work stoppages or other interruptions to, or difficulties in, the employment of labour in the major markets where Toyota purchases materials, components and supplies for the production of its products or where its products are produced, distributed or sold. 6] On the basis of project plan – the estimated time, resource requirement and cash flows for carrying out the various activities we have prepared Balance Sheet and Cash Flow for the whole Toyota project. The assumptions that have been made are listed below: {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} {text:list-item} On the basis of above assumption we have developed the Balance sheet at the beginning and end of year and Cash Flow statement at the end of year which is given below: Balance Sheet at the End of Year Balance Sheet at the End of Year Cash Flow at the End of Year Conclusion The Primary goal of the report is to analyse Toyota- the way business is carried out and mechanisms by which it implements different processes. The analysis carried out about its business and marketing strategies helped us to devise the overall project plan for starting a new business in Melbourne. Hence on the above basis we devised blueprint and finally prepared the financial statements. The report has taken into account the various constraints i. e. technical and financial constraints that may affect the success of project. The Project that is stated for implementation is a profitable venture. Hence the wise move will be to implement the project due to huge demand in Australian market. References http://ezinearticles. com/? The-History-of-Toyota&id=2790459 ttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Toyota http://www. toyota. co. jp/en/ir/presentation/2008/pdf/080828presen_1. pdf http://www. researchandmarkets. com/reports/541936 http://wiki. answers. com/Q/What_is_the_swot_analysis_ of_Toyota http://www. thefreelibrary. com/Toyota+Announces+Third+Quarter+Financial+Results+-+Net+Revenues+and†¦ -a0141766841 http://www. detnews. com/2003/autosinsider/0304/21/a01-141863. htm http://lifeinmotion. wordpress. com/2006/12/23/%E2%80%9Ctoyota-developing-strategies-for-growth%E2%80%9D/ http://www. toyota-industries. com/product/auto/ 10. http://www2. toyota. co. jp/en/business_field/ 11.