Economics Assessment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Economics Assessment - Assignment Example For the purpose of this study we have used a product as a guinea pig. In order to understand the impact of the product in its related market and the impact of the market on the product, we have carried out further analysis using the established theories of economics about the future viability of the product. Here for the sake of this analysis we have used the potato chips product manufactured by the Coca Cola Company called LAYS. (Lipsey and Chrystal, 2002) The price elasticity of demand is defined as the magnitude of the proportionate change in demand and the proportionate change in price of the product. Therefore, elasticity is the measure of responsiveness. Price elasticity of demand is a very important concept that is related to the pricing decisions of a product. If an organization wants to generate the maximum amount of revenue from its products and it is unable to determine how much increase in the price can be made by them so that the overall demand of the product does not reduce. This decision is taken on the basis of the analysis of price elasticity of demand. The price elasticity of demand can be described as the rate of response of quantity demanded due to a price change. This means that if a unit change in the price of the produc

Position Paper Contrarian's Guide to Leadership Essay

Position Paper Contrarian's Guide to Leadership - Essay Example Traditionally, leaders have been evaluated on the basis of their charisma, attitude, and ability. That is the "boxed-in", prevailing mindset society harbors when quantifying leadership. However, more contemporary views see leadership as the end result of a dynamic interaction between leader and follower, a "collaborative endeavor" between those embroiled in the process (Rost, 1993:12) However we may define leadership, what is infinitely clear is the fact that society has these preconceived notions about what a "good" leader should be. There are some though, who offer a differing perspective on the concept of leadership. In "The Contrarian's Guide To Leadership", Steven Sample argues that leadership is not necessarily measured in black and white. Better known as the current president of the University of Southern California, Sample dissects traditional leadership "values" and professes that leadership is a dynamic, unpredictable entity that is context-dependent and evolving. In line with today's rapidly changing times, leadership can no longer be limited to the predictability and rigidity of the past. Not to detract anything from past leaders of historical lore, but just because one was successful in a different era does not necessarily translate into success in the current one. The dictates of contemporary society need leaders who are flexible, and are not bound by a certain mode of thinking. These are the individuals who will react to situations objectively and creatively, and will use original ideas in asserting their independence en route to solving relevant problems and issues. The aforementioned constitute the hallmarks of the aptly termed "contrarian" perspective of leadership. According to Sample (2002), the contrarian perspective "doesn't mean counter to all conventional wisdom. Indeed, much of it is true. But, you can't become an effective leader by trying to mimic a famous leader of the past. So, you can't develop your full leadership potential, or even fully appreciate the art of leadership by slavishly adhering to conventional wisdom. The key is to break free, if only fleetingly" (p.1) Adopting a contrarian approach ensures that one is looking at things from a fresh and highly adaptable point of view, one that will bode well for the challenges of today. At the forefront of the contrarian framework lies the concept of "thinking gray". Leaders who adopt this maintain their independence by "thinking free" and refusing to think like the people surrounding them. For instance, conventional wisdom dictates that good, efficient leaders make rash, impulsive, and hopefully brilliant decisions. On the other hand, contrarian wisdom offers that leaders should deliberately weigh all sides to an issue, hence arriving at a highly objective, thorough and carefully thought out decision. By nature, people would usually look at things in binary terms - black and white, right or wrong, true or false, et. al. It must be put into consideration though that there will always be "gray" areas somewhere along the point of contention. Nothing can be truly quantified as being absolutely true or absolutely false; there is always something that can be further perused and dissected in order to

6 master plans Essay Example for Free

6 master plans Essay 1. LOI 39/2001 SANDIGAN MASTER PLAN (Anti-Criminality Master Plan) dated 03 December 2001 This Plan shall serve as the Master Plan in which all plans and programs of the PNP shall conform with and supplement. It shall prescribe the grand strategy to be undertaken by PNP Offices and personnel on crime prevention, control and suppression, in the total fight against all forces of criminality. 2. LOI 40/2001 SANDUGO MASTER PLAN (The PNP ISO Master Plan) dated 04 December 2001 This serves as the long-range and holistic master plan of the PNP in waging an internal security support operations nationwide. Premised on the estimate of the national situation and other considerations, it prescribes the counter-insurgency support strategy, operational concept, scheme of implementation, service support and coordinating instructions in order to accomplish the PNPs internal security support mission. 3. LOI 42/2001 SANGYAMAN MASTER PLAN dated 06 December 2001 (Pnps Master Plan To Help Protect And Preserve Our Environment, Cultural Properties And Natural Resources) See more: Social process essay This master plan prescribes the guidelines to be followed by tasked PNP Units/Offices in assisting lead government agencies in the enforcement of laws over Philippine territorial waters, lakes, rivers, mountain ranges, forest, to include laws and ordinances that have been set forth to preserve, protect and enhance our environment and natural resources, in close coordination with the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and other tasked government agencies. 4. LOI 43/2001 SANG-BANAT MASTER PLAN (Pnps Master Plan For The Campaign against Illegal Drugs) dated 07 December 2001 This master plan sets forth the concept of operations, operational guidelines and tasks of all PNP units/offices in the total fight against illegal drugs: integrating/orchestrating the activities of all concerned National Government Agencies (NGAs) in the conduct of anti-illegal drug campaign at the national down to barangay levels. LOI 44/2001 SANG-INGAT MASTER PLAN (Master Plan On Security Preparations) dated 10 December 2001 This Master Plan sets forth the strategic concepts and operational guidelines, as well as contingency plan to ensure the maintenance of peace and order during the year-round observance of holidays, which involves great concern on movement of the citizens, international, national and local meeting/conferences/events, and rallies/mass action in protest to wide range  of issues. 6. LOI 45/2001 SAKLOLO MASTER PLAN (MASTER PLAN ON DISASTER PREPAREDNESS) dated 12 December 2001 This Master Plan sets forth the strategic concepts, operational guidelines and coordinating instructions to be undertaken by PROs and tasked units/offices on disaster management. With this Letter of Instructions, the action that will be undertaken by the concerned PNP units/offices will be as responsive and possible with the support of the government agencies and community.

Scope And Limitation Of The Research Study Marketing Essay

Scope And Limitation Of The Research Study Marketing Essay Transition from a centrally-planed economy to market-economic structure, the Vietnamese market becomes more dynamic. All business and production activities are encouraged investment to contribute into economic growth and stabilization of the nation. Like other industries, investment in telecommunication services locally is welcomed and facilitated. The Vietnamese telecommunication service industry has rapidly developed. Together with development of the country, demand for communication quickly increases and high quality services are much preferred. More and more telecommunication service providers enter into the Vietnamese mobile service market. At present, there are 7 operators including VNPT, Viettel, EVN Telecom, SPT, HanoiPT, GTel and CMC. All players are facing the fierce competition. Most of the operators try to exploit their distinctive competencies to gain competitive advantages and use the appropriate competitive strategies to get more customers and make more profit. They try to forecast the customer needs and market trends to designing long-term corporate strategy for over all company to achieve the company objectives. In this situation, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) recognised that development of effective business strategy has been considered as a highest priority in order to protect its leading position in this market. Through business strategy helps the company to have a business plan to develop its strengths, minimize its weaknesses in order to achieve opportunities and avoid threats in the marketplace in which it operates. In such a context, this research study deals with the development of business strategy for VNPT in Vietnamese Mobile service market. 1.2. Problem Statement As the competition is more and more fierce, developing appropriate corporate strategies for a company is the key to success in the market. But how can the company develop such a corporate strategy? In case of Vietnamese telecom service market, its considered that its being in stable stage. Especially the mobile service sector and fixed phone sector, they are considered as being in mature stage of its life-cycle. However in broadband sector, its being in the potential and growth stage. VNPT is the biggest company in Vietnamese Telecom market which obtained the highest market share compare to other competitors. At present, VNPT is facing the intensified competition from many competitors like Viettel, EVN, FPT, SPT,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ who try to reduce product price to get more customers as well as market share. The question is how can VNPT protect its position in the Vietnamese Telecom service market? To answer this question, VNPT needs to develop the corporate strategy to defend its curre nt position and extent business in another potential market. This research study examines how to develop the appropriate corporate strategies for Vietnamese Post and Telecommunications Group in order to protect its leading position and develop its business in the telecom service market. 1.3. Objectives of the Research Study The objectives of this research cover the following issues: To review literature dealing with the strategic management process, especially the process of strategy formulation To analyze opportunities and threats of the Vietnamese telecom service market from external forces such as the market trends, suppliers, consumers, competitors. To analyze the current situation of VNPT in term of strengths and weaknesses of its capacity, market share, and operation activities. To develop the business strategy for VNPT. 1.4. Research Methodology 1.4.1. Analytical Framework This research is presented in the form of a case study exposing the complexities of a real business environment in the Vietnamese telecom market. The purpose of this research is to develop corporate strategies for Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group. Thus, it is necessary to the analyze market situation and current corporate strategy of VNPT in order to formulate the corporate strategy. A framework may enable to understand the various linkages and interactions between the variables and to develop corporate strategies of the company. Figure 1.1 illustrates this analytical framework. The objective of external analysis is to identify opportunities and threats in the business environment in which VNPT has to face. Two interrelated environments should be examined at this stage: the macro environment of the Vietnamese market and the micro environment referred to the industry in which VNPT operates. The analysis of the macro environment focuses on examining the key achievements and limitation of the Vietnamese economy, political factors and government policies on the telecom service industry. The analysis of the micro environment involves an assessment of industrial growth, production, consumption pattern and the competition between existing operators in which the analysis the main competitors of VNPT is examined in the terms of strengths and weaknesses about their corporate activities. The internal analysis is devoted to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of VNPT. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the production and business of the company in the terms of capacity, market share, sales volume, finance and corporate activities. After having analyzed the internal and external factors, the corporate strategy alternatives can be developed. To select the best solution, VNPT needs to evaluate the alternatives with respect to the possibility to achieve the corporate objectives. The framework of this study can be illustrated by Figure 1.1 1.4.2. Information Needed To examine this research, information needed consists of the following issues: The Vietnamese Telecom service market reports in recent years, general information about Vietnamese economic climate, economic development, and government policies on the telecom industry are also collected. Competition in the telecom market, which is focused on getting information about main competitors in terms of strengths and weaknesses involved corporate activities such as product, price, distribution and promotion. Information about the current situation of VNPT that needs to be obtained including the company profile, corporate objectives, production capacity, market share, corporate activities. 1.4.3. Data Sources Data and information needed for conducting the research were basically obtained from the following main sources: Primary data: Interviews in-depth with managers, key persons of the VNPT Group as well as other specific telecom companies. Secondary source: Data requirements were extracted from the publication of the government offices such as the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communication. Data relating to international context was obtained from the Internet websites, the academic journals Data and information from books and journals, newspapers, articles related to the research were collected in CFVG library and the Vietnamese national library. Data and information were also obtained from VNPT annual reports, from in-depth interviews conducted with VNPT general director, and functional managers. Strategy Strategic management Michael Porter 5 forces SWOT analysis BCG matrix PROBLEM LITERATURE REVIEW SITUATION ANALYSIS Scanning external environment Analyzing competitive environment Scanning internal environment Evaluating current performance results Opportunities Threats Strengths Weaknesses EVALUATION AND SELECTION OF THE STRATEGY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Figure 1.1 Framework of the research study 1.5. Scope and Limitation of the Research Study This research study is conducted mainly at Vietnamese Posts and Telecommunication Group, Vietnam focus mainly in 3 main sectors: Mobile service, Fixed-phone and Broadband service. The study has been undertaken purely from a viewpoint of strategic management in order to set up a long term development for VNPT. This research has the following limitations: The process of strategic management involves 4 basic stages: (1) environment analysis (2) strategy formulation, (3) strategy implementation, and (4) evaluation and control. The research focuses only 2 steps: environment analysis and strategy formulation. In assessing the strengths and weaknesses of VNPT, the research has not examined its financial ability due to difficulties in gaining and assessing data necessary. Data about the competitors of VNPT mainly collected from secondary data, not from those ports themselves. Therefore, the information of these competitors is not sufficient. The tools which can be used to do strategic analysis are many but the only 5 will be under the research namely: PEST analysis: It is a technique understanding the environment factors like political, economic, social, and technology in which the business operates. Five forces analysis: it is a technique for identifying the forces which affect the level of competition in an industry level and business level. SWOT analysis: it is a useful summary technique for summarizing the key issues arising from an assessment of a businesses internal position and external environmental influences to company. Strategic Choice: This process involves understanding the nature of stakeholder expectations along with identifying strategic options, and then evaluating and selecting strategic options in the business. BCG matrix: It is a technique and analysis that seeks to summarize a businesses overall competitive position in business level and industry level. 1.6. Organization of the Research Study This research is organized in six chapters, as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction provides an introduction including background, problem statement, objectives, scope and limitation of the research study as well as research methodology. Chapter 2: Literature review presents the literature review of the study and summarizes the work of previous studies, it relates to the fundamental ideas on developing business strategy including strategy analysis and strategy designing. Chapter 3: Analyzing external environment covering the economic situation in Vietnam and situation of the telecom service market situation in order to find out opportunities and threats in the environment in which the company operates. Chapter 4: Analyzing internal operation analyzes and assesses the current position of the company regarding strengths and weaknesses of VNPT about its performance, market share and operation activities. Chapter 5: Developing strategies for VNPT conclude about above analysis based on SWOT matrix, BCG matrix identify competitive position and suggest a strategic approach, in particular a competitive strategy for VNPTs development in Mobile service Industry. Based on suggested strategy, recommende functional strategies for VNPT. Chapter 6: Conclusions summarizes the main points draw out from the study.

Essay examples --

Minority entrepreneurs have many barriers they have to overcome in order to be successful. Some typical problems they face are limited access to capital, lower equity investments, and less exposure to entrepreneurship. Minority entrepreneurs are twice as likely to be turned down for traditional lending, which can discourage them from even applying for a loan. Not only that but they are less likely to be considered by traditional or angel investors. They also generally live in run down areas, with poor schooling and less access to successful people. One entrepreneur who has hurdled over all the barriers and became extremely successful is Russell Simmons, the co-founder of Def Jam Records. Biography of Russell Simmons Russell Simmons was born in Queens, New York, on October 4, 1957. Growing up in Queens, he spent part of his adolescent years as a street hustler. During his middle school years, he sold marijuana and was even a member of a local gang. He was arrested twice on other charges and was given probation. At eighteen he began taking college classes in the New York area and started working at an Oranje Julius, but financed his clubbing lifestyle by selling fake cocaine. One night in 1977 while at a club he saw the clubbers going crazy over a song from Eddie Cheeba, an early rapper and DJ, he decided that it was the sound of the future. Simmons quit selling fake drugs and left college to begin promoting concerts and forming his own management company for artists. He called his company Rush Management. He managed Kurtis Blow, and Run-D.M.C.. In 1884 he partnered with Rick Ruban and founded Def Jam Recordings and starting the cultural revolution known as hip-hop. Businesses & Industries  ¬Ã‚ ¬Russell Simmons has his fingers in a ... ...nced everything from music to finance and philanthropy. He has been the architect in creating the trends in current pop culture. A majority of Simmons’ endeavors would fall into the venture opportunity school of thought, and he took an integrative approach. My Thoughts Simmons built an entertainment empire, with hip-hop at the foundation. By fighting for hip-hop, even when everyone said it was a fad Simmons taught me that, even if everyone doubts something, all it will take is one person to believe and to fight for what they believe in. I also learned that if one person starts to work towards a goal, it would pave the way for others to follow. Simmons often said that â€Å"Black culture or urban culture is for all people who buy into it and not just for black people. Whether it’s film or TV or records or advertisement or clothing, I don’t accept the box they put me in.†

Walmart Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

Walmart History: Beginning to Today Wal-Mart is a general merchandise discount retailer, which was incorporated in 1962. Wal-Mart’s history is based on one man, Sam Walton, who changed the course of retailing forever. Sam Walton first entered retailing when he was a management trainee at J.C. Penny Co. in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. After serving in the Army in World War II, Walton acquired a Ben Franklin variety store franchise with his brother James Walton in Newport Arkansas, until they lost the lease to the store in 1950. By 1962, when the first Wal-Mart Discount City was opened in Rogers Arkansas, both Walton’s were operating fifteen stores under the â€Å"Walton 5 & 10† name, and were the largest Ben Franklin franchisee in the country. Limited pricing, low gross margins, and high inventory turnover characterized these stores. Walton phased out the stores in 1976 in order to focus on the emerging Wal-Mart stores. In 1978, the first distribution center was built, followed by the first Wal-Ma rt Supercenter in 1983 and a Sam’s Club in 1988. Important to Walton, and ultimately Wal-Mart, are certain philosophies that were amounted over time. Walton held these values tightly, and engrained them in the Wal-Mart cultures. From his experience at J.C. Penny Co. he was impressed with the philosophies they used (e.g. â€Å"The Penny Idea†) and used them to mold Wal-Mart. This included referring to employees as â€Å"associates†, serving the public to their complete satisfaction, and receiving a fair profit from services rendered. Walton’s theory on what Wal-Mart should be is â€Å"a conveniently located one-stop shopping unit where customers could buy a wide variety of quality merchandise at discount prices.† And as Wal-Mart grew, management sought a firm that was a â€Å"discount department store chain offering a wide variety of general merchandise to the customer.† It was on these values and philosophies that Wal-Mart expanded. Wal-Mart has grown above and beyond the Arkansas store that opened thirty-nine years ago. It serves more than 100 million customers weekly in all of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina, and South Korea. Wal-Mart’s current operating numbers are: Wal-Mart Stores 1,736 SuperCenters 888 SAM’s Clubs 475 Wal-Mart Neighbo... ...mount of inconvenience, Wal-Mart should implement more entrances and exits into different departments, such as the Garden department and the Grocery department, with signage that easily identifies what part of the store the entrances are leading too. Moving from the retail level to business relationships, Wal-Mart has extensive opportunities to expand on its distinctive competency of its distribution system. The company has strategically placed distribution centers all over the US close to its stores. This not only makes for an excellent venue to supply Wal-Marts, but other companies’ stores as well. Wal-Mart Inc. can be a competitive distributor that would service companies not in direct competition with Wal-Mart. A study should be conducted to find out which industry should be targeted for this type of venture. This is a low risk high return venture because Wal-Mart would be using facilities that the company already owns, and expansion of these facilities is already in the making. In addition, Wal-Mart has already been successful in distribution with its offspring grocery store distributor â€Å"McLean†. McLean services not only Wal-Marts, but convenience stores as well. Walmart Essay -- GCSE Business Marketing Coursework Walmart History: Beginning to Today Wal-Mart is a general merchandise discount retailer, which was incorporated in 1962. Wal-Mart’s history is based on one man, Sam Walton, who changed the course of retailing forever. Sam Walton first entered retailing when he was a management trainee at J.C. Penny Co. in 1940 in Des Moines, Iowa. After serving in the Army in World War II, Walton acquired a Ben Franklin variety store franchise with his brother James Walton in Newport Arkansas, until they lost the lease to the store in 1950. By 1962, when the first Wal-Mart Discount City was opened in Rogers Arkansas, both Walton’s were operating fifteen stores under the â€Å"Walton 5 & 10† name, and were the largest Ben Franklin franchisee in the country. Limited pricing, low gross margins, and high inventory turnover characterized these stores. Walton phased out the stores in 1976 in order to focus on the emerging Wal-Mart stores. In 1978, the first distribution center was built, followed by the first Wal-Ma rt Supercenter in 1983 and a Sam’s Club in 1988. Important to Walton, and ultimately Wal-Mart, are certain philosophies that were amounted over time. Walton held these values tightly, and engrained them in the Wal-Mart cultures. From his experience at J.C. Penny Co. he was impressed with the philosophies they used (e.g. â€Å"The Penny Idea†) and used them to mold Wal-Mart. This included referring to employees as â€Å"associates†, serving the public to their complete satisfaction, and receiving a fair profit from services rendered. Walton’s theory on what Wal-Mart should be is â€Å"a conveniently located one-stop shopping unit where customers could buy a wide variety of quality merchandise at discount prices.† And as Wal-Mart grew, management sought a firm that was a â€Å"discount department store chain offering a wide variety of general merchandise to the customer.† It was on these values and philosophies that Wal-Mart expanded. Wal-Mart has grown above and beyond the Arkansas store that opened thirty-nine years ago. It serves more than 100 million customers weekly in all of the 50 states, plus Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina, and South Korea. Wal-Mart’s current operating numbers are: Wal-Mart Stores 1,736 SuperCenters 888 SAM’s Clubs 475 Wal-Mart Neighbo... ...mount of inconvenience, Wal-Mart should implement more entrances and exits into different departments, such as the Garden department and the Grocery department, with signage that easily identifies what part of the store the entrances are leading too. Moving from the retail level to business relationships, Wal-Mart has extensive opportunities to expand on its distinctive competency of its distribution system. The company has strategically placed distribution centers all over the US close to its stores. This not only makes for an excellent venue to supply Wal-Marts, but other companies’ stores as well. Wal-Mart Inc. can be a competitive distributor that would service companies not in direct competition with Wal-Mart. A study should be conducted to find out which industry should be targeted for this type of venture. This is a low risk high return venture because Wal-Mart would be using facilities that the company already owns, and expansion of these facilities is already in the making. In addition, Wal-Mart has already been successful in distribution with its offspring grocery store distributor â€Å"McLean†. McLean services not only Wal-Marts, but convenience stores as well.

Jean Kilbourne’s article “Jesus is a brand of jeans” Essay

The thesis of Jean Kilbourne’s article â€Å"Jesus is a brand of jeans† is that everything in the world is just a stuff to be consumed or to be used to sell people something, and changes peoples’ outlook. Relationships, for example, are used to sell people jewelries for their loved ones. Other advertisements take advantage of emotions to sell their products. Ads create a climate of cynicism. â€Å"Ad after ad portays our real lives as dull and ordinary, commitment to human beings as something to be avoided. † 2) Jean Kilbourne is addressing everyone who is also the audience of advertisements—that is, every one of us. Kilbourne used particular advertisements to prove the thesis, and quotes from expert opinions. The method is effective in proving the point but it remains to the individual reader whether to believe in such stuff or to just dismiss it as mere paranoia. 3) Jean Kilbourne has a very sound argument. With the use of examples, one could not help but think that advertisements propose a concept that material things are more valuable than humans—that peoples’ lives are dull and that their products are necessities to make life worthwhile. Part III One passage that I found interesting in the Jean Kilbourne’s article â€Å"Cutting girls down to size: The influence of the media on teenage body image† is that nearly half of the participants in a study that was conducted to determine the effects of magazines on teenage girls â€Å"reported a desire to loose weight because of an image in a magazine, but only 29% were actually overweight. † This gives a summary of what the article is all about and goes to show how stereotyping from advertisements could influence how one looks at things, even personally.