Environments
The real world companies that are being studied are Starbucks, Apple and FedEx. These three companies face different external environmental challenges and have focused on shifting their internal environments in order to better compete in their external environments. The PEST analysis will be used as the analytical framework (QuickMBA, 2012).
Starbucks operates in the quick service restaurant industry, and is one of the top brands in that business (QSR Magazine, 2011). The political environment is generally favorable, with no major impediments to business. The company is focused on international expansion, and to this point has been able to perform well in most foreign markets. The ones where it has failed (Australia, Israel), the failure was not because of the political environment. The economic environment, however, has proven to be a challenge for Starbucks. The company saw its revenues and profits decline heading into the recession (MSN Moneycentral, 2012), as customers began trading down to lower-priced coffee offerings. Starbucks has rebounded in part due to internal responses to this challenge, and in part because the economy has recovered from the depths.
The social environment was against Starbucks during the economic downturn, as people were beginning to feel that the company's products were out of touch with economic reality, but these concerns were short-lived and customers returned fairly quickly. The technological environment has not provided much boost to Starbucks.
The company's response to its environmental challenges was to make internal changes. One such change was cost-cutting, including closing underperforming stores and rationalizing support operations. Starbucks was able to lower prices on some of its products temporarily in order to response to intense new competition and a challenging economic situation (Baertlein, 2009). The company then returned to its normal business practices when the economy began to recover. This has allowed Starbucks to see recovery of its own. The company has cultivated a competitive advantage in its strong brand, enabling it to expand rapidly overseas and to create a lucrative side business in packaged beverages and institutional sales. Its VIA single-serving coffee product...
Real-World Case Studies #1 The MarketSite and BuySite applications represent a collaborative online commerce environment from Commerce One for buying and selling. MarketSite is a portal for exchanging goods and services on the Commerce One Global. MarketSite lets buyers, suppliers and net market makers conduct business, source new products and services, create new sales channels and access industry-specific information. BuySite is an electronic procurement application that automates the goods and services
Company audit occurs when there is need to examine the performance of a big company especially the financial and the accounting records over a given period of time. Professionals such as the certified public accountant always do the auditing. The audit of a company is significant in the verification of accuracy particularly in the accounting records. A company like coca cola will need an audit to help in verifying their
Company Organization and Career Plan The functioning part of any organization needs proper attention and maintenance in order to keep it running smoothly. This means that the organizational structure and the strategies meant increase collaboration and productivity within the work environment must be continually monitored and evaluated in terms of how successful they are within contemporary practice. There are a number of differing strategies on how to approach generating a creative
(Economou and Trichias, 2009) Remuneration is stated to be as follows for each of these actors: (1) real estate brokers -- Commission based on percentage of the transaction value; (2) lawyers -- Commission based on percentage of the transaction value; (3) Notaries -- Commission base don percentage of the transaction value; (4) Civil Engineers -- According to specific regulations, taking into account elements of the property in question; and (5) Constructors -- percentage of
Real Estate Industry Analysis The residential real estate industry has been surprisingly resilient in light of the current economic situation. Over the previous two years residential real estate purchases registered into the double digits, while these numbers are down, the market for real estate is anything but out. At a glance, it would appear that realtors do not even know that a recession exists as new properties are springing up from
Different theorists and proponents of real options theory identify different specifics of the theories operation, but in one widely held view there are five real options: the waiting-to-invest option, the growth option, the flexibility option, the exit option and the learning option (Wade 2005). Each one of these options takes in a different value given other environmental and internal considerations, and from the plotted valuations of these real options more
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