Ikea Case Study

IKEA Dr. Okan Geray Please read the IKEA case from the textbook and answer the following questions: 1. Explain, in detail, the aspects of IKEA strategy that make it a Hybrid strategy. A hybrid strategy is where the costs are low and the perceived benefits are high. In the case it is mentioned that IKEA is not for the rich and flamboyant but for the smart and practical people. This is clearly seen with the designs where it holds universal acknowledgement rather than cultural or national ideas.It blends into its furniture styling and design with low cost and has large stores where they guide their customers and incline them towards buying certain products that are displayed. The styling and design is then supported by low cost, on request or immediate delivery, which allows them to not only buy the product immediately but also transport them without must hassles. The flat packs allow logistical advantage and cost benefits and an informal infrastructure motivates the staff.The procureme nt is very intense and brings cost benefits and is also widely spread out across the world with suppliers in China and Sweden and their head quarters are based in Norway for tax savings. In the above ways IKEA brings higher benefits at lower costs to the consumer and therefore is a hybrid strategy. 2. Why is this strategy difficult for competitors to imitate? It is difficult for competitors to imitate because IKEA is a global furnishings company where as other competitors are highly focused into particular regions.This inaccessibility of its competitors limits its breadth of customer reach. Some of its competitors are not even specialised in furnishings but are more towards general stores there for specialisation benefits are lost. IKEA runs a strict cost cutting budget where it focuses more on costs and lesser towards design IKEA not only does provide furniture but also provide furnishing solutions where it has different variants of products to suite customer needs. It is aware of customer needs and is able to provide that at the correct price and at the same instant.The informal hierarchy forms unpredictable behaviour, which cannot be predicted, therefore cannot be imitated. 3. What are the dangers of a hybrid strategy and how can managers guard against them? There is a high risk that once the customer base has been established companies tend to drift towards increasing their products and providing additional services by charging additionally, even though this adds value to the product it alternately also adds costs which is directly against the policy of IKEA in this case.IKEA does provide additional services but with the optional additional charges which allows customers to choose cost savings Companies are also then inclined to reduce value but at the same historical price this lowers the perceived value of the product and pulls the company into the low cost category also robbing the company of its strategic advantage as a hybrid strategy player. Managers would need to recognise their hybrid strategy and their parameters that allow them to be in this category and enforce those parameters on the complete value chain.This does not imply to only the procurement and manufacturing of the products but also to the administrative aspects, such as seen with the CEO of IKEA UK. The designing of the product has been suited to the world market rather than specific market, this universal approach allows populations of different nationalities to relate to it, this collective design approach is a key factor in Ikeas marketing strategy and therefore any such products or designs favouring or resembling a particular culture unintentionally should be disassociated and discouraged.

Rationalistic Distaste for Opera Essay

1. Italianate Opera did not conquer every European center without resistance, especially in countries (like France and England) with strong traditions of spoken drama. What exactly does St.-Evremond (p. 201-3) object to about opera, and why? Exactly what parts of a drama does he say should NOT be set to music, and why? People observe the justness if the cincirds; and amidst all the varieties that unite to make the sweetness of the harmony, nothing escapes us. The music is nothing else to our ears but a confused sound that suffers nothing to be distinguished. Beginning of the drama should not be set to music. 2. What do all 3 documents in MWW 54 have to say about machines? Why are they a topic of discussion? The machine has something that is surprising. Machines may satisfy the curiosity of ingenious men, who love mathematical inventions, but they will hardly please persons of good judgment in the theatre. The ancients made on use of machines, but when there was a necessity of bringing in some God. MWW 62: The Conventions of Opera Seria 1. What is the setting of this little story, and how did Goldoni come to be there? Goldoni had just been admitted to the bar in his native Venice, but, finding on clients, he spent his time composing a drama oer musica entitled Amalasunta. Soon he found himself so deeply in debt that he had to flee Venice. 2. How is he treated by the various members of the gathering? They all offered to lend me their support ; but they suggested that before exposing the Drama to the judgment of the impresarios, it would be well to expose it to that of my friends. 3. What exactly were the criticisms of his libretto, and what do these reveal about the reigning conventions of opera seria? His work is simple, Dramma per musica in itself an imperfect composition, has been subjected by custom to certain rules. Those of Aristotle, Horace, and all who have trated of Poetics, but necessary if it is to serve the Music, the Actors, and the Composers. 4. What forces of the opera seria world shaped these conventions? The work Goldoni made, it lead a new style of music. MWW 63: Opera Audiences in 18thc. Italy (Naples, 1765) 1. What did Neapolitans go to the opera to see and do, primarily? See King;s Theatre, where the serious Opera is performed, and of two smaller theatres, called Teatro Nuovo, and the Teatro dei Fiorentini. He also see the dirty kingd of a play house, where they perform a comedy every night. 2. What did the writer admire most about this experience? What elicited his criticism? He never seen more than two or three boxes so occupied, in the same night. The impresario, or manager, is bound to very bad terms, so that his profits are inconsiderable, and sometimes his is a loser.

Relationships Between Grandparents and Grandchildren Essay

The relationships between grandparents and grandchildren vary within every family. Some families develop strong relationships with their grandchildren, while others are seemingly unrecognized by one another. For this interview, I was hoping to come into contact with an individual who has maintained a healthy relationship with his or her descendants. Originally I was going to interview someone outside of my family; however, I realized that if I were to interview my own grandmother, I could demonstrate two different perspectives of the grandparent-grandchild relationship, hers and mine. I chose to conduct an interview with my grandmother (maternal) whom is an 82-year-old Hispanic woman who primarily speaks Spanish. She was born in Texas in 1931 and currently resides at this location. Her socioeconomic status is middle class. My grandmother is a widow. Her husband passed away 10 years ago this month. She is currently unemployed, and resides in the same home that she shared with her husband and children. She has seven children (six females; one male), eleven grandchildren (five females; six males), seven great grandchildren (two females; five males), and one great-great grandchild (female). Considering that my grandmother is the first generation, there are still five active generations on the maternal side of my family. I would have liked to talk about my grandmother’s relationship with the fourth and fifth generations of my family, but they presently live in Georgia and unfortunately there is not much contact between them. The only child currently in the fifth generation, her great-great granddaughter, still has not met the first generation because they live so far apart from each other. Thankfully, due to technological advancements in communication, my grandmother has been able to see pictures and videos of all the family members from all generations. In the interview, I asked her how she would describe her current relationship with her grandchildren. As expected, she said that her relationship with all of her grandchildren was great and there were no problems with any of them. Uncertain about the sincerity of her answer, I then rephrased the question to ask her how she felt about each individual relationship with her grandchildren. I made a list of all her grandchildren and asked her to talk about each one. What I was able to draw from all the individual relationships was that she is proud of all her grandchildren regarding their accomplishments thus far. She did reveal some regretful elements that she has experienced as a grandmother to such a large family. She stated that she is sad that she does not get the opportunity to see or talk to many of her grandchildren as often as she would like. She only has the chance to interact with some of them during special occasions such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, and other major holidays. Even then, not all of the grandchildren are able to attend those events because the majority of them are already adults and have their own lives and responsibilities that seem to have become priority over family festivities. Another one of my grandmother’s concerns is that not all of her grandchildren are able to communicate with her effectively, because there is a slight language barrier. Although she understands English fairly well and can interpret what her grandchildren are expressing to her, she is unable to speak the language correctly when she is responding to them. Regretfully, many of her grandchildren are not fluent in the Spanish language. She expresses that the reason for this is due to the fact that Spanish is not taught to children while they attend school which never influenced them to learn. Furthermore, since my grandmother has never been employed throughout her life and instead opted to be a housewife, she never felt the need to drive. Since my grandmother never learned how to drive, she never obtained a driver’s license. I asked her what her primary mode of transportation is and she said that one of the perks to having so many grandchildren is that nowadays children learn how to operate a vehicle at an early age. She only has a few grandchildren that live nearby but she is able to get a ride from them to take her to any appointments she may have or to just run errands. Originally her husband would drive her wherever she needed to go but by now he would be about 88 years old. She manages to maintain a strong relationship with one of her granddaughters in particular. Her youngest daughter, along with her granddaughter, currently lives within her household. This would typically make it much easier for her to keep a healthy relationship with her granddaughter who is approximately twelve years old, but her daughter that is 39 years old, went through a divorce about 5 years ago and is currently diagnosed with schizophrenia. Both my grandmother and my cousin must support my aunt with her mental disability. Regretfully, this is taking a toll on everyone in the household. While I was listening to her speak about the situation, I was able to add a follow-up question regarding how the current situation has affected her relationship with her granddaughter. She expressed that the situation has impaired relationships between herself, her daughter, and her granddaughter. She continued talking about how her daughter randomly goes through behavioral outbursts and it is incredibly difficult to calm her down and at times. Sometimes situations can escalate to a point where she and her granddaughter have no choice but to call the authorities because her daughter can be a potential threat to herself or others. My grandmother and her granddaughter work together to keep everything in the household running smoothly but there are times that the tension is too great between everyone in the household. I wanted to go a little more in depth on her thoughts about her daughters divorce and how she feels it affected her relationship with her granddaughter. She said that because of the divorce, she can now have her daughter and granddaughter closer. She was naturally sad that her daughter’s marriage ended in divorce but since her daughter and granddaughter used to live in San Antonio, she didn’t get to see them very often. She enjoys being around her granddaughter all the time and it wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the divorce. I believe my grandmother was very lucky that her daughter is the one that maintained custody over the father. â€Å"A divorce may strengthen bonds between the grandparent and grandchild; especially when grandparents become more involved with caring for their grandchildren. In cases where contact between grandparents and grandchildren decreases or ends, the result can be traumatic and painful for all concerned. (Milne). I then proceeded to ask her about what kind of activities she participates in with her granddaughter. My grandmother takes the time to sit with her granddaughter and talk about school related things, watch movies together, and share ideas & concepts on things that her granddaughter should paint. As I got to this point into the interview and I asked so much about the grandparent-grandchild relationship, I was curious what my grandmother ’s perspective was on being more of a parent than a grandparent. My grandmother feels that she has to be more of a parent to her granddaughter due the fact that her daughter has schizophrenia. She tries her hardest to help her granddaughter with homework and advice but she feels that there are still a lot of things that she cannot do on behalf of her daughter. My final question was based off of one of the chapters that I read in the class assigned textbook. â€Å"Grandchildren whose parents had poor relationships with their own parents saw their grandparents less often and rated the quality of the relationship lower than those whose parents recalled caring relationships. (Quadagno, 2011). With that in mind, I asked if she felt that her granddaughter’s relationship with her was affected by her daughter’s relationship with her. I gave an example such as, â€Å"If your daughter was close to you, then that would make your granddaughter close to you also, and vice versa. † She told me that when her daughter first moved back home, she was still very upset with the divorce and she would lash out at everyone. My grandmother said that since her daughter would treat her badly, her granddaughter wouldn’t have as much respect for her. It took about a year until her granddaughter began to realize that there was something wrong with her mom and began to get closer to her grandmother for comfort and support with handling her mother with schizophrenia. After talking to my grandmother about her perspective on this grandparent-grandchild relationship, I couldn’t help but feel as if she was not being completely truthful with all her answers. I read in an article in USA Today, â€Å"Grandparents may feel that they themselves have failed as parents. They may feel a sense of shame and worry that it says something about the parenting of that (adult) child. â€Å"(Facciolo, 2012). I would have liked to go into more detail regarding her thoughts on her daughters divorce, and how she really feels about it. I believe if I were to have gone too much in depth she would have gotten slightly upset because there are a lot more factors regarding her situation at home. Overall, it was interesting getting insight on the grandparent-grandchild relationship which I never really gave too much thought on.

Eharmony Case Study Essay

Question 1: The first general environment that is most relevant to this case is the demographic segment. This segment focuses on population size, age structure, geographic distribution, ethnic mix, and income distribution. This segment is relevant to eHarmony because there main focus is to match their customer’s with potential partners. They need to take in account the matches age, income, ethnicity, and income. In the case, they discuss how they require customers to answer questions about how old they are, where they are from, where they are living, where they work†¦ etc. They take all this information and match it with another customer. The second general environment that is most relevant to this case is the sociocultural segment. This segment focuses on the society’s attitude and cultural values. This segment is relevant to eHarmony because when they match their customer’s, than they have to take an account what their cultural values are and what their attitudes are toward the social norms. The United States is a melting pot of different cultures. Some customers are high on culture and some are not. Demographic segment represents an opportunity for eHarmony because they can expand their company to other countries. The article â€Å"Are You Ignoring Trends That Could Shape Up Your Business† made an interesting point that â€Å"ignoring trends can give rivals the opportunity to transform the industry.† If eHarmony does not go into international markets than they would give Match the advantage of getting more customers on their site. eHarmony wants to be on the top, and the only way they can do that is by entering a new market. Sociocultural segment represents an opportunity for eHarmony because customers want to have partners that work and have the same cultural values that they have. It is all about being compatible with your partner. In the article, it talks about how social trends can change the way people perceive the world around them. By showing customers different matches from different countries but the same values, can open their eyes to their new life partn er. Question 2: When online personal firms entered the market in 1992, they didn’t do well  because people thought the desperate use it. Which caused the online personal market to grow very slow. Everything changed in 2005, because people’s mindset changed and found it acceptable to use online personal site to find their partners. Not just young people use the site but also the middle aged group use this site. According to the article, of the 2.2 million marriages that took place, about 120,000 of them were because of online personals site. It took awhile for the market to accept this new industry to help people hook up and find a suitable person to marry. The strengths of the power of suppliers is that they can increase their prices of their products so they can exert their power over there competitors. Thats what eHarmony is doing over their competitors. There are some drivers that drive the bargaining power of suppliers, which are: (1) there are few of them, (2) they purchase a large amount of total output from the industry, (3) products or services they purchase are homogenous and undifferentiated, (4) switching costs from one product or service to another are low, and (5) there is a realistic threat they could backward integrate into the industry itself. eHarmony does have service that no other company was able to copy well and be as successful as eHarmony. The strength of rivalry among existing competition is that when a company has a big rival then they are determined to beat their competition. They would do anything to make sure that their company is on top. The biggest rival that eHarmony has is Match. eHarmony tries to give services to their customers that Match cannot give. There are some drivers that drive the intensity of rivalry among competition, which are: (1) there are many competitors of roughly equal size, (2) the industry has slow or no growth, (3) exit barriers are high, (3) existing firms are committed to staying in the industry, and (3) there are few bases of competition beyond price. Match and eHarmony are almost equal into size and they intend to grow even more. Match is determined to beat eHarmony for the top position in the industry. The two opportunities that would reshape the industry structure are shifting threat of substitution and new bases of rivalry. Shifting threat of substitution is when a substitute becomes more or less threatening because of the advances in technology that creates new substitutes. New Bases of  rivalry is when mergers and acquisitions introduce new ways of competing, or technology innovation can reshape rivalry. Question 3: eHarmony competitive advantage is that it uses a scientific developed questionnaire based on Dr. Warren’s 29 dimensions. Another advantage is that they are the first online personals site centered around marriage minded individuals. The last advantage is that they are exclusive on who they allow to use the site. The competitive advantage is sustainable because they satisfy the four criteria in sustaining competitive advantage. The first criteria is valuable capabilities and they satisfy this criteria because the founder created this extensive questionnaire that he uses to determine which person they are compatible with. The second criteria is rare capabilities and they satisfy this criteria because the founder has a PhD in psychology and he did is practice in marriage and love. He was the one who created the questionnaire and he was the one who created the algorithm on how to match the customers together. No other company was able to imitate that. The third criteria is costly to imitate and they satisfy this criteria because no other company was able to create the algorithm that the founder was able to create to match their customers together. The last criteria is non substitutable and they met this criteria because there is nothing that substitutes it. Question 4: I believe that eHarmony should choose the last option, which is the rapid geographic expansion. They should take this option because they want to beat their competition and get more clients. They have already got their place in the US market, now its time to expand the business and become global. In the case, it says that in European Union nations, online dating is very popular. eHarmony does not realize that besides the US, there are other countries where online dating is popular. The downside of expanding is that they are not sure how these other countries might react with online dating. The countries would either accept them or decline them. They would loose a lot of money. Another downside is that they are not sure if their questionnaire and there algorithm would work in other countries. They would need to think about the social and cultural norms of each country. I did not choose the third option, which was that eHarmony wanted to create sites that focused on key life stages such as wedding, pregnancy- fertility care, and elder care. I feel that eHarmony is known for the match making place and not known for doing life stages. I feel that they should first master one side of the company before they start jumping into new industries. Question 5: eHarmony has an effective strategic leadership because Greg Waldrof, the CEO has all the qualities of a level 5 executive. Mr. Waldroff wanted to make sure that his company is the top company in the match making industry. He created a questionnaire and a formula on how to interpret the results. He made sure his staff understood it and used it correctly. The second reason why eHarmony has an effective strategic leadership is because the leaders of the firm made sure that the organization culture was kept in tact. Their culture was to create good matches for their customers. The leaders made sure everyone understood that. The last reason why eHarmony has an effective strategic leadership is because of their ethical practices. In eHarmony, they screen their customers before they can create a profile and buy the packages. They don’t allow married customers on the site because they want their customers to feel that the people on this site are looking for marriage.

Digital marketing presents opportunities and challenges to Essay - 2

Digital marketing presents opportunities and challenges to organisations - Essay Example 198). Yet, to obtain the advantages of digital marketing, organisations should add interactive media into their current marketing and business strategies, which is not easy to accomplish. Many companies are having difficulties developing their digital marketing strategies. Studies are being carried out to identify new marketing tools that will contribute to the development and implementation of digital marketing tools. The intention of this discussion is to describe the opportunities and challenges presented by digital marketing to today’s companies by using two concrete examples, Amazon and American Airlines’s SABRE. Various scholars and researchers have identified and described the opportunities and challenges of digital marketing. Digital marketing has created new means or outlets for advertising, selling, and buying. It allows the customer to access an incredible amount of information in an accessible and convenient way. Customers have the chance to look at products and/or services based on their wanted features, such as price, quality, functionality, and others. Customers can use it to get product reviews, or to know about the experiences, opinions, and/or ideas of other users (Urban 2004, 18). Digital marketing has given the end user some control, bringing about an enormous change in marketing processes. By using digital marketing companies can gain competitive advantage through greater customer satisfaction. In addition, digital marketing could be a simple tool for companies since the ‘digital’ feature of marketing allows further technology advances. Because the Internet facil itates two-way communication directly and quickly, implementing digital marketing strategy can occur faster than earlier marketing tools and are at times less costly. The best feature of digital marketing is its ‘instantaneousness’, hence allowing quick response from customers (Morris 2002, p. 205). On the

Plan Development for a Major Health Care Facility Essay

Plan Development for a Major Health Care Facility - Essay Example The main aim of business plan is to oversee the implementation of a project based on good decision making, proper planning procedures and methods that eventually will lead to full completion of a project to all parties’ satisfaction. This paper is aimed at establishing a business plan for a major health care facility to its full functionality. The actual project here is a business plan of a major health care facility. For a successful completion of the project, there are many considerations, obstacles as well as opportunities that all have to be looked at before and during the project implementation. Unlike other projects, health care facility requires special attention due to the nature of its work hence it needs more expertise in its project planning. The plan should put in consideration many factors among them; that healthcare facilities depends on continues operations with no tolerance to disruptions, in terms of its construction it will require unique waste streams since chemicals might be involved within its wastes, there is need for provision of intense energy and water use within its surroundings due to the nature of the activities within the healthcare, there should be provision for infection control which should be unique on its own and lastly but not least, indoor air circulation is of importance and hence should be considered in the business plan for healthcare project. These special specifications differentiate a healthcare plan to that of a normal business plan. Any project that is to be consisted within a healthcare facility should fully be planed for and evaluated before its implementation. Existing research has shown that in a period of about last five years, there indeed has been an increase in healthcare projects development to almost 50% as compared to the previous years. This rapid increase has mainly been attributed to the need for new and developing technological innovations in the healthcare sector, aging populations as well as fa cilities, the need for new standards of care and a considerate reimbursement and financing environment. All these have contributed to the witnessed introductions of various projects to the health sector. This intern has brought the need to come up with business plans so as to attain the healthcare objectives with less challenges. The market analysis has shown that indeed there is more need for effective service integration and healthcare management especially for new enrollees within the healthcare sector. This is attributed to the fact that majority of new enrollees are soon to be non-disabled adults and this is a critical fact to the health sector since it’s worth noting that the disabled and dually eligible populations are much more costly and hence stand to benefit more from effective healthcare system. Market analysis has shown that there has been a high rise in the resent years of various special cases in the health sector that indeed have called for business plans to h elp in projects integrations in the health sector. Such like programs include; perinatal conditions that have played a big role in maternal and child health care, Chronic conditions, smoking complications and obesity among others. These complex health matters have brought about the need for establishment of more healthcare facilities and this has called for the need for project planning since healthcare

Patients as Health Care Consumers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Patients as Health Care Consumers - Essay Example Like a consumer who makes decisions on whether to buy a commodity or not in a given store, so is a health care consumer who can be influenced by advertisements and marketing. Health care consumers include patients in any hospital setting, a client in a mental health centre within any given community, or it can also be any person who is a member to any organization providing prepaid health care services and maintain (Ryan et al 2009:78). At any given time that a person decides to visit a health facility for any kind of health or medical attention, she or he makes the decision of doing so as a health care consumer. Through health care consumerism, the conservative government is deemed to have introduced monetary structures of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) and Community Care Act both of which had their aims inclined to increasing competition as well as shift in NHS’ culture. This was in regard to concerns of minding patients as health care consumers and it involv ed shift from a culture that was established through decisions and preferences to a culture that was determined by health care users’ wishes and views. ... e government introduced overall management in NHS in the year 1983 at various levels of service so as to research on the needs of patients alongside their views regarding quality of health care. Following these and other essential considerations, consumer driven health care has been on the rise based on the need to get health care consumers satisfied being that they form the basis of health care industry by purchasing health care services and products (Natalier and Willis 2008:407). This paper attempts to look into issues regarding the view that patients are consumers of health care services. Mechanisms for Consumerism in Health Care There are some mechanisms for consumerism in health care which have continually been exhibited in as much as health care consumerism has been embraced. One of the mechanisms is Patient Charter which is actually a document of the United Kingdom’s government with a layout of rights for NHS patients. This charter has been into force since its incepti on in the year 1992 through Conservative government but had been revised in the years 1995 and 1997. According to Adeoye and Bozic (2007:97), â€Å"the charter sets out rights in service areas including  general practice, hospital treatment, community treatment, ambulance, dental, optical, pharmaceutical and maternity. However, various stakeholders have criticized the charter for reasons widely ranging from not offering sufficient support to trans-gender patients  to increasing attacks on hospital staff†. Amid the issues, the charter has been meant to be legally binding as far as health care consumerism is concerned. Another mechanism for health care consumerism is Choose and Book approach which has been applied since the year 2005. This is an electronic booking software system cum application