MRKT110:7:Online Principles of Marketing

ANSWER EACH QUESTION IN 150 WORDS!!! PUT REFRENCES UNDER EACH ANSWER!!

Discussion 6.1

Do small companies that manufacture just a few products need to be concerned about developing and managing products? Why or why not?

Discussion 6.2

Do small companies that manufacture just a few products need to be concerned about developing and managing products? Why or why not?

Discussion 7.1

Under what conditions is a producer most likely to use more than one marketing channel?

Discussion 7.2

In what ways are traditional specialty stores and off-price retailers similar? How do they differ?

MGMT311:7:Online Supply Chain Management

Week 6 Discussion 1

Discuss Walmart’s location strategy.

Week 6 Discussion 2

Discuss the six strategic roles of a foreign facility.

Week 6 Assignment – Case Study

O’Leary Management Solutions 

Mary O’Leary is an extremely successful management consultant. Mary worked for several large corporations in various roles before starting her consulting business. Mary’s forte is using long-established management concepts and applying them in innovative ways.

Consequently, Mary is a much sought-after consultant. As the years have passed, Mary has hired other very talented people and trained them in her approach.

Currently, O’Leary Management Solutions is located in New York. However, her company of consultants travels all over the United States. At last count, they consulted in thirty-two states on a routine basis. Technology helps limit some of the travel. Conferences calls, e-mail, and transferring files using the cloud all help O’Leary work closely with their clients, while being efficient with their own time management.

As Mary reviews her company’s current status and looks toward its future she wonders if it is time to open a second office location. Although technology helps, Mary is a big believer in hands-on consulting. Mary’s experience tells her that meeting people face to face, when trying to find a solution to their issues, is crucial. That is getting more and more difficult to do, particularly in states closer to the west coast.

Mary plans to address this idea with her staff, but in the meantime, she did some personal brainstorming about what factors she should consider when choosing a second location. Her employees were all high powered, highly educated, successful people, many who have families. All enjoy their time off, although they don’t get much of that. Although government regulations weren’t a big concern, taxes for her company and employees were. Mary felt it was best to think long term and anticipate further growth, such as what new states could be future markets. One key marketing factor for Mary is being located in the high rent section of the business district. This is as important as her employees being well groomed and well dressed. First impressions often sealed the deal.

Mary eventually decides that opening a second office is a must. Mary schedules a meeting with her staff for next Thursday and plans to explain why they are opening another office and share her thoughts about the selection criteria. Also, she plans to get their feedback on what would be the best location selection criteria since some of them will have to move there.

Answer All Questions

1.       The textbook lists eleven major community factors to use as selection criteria for choosing a location. Mary realizes that all factors are important; however, eleven are too many because it waters down the effect of each factor’s weight. Therefore, Mary wants no more than five major factors. Based on the information in the case, which factors should Mary and her staff choose? Explain why the specific factors you picked are pertinent to Mary’s company.

2.       Building on question 1, weight the five factors you choose for O’Leary Management Solutions. Mary has expressed that she does not want any two factors with the same weight. Explain why you rated them as you did, that is, why one criterion is more or less important than another.

3.       Mary is thinking that quality of life may be one of the factors they should pick. However, it is much too general a term to be a good indicator of the best location. Therefore, Mary believes it would be best to create a weighed factor rating matrix just for quality of life. Each location can be looked at through that specific criteria as well and the score each receives can then put inputted into the broader selection matrix. There are nine quality-of-life factors listed in the textbook. This time, Mary wants no more than four for this subweighted factor rating analysis. Which four would you recommend and why? How would you weight them and why?

Week 7 Discussion 1 

What are the four concerns of service response logistics?

Week 7 Discussion 2

Think of some supply chain (external) performance measures for several of the eight key supply chain business processes, assuming the overall strategy is superior customer service. What if the overall strategy is sustainability?

Week 7 Case Assignment 

Daisy Perry 

Daisy Perry is the repair shop supervisor at one of the largest automotive dealerships in Phoenix, Arizona. Daisy has been working on cars since she was twelve years old, for more than twenty-five years. She began by helping her father repair racecars; he raced cars as a hobby. After her graduation from high school, Daisy attended a technical school to earn her Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification.

Early in her career Daisy moved around from auto maker to auto maker to get as much experience as she could. Daisy has worked on all types of cars, from traditional family vans to sporty high-performance cars. Because of her experience at different dealerships, Daisy has an excellent reputation throughout Phoenix, so much so, that some customers actually switched brands when Daisy moved on to another dealership. Daisy was ready to go out on her own and open an all-purpose automotive repair shop.

Opening her own business required a lot of thought. Daisy had many things to consider, for example, layout, location, type of strategy, productivity, capacity, and customer waiting time, to name just a few. Daisy began to jot down some of the things she believed were important to include in her business.

One critical feature of the business is to have ASE-certified mechanics. In addition to the certification, Daisy wanted her mechanics to look professional. They would wear coveralls with her company logo and their name. She planned to give each mechanic five sets of clothing and to provide each a personal locker to keep them in. She would have a laundry service clean them so there would always be a clean set available to start each workday.

Daisy knew that customers like freebies so she planned to offer a free oil change after every fifth one. Although the type of warranty depended on the work completed and the parts provided, at a minimum, Daisy planned to provide a thirty-day warranty on all work. In addition, the invoices would contain itemized charges, with no hidden costs. Prior to any repairs, the customer would receive a quote. If for some reason the repairs were more extensive than originally thought, Daisy would contact the customer and provide a revised quote before the work continued.

The waiting room would have Wi-Fi, sufficient electrical outlets to charge electronic devices, magazines to read, a TV to watch, and drink and snack machines. The waiting room would be in the center of the facility with windows looking out to all the work bays. This allowed the customer to watch the repairs and see the care given to their vehicles. Each work bay would contain state-of-the-art equipment.

One challenge Daisy was concerned about was scheduling. She believed that once she opened the doors many of her current and past customers would bring her their business. Scheduling, if business is strong, will not be an issue. However, if there are periods, whether seasonal or otherwise, where there are too many mechanics on shift, it will be difficult to manage. ASE-certified mechanics are not interested in part-time work. A forty-hour per week job is expected and easy to find. Using part-time employees as a safety valve to balanced demand and capacity does not seem an option.

As Daisy reviewed her list, she felt that there were still many unanswered questions. However, Daisy felt reasonably confident since she effectively ran the repair shop at the dealership for the last five years. Daisy had many friends in the business and decided to share her list with several of them and get feedback.

Questions

1.      Which service strategy is Daisy planning to implement? Provide specifics that support your selection. Do you believe this is the best strategy? Should she consider one of the other two?

2.      Daisy’s concern about scheduling during nonpeak periods is a serious problem. She cannot risk alienating her ASE-certified mechanics by cutting their hours because they can easily find other work. Assume the following: after the first year, Daisy determines the nonpeak periods. There are very few times; however, she believes they will be consistent year after year, meaning the same general timeframe. Explain to Daisy what options or initiatives she can use to increase demand since cutting hours is not an option.

MGMT230:7:Online Organizational Behavior

Discussion 6.1

What traits do you think characterize successful leaders? Do you think the trait approach has validity?

Discussion 6.2

In your opinion, is it possible for someone with little or no charisma to become charismatic? If so, how? If not, why?