Category: Business Success

Strengths and Weaknesses of Costco’s Business Strategy

This assignment is based on the well-recognized firm named Costco. It is the second largest retailer after Walmart and sells its products in many countries like US, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom and many more. This company sells products in large stock as it is a wholesale business. Jim Sinegal was the co-founder and CEO since 1983. He got retired and transferred his business in the hands of Craig Jelinek in 2011. Now, he is continuing the business in effective manner.

Costco’s Business Model

In our perspective, a company’s business model is its strategy and operating activities that will create value for the customers, while at the same time will generate ample amount of revenues to cover its cost and expenses and produced profit. In reference with the book, there are two elements of company business model which are: Customer value proposition and its profit formula. According to the case, the Costco business model is to deliver the highest quality of goods and services at the lowest prices possible and providing excellent customer service and adopting a strict code of ethics that includes taking care of employees and members, respecting suppliers, rewarding shareholders, and be socially responsible towards the society and environment. Another element of Costco business model is to generate high sales volume and rapid inventory turnover. Which means after paying off their debt they will have significant amount of cash in their hands. Costco CEO said that they are trying to keep their product price low as much as possible, which makes it difficult for the rivals to match their price. For example, they sold a hot brand of jeans for $29.99, which was of $50 in a department store. According to their annual reports they were facing loss if they have not charged their customers membership fees. They have been successful so far in making the customer value proposition and they also maintain the profit from 2000 to 2016. In 2015, they hit the highest profit which was $2,377 million. They provide the customers higher value and they keep their price low which makes the customer more attractive to their value proposition. A creative strategy of membership fees, distinctive strategy of keeping the highest quality or branded products price low sets them apart from the rivals and it creates a competitive advantage for the Costco It is the most reliable ticket to earn the average above profits than the rivals. Costco business model matches well to its strategy, which creates a sustainable competitive advantage and allows them to attract sufficiently large number of buyers who have a lasting preference for its product over those offered by rivals.

Costco’s strategy

Costco has been developed a very fine business strategy along with appreciable business elements over the years. Costco has its own name in the business market because it always comes up with the business tactics which can make it shine more than the competitors in the market. Its main mission is to provide the good quality products at the lowest prices. The chief elements of Costco are: 1) lowest prices on reputed brand products, 2) well-structured inventory which leads to fast turnovers, 3) providing membership fees.

For implementing their lowest price strategy, they have launched their own products such a Kirkland and claimed that they are better than other competitive brands. Also, they choose to sell the limited but good products on low prices so that their customers can get attract to their highly reasonably priced deals. The treasure hunt deals are proved to be appealing for the customers who want new and bulking deals. For making profit from the treasure hunt scheme, they get collaborated with wholesalers to get good things at low prices. Their main motive behind treasure hunt initiative is to give a positive reinforcement to their pre-existing clients to retain them. On the name of inventory turnover, they sell high volumes with low margins because they have got the idea to make a balance between purchasing things and reselling it again to the consumers, accordingly. For the membership, they have business membership and the gold star membership, and they keep their approaches of membership up to date in order to let their customers renew their membership. They have evidence-based statistics which are the proves of expansion on revenue from previous years. Their business model is cost effective and the CEO of Costco Jim Singel has been taken the responsibility of increasing the profit by all effective ways. He keeps close eyes on every possible aspect as well as on the product. Costco justified its cost-effective business strategy by attracting high volume of customers all around the country. They have given a high competition to rivals by considering effluent to low income customers in their target list. Their high productivity and expenditure ratios are transparent, and this statistic is a biggest proof of their success. In a way they are satisfying needs of both the suppliers and the customers.

Jim Sinegal’s leadership style and Craig Jelinek’s approach

Jim Sinegal was an effective leader and CEO. He tried to involve in all warehouse operations. He used to visit 8 to 10 stores daily as a store clerk to make good relations with employees and to find out the visiting experiences of the customers. Jim Sinegal wander through the aisles and try to fix the problems associated with reputation of the company.

Being an effective leader, Jim Sinegal has a special knack in crafting and executing strategies. So, we would assign grade A because of his mind-blowing strategies. He wanted to keep the prices of the product low as much as possible as he did not want that someday any competitor enters the market and beats the prices of the Costco. He wants to establish an organization that will be there 50 years from now. In addition to this, product selection, growth strategy and most important Treasure hunt merchandising is used a tool to increase the regular visit of the customers.

Craig Jelinek continues the mission, vision and values of Jim Sinegal. He has a same objective of offering low prices with best quality. He follows the ethics of obeying laws, respecting customers, taking care of employees. Jelinek focuses on expanding the business globally and increasing the sales. There is always a risk for the business when new CEO is appointed. But under his leadership, growth rate is high as compared to most of the competitors, share price goes up and significant growth in dividends. It is all because of better understanding of the business and strategies. (Newsmax, 2019).

Based on the information given in the case study Costco’s business philosophy, values and code of ethics are:

• Obey the law: Obeying the law is important as it gives the framework to the business how to act and operate. Costco follows all the rules and regulations of every community where they operate their business. They pledge to follow all the laws and the legal requirements, respecting all the government official’s, meeting all the safety and security standards, meeting all the requirements related to employment law and ecological standard, comply with antitrust law, following the proper laws and regulations related to foreign laws while operating the business outside the country and working in accordance with foreign corrupt practices act or the law of the other countries.
• Take care of our employees: Employees are one of the most important assets of the company. Costco provides their employees with ample growth opportunities for their personal and career growth. They pledge to provide employees with Competitive wages, Employment benefits, safe and healthy work environment, Career opportunities and a work environment which is free from all the bias and harassment.
• Take care of members: Members are the reason for the existence of the business. As we all know that Costco’s members have lots of shopping alternatives like Walmart, superstore etc. So, the company needs to maintain the member’s trust for that they pledge to provide Top quality products at the best price, highest food safety standards, 100% satisfaction guarantee, warranty on products and services, pleasant shopping environment and experience, best customer service and provide products that are ecologically sensitive.
• Respect our suppliers: Suppliers must prosper along with the company for the success of the business. They strive to treat all the suppliers and their representative respectfully, honour all their commitments, protect all supplier’s assets, no gratitude’s and always do what is right.
• Reward and shareholders: As a company trades its stocks with NASDAQ stock exchange, its shareholders are its business partners. To be successful, we need to provide our shareholders with good returns as they invest their money in the Costco. They pledge to provide in the same way to their present and future shareholders, as well as the employees will also be rewarded for their time and efforts.

Costco from financial perspective:

The various financial ratios of the years 2014, 2015 and 2016 showed that Gross Profit Margin and total return on assets is increasing at slow pace (from 12.59% to 13.32%), which is a good indicator to yield high profit in future. One and only ratio that fluctuated with 3-4% is return on stockholder’s equity. In 2014, it was above average which has reached to 21.92% in the next year. It decreased approximately 2.5% in 2016. EPS is also fluctuating with little variation (from 4,65 to 5.33). Costco is weak in maintaining current ratio (from 1.22 to 0.98). It should be higher than 1 and the best one is 2:1. This ratio has decreased continuously which shows that Costco do not have enough current assets to pay off the current liabilities. Debt in comparison to total assets is better than before. Company can generate enough cash in future because its debt to equity ratio is below 1 (0.34). There is not much variations in the inventory turnover and inventory days. It means that whatever the company purchases get sold off at the same ratio in relation to previous years. Overall, Costco is doing well but weak points are always there. Company should work on those weakness to grab more opportunities.

Recommendations

• Online services and self-checkout: Every organization is expanding with the help of technology. Online-services has made the life of people so easier. Take an example of Amazon which provides online shopping and home delivery services. Another example is Superstore where we can order online all the required items and they prepare the cart for us. We just have to go there and park the car, employees put the stuff inside. In addition to this, there is also self-checkout option at the superstore which is not available at Costco. It would reduce the workload of employees and they do not need more employees as cashier.
• Improve Margin: Costco is generating huge amount of revenue from membership fees. This is the reason that Costco prices are not too high. Still, there are people who could pay more for the price of product depending on the quality, but they do not want to pay the membership fees. Costco should increase the margin by keeping membership fees low.
• Diversification: Walmart is at number one because it sells 1000 times more variety of products which satisfy every need of customers as compared to Costco. No doubt, that Costco is following a strategy to keep less variety in all items, but we cannot neglect that the people living in Canada belong to different cultures and countries. Their choices regarding each item is different. Costco must increase the variety keeping in mind all the residents.
• No benefit for small household: Costco sells products in large quantities. Small household requires only number of items per week. They cannot buy that stock as that will expire after some time. So, visiting Costco and doing shopping is only valuable for large households. Costco should open a store to sell small quantities as well.
• Expand product-line: whenever buyers visit Costco, they see only few brands such as Adidas, Puma, Reebok but only few items related to such brands are there. Experience of customers with those products is no so good. Those might be defective pieces company sells. But to increase sale and customer loyalty Costco should contact the famous brands and sell their products.
• Advertisement: Costco do not advertise at all. It only sends mail to the prospective member as well as coupons to existing customers. But this is not enough in this era where people are addicted to social media. Number of people do not visit Costco because they do not have membership cards. They have no experience what type of products Costco sells or what quality they provide because there is no advertisement. So, Costco could provide one- or two-month free trail for shopping to bring new customers to the business if they do not want to spend money on advertisement.

Referencess

1. Newsmaxfinanace. (2019, February 9). Retrieved from www.newsmax.com: https://www.newsmax.com/finance/benreynolds/costco-ceo-company
2. Gamble, J. E., Thompson, A. A., Jr., & Peteraf, M. A. (2019). Essentials of strategic management: The quest for competitive advantage. Dubuque: McGraw-Hill Education.

Google’s Path to Success

Google is a well-known company founded in Stanford University by Larry Page and Sergey Brin on September 4th, 1997. They created an online search system that became an international essential for researching. Google is known for its reputation as the worlds largest search engine, a quick and simple cost-free service that appears within seconds. No matter what language you speak Google can recognizes it. Google also shows you different maps around the world, breaking news from across the globe, to billions of photos to search from. Googles other services include AdSense, Google Books, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Images and Google Translate. These services are what makes Google the top world-wide site.

Googles making began back in 1995 when Sergey Brin and Larry Page shared ideas at Stanford University. A year later they both began a project known as BackRub which little did, they know was Google in the making. Larry and Sergey where looking for investors at the time in order to make their ideas come to life. Unfortunately, they were turned away many times, discouraging them with the excuse that people were not interested in online searching. Two years later they gathered up enough money to begin operations in California in their small garage as an office. In the ending of that year, Google was nominated as one of the ‘Top 100 websites and search engines for 1998’.

After a few years of Google being online, its competition increased with websites such as Yahoo, Bing, Excite, and AltaVista. By the year 2000 Google began to boom at a steady rapid rate. People were doing their online research with Google 200 million times a day. By the ending of 2011 Google was working with 3 billion searches a day. The companies name became so common in modern day language that the name has become a verb, meaning to search something on the web; users nowadays state that they’ve ‘Googled’ information. The name Google originated from the word ‘Googol’, which stands for the number one, followed by one hundred zeroes.

Googles services have been used all around the world making it one of the world’s top known companies. “Googles annual earnings has almost tripled since 2011 to 31 billion in a year”, according to Android Central. Googles main bulk of income comes from online advertisements such as AdSense. Numerous businesses work with Google AdWords to market their service or product using ‘targeted advertising’, according to Scribd.com. Also, many people use Google’s AdSense program to help promote advertisements related to the information on their same site. In 2018 Google reached a new record of having more than $100 billion in revenue ever in Google’s 20-year history.

Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, according to Google.com. Google’s vision statement motivates the company to reach new heights by regenerating bold ideas. Google’s triumph comes straight from the company’s efforts to accomplish its corporate mission. Google has the reputation of creating different services that are likely to enhance the lives of millions. Google’s mission is to certify that information works for anyone, not selected people. With that being said, if you’re a teenager in a small town or a college professor in an ivy league university, both will access the same information. Google successfully follows their mission statement by proving that they focus on making sure users gain access to the information they wish for.

Costco’s Key Success Factors

First, in the US employee satisfaction survey, Costco surpassed Apple, Facebook and inter, second only to the number one Google. The employee satisfaction of retail companies is very difficult to fight, and Costco’s employees are more than many top companies in Silicon Valley. According to the survey, a cashier at Costco earned an hourly wage of $20.89. This is almost twice the size of competitor Walmart, so the treatment of such employees enables employees to be more active in their work. While enhancing the corporate image, it can also bring a better shopping experience to customers (Brian Woolf, 2015).

Most importantly, in today’s global economic downturn, companies around the world are pursuing profits, and few companies make profits for customers. Only Costco wants to make a little less money to give benefits to customers. For example, Costco’s profits are so low that people can’t imagine, on average, at 10%. For example, a bag of potato chips is purchased in US dollars, they only sell for 1.1 dollars, and Walmart will sell for about 3 dollars. Costco’s low profit, after removing shipping and taxes, has almost no profit. It can be seen that Costco does not make money by selling things. This is not because of the low profits caused by fierce competition, but to actively reduce profits to a level that does not make money at all. Not only have that, but Costco’s returned service is unimaginable. For example, if we buy goods at metro or shoppers, we may get a refund period of less than 15 days. And Costco has done it no matter how long, regardless of the reason, customers can return, even eat and use electrical appliances at any time. Long-term customer benefits and excellent service have made it a great success in the competition of global retail companies.

Costco has achieved worldwide success with its unique membership philosophy. Costco membership fees are divided into two types of 55 or 110 US dollars/year. With nearly a million members worldwide, Costco earns billions of dollars a year in revenue. And excellent service has made Costco gain amazing customer loyalty. On average, nine out of ten members will continue to choose Costco in the second year. Although Costco can’t survive the fiercely competitive retail industry in terms of current economic development and social structure, he stands out from the global competition with its unique membership and low profit and the strange patterns listed above. Many supermarkets and e-commerce have used it as a benchmark, but it is difficult to imitate. Costco is ostensibly a successful supermarket and a successful intermediary. For a general company, the source of profit is the difference between the purchase price and the retail price of the goods sold. For example, Walmart suppresses the purchase price of goods by a large amount of purchases and then sells them. The term intermediary is not directly providing the corresponding service or item but it can find and arrange for the customer to choose and decide. Costco will work with local car dealers to sell cars, and there is a central car dealership center that builds a network. Then these local dealers have some price agreements with Costco, and they can go directly to the dealer stores where Costco is working to buy a car.

Costco’s suppliers are maintained at around 4,000 of Walmart’s, and there are only one or two options for each segment. But these 4,000 suppliers are brands that already have good reputation and customer trust. In this way, Costco reduces the customer’s choice time and also provides customers with the best quality and most cost-effective products. Members will not be worried about buying fakes and quality safety issues. There is a strict specification for the supplier Costco, and if there is a problem with the supplier’s product, Costco will not cooperate with it for at least three years. If the partner gives other companies a lower price, the supplier’s merchandise will never be considered by Costco. The control of the supplier can control the procurement cost on the one hand and increase the inventory turnover rate of the commodity on the other hand. According to the survey, Costco’s inventory turnaround time is about 31 days, while Amazon and Walmart are about 45 days. This short turnaround time gave Costco a good cash flow, which also reflected Costco’s philosophy of business philosophy.

Guaranteeing the quality of the goods, safeguarding the members’ rights and enhancing the loyalty of the members made Costco a successful company. Focusing on long-term benefits rather than on short-term profitability, Costco has grown rapidly in just a few decades. A successful company cannot do without innovation and development. With the development of e-commerce, Costco also has its own online store to allow members to have more shopping channels.

History of PepsiCo Success: From Pharmacy to Transnational Company

Introduction:

In 1893, Pepsi was produced by Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist, in New Bern, North Carolina. He made it in his drugstore when he found that it gets sold very quickly. Before it was called Pepsi-Cola in 1898, he named it Brad’s drink. He started selling Pepsi at a repository instead of his dispensary in 1903. He started his own corporation “Pepsi-Cola” for years where he faced fluctuations, successes, and failures. In 1965, PepsiCo was created by integrating Frito-Lay with Brad’s Pepsi-Cola company, and it became a multinational nibble, drink, and food corporation. For PepsiCo to keep its position between other companies, its operation administration must deliver business needs in the ten planned decision districts which are:

1. Design of Products and Services.
2. Quality administration.
3. Process and Size design.
4. Location plan.
5. Layout design and plan.
6. Job design and human assets.
7. Supply chain administration.
8. Inventory administration.
9. Scheduling.
10. Maintenance.

Body:

The current CEO and chairman is Ramon Laguarta. Ramon is the sixth CEO in the history of PepsiCo. Laguarta was working at a candy company named Chupa Chups before joining PepsiCo in January 1996. He was working in the European business of the company. In September 2017, he was named the president of PepsiCo. On August 6, 2018, the day the previous CEO Indra Nooyi announced she is leaving her position, they voted for Laguarta without him knowing to be the next CEO for PepsiCo. In October, he took her place, while in February 2019, he became the chairman. Laguarta’s three main goals since he became a CEO are to become stronger, better, and increase the rate of organic revenue growth of the company. Laguarta is a democratic CEO, and this appears in his leadership behaviors which include: voice opinions fearlessly, celebrate successes, focus to get things done faster, as mentioned in his biography in PepsiCo’s website. Ramon is a leader in which he always motivates his employees and decides their direction. And his most played role is being a disturbance handler who can handle whatever the situation the company goes through.

As it obvious that the known corona virus decreases access to food and other basic foodstuffs for societies worldwide, PepsiCo is spending more than 60 million dollars worldwide to deliver food and other necessary resources to the most affected societies. As part of this initiative, PepsiCo provides support to protect doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers. It also provided more than 50,000,000 healthy meals to people and communities at risk. They invested a lot of money in most of the countries and in many institutions to help people around the world. PepsiCo is employing dark green approach, as they fill up the water it uses with a high percentage nearly 100%, they also make sure that the water is returned back to the same place it was taken from. They also do their best to reduce their wastes. They design their packaging in a way which will make them be able to recycle them again. As a reason for all these initiatives, customers will love to deal with the company and they will have good feedback all the time, which will make their sales increase and will also make the company face a great success.

The main growth plan used by PepsiCo is concentration plan which is focusing on a core business line and growing the amount of items sold or served in the markets. Trying to be successful in one single industry which is soft drinks is a way to secure its growth.

SWOT analysis:

• Strengths: Global presence: items are marked in over 200 countries, resulting in $43 billion in annual net sales. Good operating efficiency and capacity to disturbance: class leading delivery systems implemented in-region, meeting specific needs.
• Weakness: Coca-Cola has a greater share of the intake of carbonated soft drinks because they give their drink to more fast food restaurants.
• Reliance: Pepsi depends on bottling companies as they don’t own any bottling companies, unlike Coca-Cola.
• Opportunities: Brand Line Expansion: PepsiCo could add more items to boost market share. Attempting to enter more developing countries: PepsiCo can get more money , increase their income from entering the markets of some developing countries.
• Threats: Change in the policy environment: differences in food and drug regulations, ingredient export and import regulations can change the environment in which PepsiCo operates and can affect the outcome and raise prices and liabilities. Trade merger: Market competition can impact PepsiCo’s business.

The Value Chain is the whole sequence of corporate work activities that add value to every stride starting with the manufacturing of raw materials and finishing with the final product in the hands of end-users. There are 4 possible obstacles to successful value chain management which are:

1. People: Not being inspired to do high quality work / Lack of steadfast dedication to doing whatever it requires.
2. Organizational barriers: Refusal or inability to share data / Willingness to smash the current system.
3. Cultural attitudes: All along the chain there needs to be mutual respect and transparency about the behavior of each member.
4. Required capabilities: Absence of or inability to build the required and necessary skills in managing the value chain puts businesses at risk of loss.

The main purpose of control is to ensure that the activities are completed in ways that lead to organizational goals being achieved. The best source of information for measuring the company’s accomplishment is the oral reports as it allows for verbal and nonverbal feedback. It’s also a fast way to get the needed facts, and it allows you to ask many people.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we can say that PepsiCo is a company which know how to be successful between all the other companies. Its culture is really a good one. People their know how to grow internationally, and they have a good strategy to do so. It has its own place despite all the weakness the may face. I see it one of the most successful companies worldwide.

Is Competition Necessary for Success: Persuasive Essay

Competition is a fundamental influence on a business for a successful outcome in the market economy, becoming the pinnacle of who we are. Competition occurs in continuous everyday events, for example through sports, businesses, and so on, which influence our daily lives.

My favorite brand is Apple Inc. (Apple), Apple is a well-known American multinational technological company, that designs and instigates a series of computer software and smartphones. Within the wide range of goods Apple offers, the smartphone would have to be my favorite product. In, Apple has around 18 different models of iPhones to offer to the general public.

Apple can be considered to stand within two different market structures such as oligopoly and monopolistic competition. Monopolistic refers to having numerous competitors offering products that are similar; for example, their Mac computers. Therefore, we see Apple striving to differentiate its product offering from others, for example, Microsoft. Whereas, Oligopoly refers to a small number of competitors offering similar, but somewhat differentiated products; for example; their smartphones.

A major oligopoly competitor to Apple is Samsung which is a South Korean multinational company, that develops televisions, household appliances, and smartphones. Samsung has become a major competitor to Apple due to the technological field always fluctuating and emerging. According to the “Vendor Data Overview (Worldwide Top 5 Smartphone Company Market Share)” – IDC.com, Samsung was the leading vendor in the worldwide smartphone market with a 23.5% percent market share in 2018 Quarter 1 (Q1). Whereas, Apple was the second largest with a 15.7% market share in 2018 Q1.

Competition can be controlled through the use of a situational analysis providing a precise understanding of the business’s current position. Strengths and weaknesses are internal, occurring inside the business, controlled, and affected by decisions. Whereas, opportunities and threats are external, occurring outside the business, and beyond the control of management.

Although Samsung is Apple’s biggest competitor, it created a weakness within the company due to damaging its image by infringement involving Apple itself. According to the Sydney Morning Herald written by Stephen Nellis & Jan Wolfe (2018), around the 25th May 2018 – US Jury, said “Samsung should pay $US539 million ($711 million) to Apple for copying patented smartphone features”. This dispute had been going on for years when Samsung was found accountable in 2012, but lack of agreement over the amount that needed to be paid led the feud to continue until arguments concluded in May 2018. This weakness from Samsung had affected its brand image negatively therefore not allowing Samsung to reach its intended goals as it drew more consumers to Apple’s iPhones.

In comparison, Apple’s competition is growing, due to its high prices remaining unaffordable and difficult for many to purchase as it attracts customers from the upper class. As a result, it limits consumers within the lower-class bracket to simply purchasing these specific products. Apple’s iPhone prices have been on the rise for years now, for example; the most current iPhone XS, has a price of $1,799, and around two years ago, the iPhone 7 Plus, commenced at $929. This goes to show how quickly pricing has increased over a short period of time. When you compare Samsung’s latest phone (Galaxy S10+), it has a price of $1499, furthermore identifying how difficult it is for consumers within the lower class whom in which may be interested in purchasing Apple products. This affects competition between Apple and Samsung, due to Samsung giving the opportunity to customers within the lower bracket to experience life with a smartphone.

Within both companies, there is the rising threat of competition from other companies such as Microsoft and Google offering the same products. Although, these threats, could impose opportunities for each company to challenge one another due to the innovative development of new product lines.

PESTEL analysis is used as a tool to assess the macro-environmental factors that affect Apple and Samsung. There are multiple issues PESTEL controls, influencing managers’ decisions on the business.

Technology allows a better way of doing things, resulting in changes to the expectations and behaviors of customers and clients, which then can have huge effects on how suppliers work. Every business is in constant rivalry to adopt greater technological advancement in order to attract and maintain consumers, to help create a better impression than its competitor. Due to technology growing fast, this creates a greater advantage for Samsung. With their ability to continue to innovate, leads them to keep up with the technological growth happening today. Therefore, with the accumulating demand for technology, will result in Samsung creating new improvements and achieving its intended goals and objectives. As a result, Apple faces imitation of Samsung, resulting in the company having to reassess its strategies and come up with unique innovations to surpass its competitor.

Socio-cultural refers to the factors that affect people’s attitudes and beliefs. In order to succeed, companies must provide flexibility in regard to policies. Fluctuation of consumer preferences in specific markets has led Apple and Samsung to change products in order to compete to satisfy these needs and wants. It presents opportunities due to the increasing use of mobile access. However, competition between Apple and Samsung regarding sociocultural factors is comparable, considering they both experience the need to reform to accommodate all sociocultural facets.

Political factor is the extent of government policies that may affect the business, influencing the marketing decisions. It is directly relevant through favorable treatment at the hands of the government and regulations. For example, when Apple provides its goods to other countries, the business must be aware of the regulations involved with tax legislation and the system for the importation of the products. Political instability can affect the sales and supply chains of businesses such as Apple. A political issue that affects Apple’s performance, in particular, is the China-US trade in the Chinese market. If there was a rapid increase in the taxation of imports and/or exports, this could also result in Apple products facing heavy taxes from the Chinese government. As a result, this would affect the demand for Apple’s products such as their smartphones. The competitor of Apple, Samsung in particular has been involved in a number of political scandals. For example, in the article “Samsung… Jay Y Lee jailed for five years…” (August 2017), Jay Y.Lee, the previous vice chairman of Samsung, was sentenced to five years “in prison after finding him guilty of offering bribes to the country’s former president”, and was “also guilty of embezzlement, hiding assets overseas, and concealing profit from criminal acts” This scandal was beneficial for Apple, as after the outcome, shares of Samsung dropped more than 1 percent.

Through the application of analytical strategic frameworks such as SWOT and PESTEL, it indicates that my favorite product Apple Inc. (iPhone) and Samsung are highly competitive. Given both of the company’s current positions, it enables them to broaden their consumer base and enhance services, therefore, undertaking actions to achieve an efficient business – meeting the needs and wants of customers.

Success of William Wrigley Jr.’s Chewing Gum

This case study explores the success of William Wrigley Jr.’s Wrigley company success by using advertising methods and customer preferences regarding chew gum products. Commenting on the challenges of promoting the product, this study found that it was highly competitive from other companies and lack of the ‘chewing gum trust’, which led to Wrigley’s bankruptcy several times. Although the company has faced many challenges in promoting chew gum products, William Wrigley Jr. has been looking for ways to develop and has gained much cooperation from others, until he was named the world’s largest manufacturer of chewing gum and top honors at the Advertising Research Foundation’s third annual David Ogilvy Award ceremony for Research Excellence.

In fact, the term ‘contemporary art’ refers to art created and produced by artists living today. Today’s artists work and respond to a multicultural, technologically advanced, and diverse global environment. Working in a variety of mediums, contemporary artists often reflect and comment on modern society. When it comes to contemporary art, audiences are challenged to dismiss questions such as, ‘Is art good?’ or ‘Is the work aesthetically pleasing?’. Instead, the audience considers whether the art is ‘challenging’ or ‘exciting’. Contemporary artists can question traditional ideas of how art is defined, what constitutes art, and how art is created, while creating dialogue with and in some cases, the style and movement that lay before them.

Artist Background

William Wrigley Jr. began his career in business as a mischievous teenager in Philadelphia during the 1870s. After running away from home at the age of 11 and suffering through repeated expulsions from school. Wrigley went to work as a traveling soap salesman for his father’s company at age 13. In 1891, he went to Chicago as a soap distributor, and there started offering baking powder as a premium with each box of soap. In 1892, he began selling baking powder as a sideline, offering chewing gum as a premium. The chewing gum proved more popular than the baking powder, so he dropped both soap and baking powder to sell only chewing gum. He also gave dealers premiums, such as clocks, coffee grinders, or fishing tackle, which varied with the size of the order. Wrigley relied on advertising to boost sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint chewing gum, which he introduced in 1893. By 1908, sales of Wrigley’s Spearmint were more than $1,000,000 a year. In 1911 Wrigley took over Zeno Manufacturing, the company that made his chewing gum, and established the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. His company became one of the biggest advertisers in the United States. By 1925, when Wrigley turned the company presidency over to his son, Philip, and became chairman of the board. The Wrigley Company had factories in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Background Study

In 1892, Wrigley supplied two packs of rubber candy with each purchase of baking soda until he again understood that premiums were more popular than products. Wrigley’s Chewing Gum offers the first two brands, Lotta Gum and Vassar. Gradually, he phased out baking powder and soap and concentrated on chewing gum. The chewing gum business was very competitive in the late 1800s. There are at least a dozen companies that reject their goods. In 1899, the six largest companies merged to form the ‘chewing gum trust’. Although a newcomer to the industry, Wrigley was offered a place in the trust, but he refused. Under relentless competition, Wrigley teetered on bankruptcy several times, but plowed ahead nonetheless. A natural organizer, Wrigley is aware of the power of advertising; he made many sales in the early days and had a knack for understanding customer needs. Wrigley uses every form of advertising he disposal. In his company ads, Wrigley repeatedly told people about the benefits of the product. He bought space in newspapers, magazines, and even posters. His motto is ‘Tell ’em fast and tell ’em often’.

In 1893 and 1894, Wrigley introduced flavors that would make the company permanent: Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint. Wrigley actively created the logo on the packaging of Spearmint. He decided that the company would focus on popularizing Spearmint, which the company couldn’t. The public did not receive Spearmint at first. However, Wrigley believed in it and pushed it relentlessly. In 1907, a depression year, Wrigley spent $ 284,000 on advertising, most of it in Spearmint and thus bought more than $ 1.5 million worth of advertising in cash-strapped New York. The gamble paid off when sales jumped dramatically. The company earned over $ 1.3 million in 1909 and a year later, Wrigley’s Spearmint was the top selling chewing gem in the United States. He introduced Doublemint chewing gum in 1914.

The company introduces two new brands to the market. The Vassar brand is aimed at women, while Lotta Gum is aimed at the general market. In 1893, the company launched Wrigley’s Spearmint, a breath-taking cold gum, and later that year introduced a sweet and fruit called Juicy Fruit. Juicy Fruit, the first of which was wrapped in a pale gray wrap and the yellow package did not appear until after World War II, stands out from other brands, and the fruits used in Juicy Fruit hold their taste in chicle gums. Meanwhile, Wrigley’s Spearmint is wrapped in a solid white package. Both brands, packing five sticks into one package, feature a design that clearly identifies the gum as Wrigley’s product. Wrigley’s Spearmint and Juicy Fruit proved to be so popular that Wrigley soon found no reason to continue making Vassar or Lotta Gum.

During the 1980s, Wrigley returned to heavy television promotion of its brands using the single, simple slogan, ‘Pure Chewing Satisfaction’. The message remained true to William Wrigley’s ‘Tell ’em quick, tell ’em often’ advice and gave Wrigley a wholesome, super sweet image. This conservative approach was consistent with Wrigley’s reputation for quality and purity. Still sensitive to the social stigma of chewing gum in public, the company did not portray people chewing gum in its advertisements until the 1980s, and for that it used a pair of attractive, young female twins. Prior to hiring real twins, Jayne and Joan Knoerzer, Wrigley used illustrations of twins. Wrigley introduced their Doublemint twins, but they used drawings of twins to illustrate the concept of ‘double’. Then, they hired twin models to appear in their print ads and commercials. The company’s advertising agency, BBDO Chicago, scored a relative coup with a new campaign launched in 1990. A series of spots, used words such as ‘House Guest’, ‘Office Policy’, and ‘Frequent Flyer’ with the letters ‘O’ and ‘Q’ substituted with a red slashed circle over a cigarette, a voice over explains, “When I can’t smoke, I enjoy pure chewing satisfaction”. The Wrigley’s advertisement broke new ground for addressing the sticky social question of smokers’ and non-smokers’ rights.

While Wrigley’s brands tended to carry a more staid image, the company maintained the strongest reputation in the market for quality and specialty. After more than 100 years in business, the company under the stewardship of the third William Wrigley through much of the 1990s made no attempt to diversify into different product lines. While Wrigley’s Amurol subsidiary produced novelty and specialty confectionery products such as suckers and roll candy, the company refused to venture into the food, consumer products, or chemical industries, where its major competitors at the time, RJR Nabisco and Warner-Lambert, were most heavily concentrated.

Wrigley’s Achievements

The Wrigley Company is presently the world’s largest producer of chewing gum. Across the world, Wrigley sales total 4.2 billion USD. Wrigley was the developer of Santa Catalina Island, off the coast of southern California. From 1921 until 1951, a National League baseball club, the Chicago Cubs, a Wrigley family interest, spent its spring-training sessions on Catalina. Wrigley’s Chicago headquarters, the Wrigley Building, became a noted architectural landmark of that city. One of the factors in Wrigley’s success is the development of products that not only taste great, but also deliver unique benefits for a confectionery product. These products deliver a range of benefits including dental protection (Orbit), fresh breath (Winterfresh), enhancing memory and improving concentration (Airwaves), relief of stress, helping in smoking cessation and snack avoidance. Wrigley is one of the pioneers in developing the dental benefits of chewing sugar free gum. Chewing a sugar-free gum like Orbit reduces the incidence of tooth decay by 40%. Its work and support in the area of oral healthcare has resulted in dental professionals recommending sugar free gum to their patients. Besides, the campaign for the Winterfresh brand of chewing gum marketed by Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co in Chicago has taken top honors at the Advertising Research Foundation’s third annual David Ogilvy Award for Research Excellence.

Wrigley’s Collaboration

Mars Inc. and its subsidiary Wrigley have announced that they will be combining their businesses, and the newly formed combined division, Mars Wrigley Confectionery, will be headquartered in Chicago. Based on sales, privately-owned Mars is already the nation’s largest confectionary company. This latest move is being made with the goal of allowing Mars to accelerate the company’s growth in an evolving candy market. Mars Chocolate North America and Wrigley U.S. announced on May 11, 2017 the creation of the confectionery industry’s first and most significant consumer health and well-being standards and commitments. In collaboration with the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and other industry players, including Nestle, Lindt, Ferrara and Ferrero, these commitments are all centered on offering consumers more product choice and transparency.

Recommendations

Some suggestions can be included for future research studies. Through this research, it tells that the importance of advertising in order to raise the company’s name to success. For the future, they still need to use advertising to promote their product, but with the new level, which is on the horizon, these are blockchain-based advertising systems that can be set up via ‘smart business contracts’ so that ad revenues are shared automatically among ‘members’ based on their levels of activities and engagements, or securely distributed to buyers in the form of price reductions. With crypto currency, members also can be rewarded by advertisers to up vote an advertisement to gain higher visibility. Besides, the designer can develop the packaging of chew gum to attract consumer in interactive way with more eco-friendly packaging.

Past, Present, and Future of Enterprise Holdings Inc.: Essay

“Take care of your customers and your employees first, and the profits will follow”. These simple yet deeply impactful words were the working basis of a personal mission that belonged to Jack Taylor, founder of Enterprise Holdings Inc. After serving his country in World War II, Jack returned home with a burning desire to do business differently. In 1957, he implemented the wisdom he gained from the Navy and started a company from a small office in St. Louis. Because of Jack’s early dedication to integrity, customer satisfaction, and a team-oriented approach to getting things done, Enterprise Holdings grew to become the biggest rental car company in the world. His understanding of leadership and basic human behavior helped create an atmosphere of ease, trust, and reliability within the company and its customers. Getting places faster, easier, and cheaper without owning a vehicle became the foundation of the company’s marketing strategy.

When the company was just starting out, its focus was on long-term leasing. After further research, Jack and his assistant Don Holtzman realized the potential for car rentals being a promising lead. They learned from insurance adjusters that clients with damaged or stolen cars needed a short-term replacement, so the company decided to focus its energy on this niche. They encouraged the development of the local segment before spreading to Georgia, Florida, and Texas in 1969. By the 1970s, the company grew nationally by targeting garage and body shop owners and persuading them to send their clients to Enterprise while their cars were being worked on.

Besides the business model, Enterprise had exceptional customer service to thank for its incredible success. This important ingredient played a role in all segments of their business. A special giveaway account was established to allow an Enterprise employee to satisfy a customer’s needs, up to a certain amount. An equally exciting opportunity was provided for the employees with special incentives and bonuses to keep the team motivated and pleased.

In the 1980s, a problem surfaced for the company when Hertz and National joined the party as their competition. Lucky for Enterprise, both parties left the scene early due to low-profit margins. In the late 1980s, Enterprise began aiming at a new market called ‘discretionary rentals’ which offered rentals at extremely affordable prices for families. This type of strategy brought in a lot of business from college students visiting their loved ones for the holiday season. As the company grew, Enterprise decided to invest a whopping $5,000,000 in television advertising in 1989. They wanted their brand to be recognized by a certain audience, targeting the older and wealthier who watched the CBS network. The plan worked, and the company’s revenues reached $800 million in 1990.

Since then, the company has become the largest car rental operation in the world. In 2016, they decided to switch up their marketing from simple car renting to offering luxury car renting, sharing, and selling. Because Enterprise built such a loyal customer base early on, their customers have no problem coming to them for all their transportation needs. They were also working on branching out to the online world, using strategies that allowed them to connect to their audience emotionally by incorporating their target audience’s passions in their marketing campaigns.

Currently, Enterprise segmentation can be broken down into these categories: demographic, psychographic, geographic, and behavioral segmentation. On the demographic side, individuals between the ages of 18-65 are their main target audience. If you are a person in this age group, chances are you’ve seen their advertisements or physical location at least once. Geographically, you can find an Enterprise building in your home city, given it’s in the United States. Almost every person in the age group mentioned has a driver’s license, therefore a car rental company like Enterprise can exist almost anywhere. From a behavioral point of view, people rent cars only when necessary, therefore reliability, comfort, and safety are a must. Lastly, psychologically, this market appeals to the middle and upper class. These are working businessmen and women who recognize the importance of commuting, working, and achieving their goals.

In the future, many routes can be taken to expand even further. For example, Enterprise could establish more locations near places like airports, bus stops, and train stations. This would give travelers more options when going long distances. Not much advertising would need to be done since their customers would be on the go already.

In conclusion, Enterprise Holdings has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1957. Not only were they able to grow rapidly, but they did so by staying true to the values that were instilled within them by their founder, Jack Taylor. Their marketing strategies have worked wonders so far, and if they continue to put their customers first, there is no way they can fail.

What Is an Entrepreneurial Mindset and How to Develop It: Informative Essay

“Entrepreneurial mindset refers to a specific state of mind which orientates human conduct towards entrepreneurial activities and outcomes. Individuals with entrepreneurial mindsets are often drawn to opportunities, innovation, and new value creation” (Dr. Alain Fayolle). Davis et al. (2015) have further elaborated that an entrepreneurial mindset is a mixture of motives, skills, and thought processes that differentiate entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs. It is a state of mind in a complex environment that is intent on pursuing opportunities with scarce resources. The end goal is to deliver user-defined value at numerous multiples of the existing competitive offering through reliance on innovation. Thus, to further our understanding, the features of an entrepreneurial mindset will be illustrated along with ways in which it can be developed.

The first feature of an entrepreneurial mindset is to seek new opportunities, but with discipline. As explained by Shane and Venkataraman (2000), it is a mindset of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to bring into existence future goods and services. There are two competing yet complementary schools of thought, while one believes opportunities emerge because entrepreneurs detect a gap in the existing market which he or she can fill, and the other perceives opportunities are created because entrepreneurs are able to initiate a new gap in the existing market based on their ability to offer higher value-added product or service. McGrath and MacMillan (2000) defined an entrepreneurial mindset as the ability to rapidly sense, act, and mobilize, even under highly uncertain conditions. As stated by them, entrepreneurs are open to new opportunities but do not pursue all of them at the same time. Instead, they are conscious of their scarce resources and prioritize their energy on those avenues that are in line with their strategy and ensure the highest return. For the implementation of projects, it is expected of entrepreneurs to be adaptive to the evolving reality to ensure the best exploitation of opportunities. To ensure this, they leverage their existing internal and external social networks.

The second feature is a constructive attitude towards uncertainty. Ireland et al. (2001) describe an entrepreneurial mindset as a ‘way of thinking’ that creates a competitive advantage out of the positive aspects of uncertainty. In times of uncertainty, entrepreneurs rely on effectuation rather than causal reasoning. Rather than trying to anticipate an uncertain future to meet a set of predetermined goals, entrepreneurs will focus on elements they can control. Considering the means at their disposal, they will rely on their skills to analyze the market, make certain assumptions, identify risks in advance, strategically take calculated ones, and devise ways to manage any other risks beyond their control. Complexity and uncertainty are the norm in today’s business world, but having an entrepreneurial mindset equips them to address the challenges of coping with and adapting to such environments. Thus having an overall positive impact on their survival.

The third feature is to focus on execution, specifically adaptive execution. An outcome of entrepreneurs’ meta-cognitive awareness is their ability to adapt their thinking process to the changing context and task demands (Haynie and Shepherd, 2007). Though they are optimistic and inspired, they focus on their means and rely on trial and error to arrive at probable solutions. They do not make huge investments rather they choose to follow the affordable loss principle. That is, they evaluate opportunities based on if the downside is acceptable rather than the predicted upside. Take the example of the promotion of Dropbox by Drew Houston by posting a video to Hacker-News: the downside was the time spent on putting together the video, but the large upside was the interest generated and signing of the product along with a spot in Y Combinator.

The fourth feature of an entrepreneurial mindset is to focus on building partnerships. Through cooperative trustful relationships with stakeholders and experience, creating social capital is an investment as it requires energy, time, and financial means. Especially in complex and uncertain circumstances, it is a differentiating factor for entrepreneurs (Venkataraman, 1997). Also as discussed by Baron (2006), to gain an advantage entrepreneurs can use social interactions as a mode to access diverse information, make connections, and identify emerging patterns. Thus, by leveraging these networks, entrepreneurs can utilize resources involved in unique and hard-to-imitate ways (Alvarez & Busenitz, 2001).

The fifth feature is tenacity and the ability to learn from mistakes. Failure represents the most difficult, complex, and yet valuable learning experience that can give entrepreneurs revitalized awareness of their abilities and a broader, more sophisticated knowledge base to anticipate and overcome likely barriers (Cope, 2011). Failure is a likely outcome in the uncertain environment, entrepreneurs thus need to inculcate a mindset to make calculated investments limiting their downside and use the learning from previous failures in the next iteration of the opportunity. Colonel Sanders exhibited such a mindset, he failed 1000 times prior to starting KFC, and he used each experience to better his product.

Research into an entrepreneurial mindset yielded two approaches. One approach explained the mindset as a result of the personal traits of the entrepreneur, however further study led to unconvincing and weak results (Busenitz & Barney, 1997; Gartner, 1989; Mitchell, 2007; Shaver & Scott, 1991). The second approach based the mindset on cognition and stipulated it to be a way of thinking (Gartner, 1989; Palich & Bagby, 1995; Shaver & Scott, 1991). Thus, the mindset is not a result of specific traits from birth but rather developed from an individual’s interaction with the environment (Mathisen & Arnulf, 2013). However, some scholars were also combining the two approaches, they expressed that entrepreneurial intention is coming from personality which encompasses their traits, but individuals are good entrepreneurs because of their skills which can be improved through training.

The development of an entrepreneurial mindset has been linked to entrepreneurial education. Analyzing the relationship between entrepreneurial education and factors that shape an entrepreneurial mindset, Ngek (2012) assessed that factors like creativity, motivation, and risk propensity, when properly nurtured by education, could shape an entrepreneurial mindset. Benefiting from the education entrepreneurs will develop the following elements: the capacity to think creatively, strategically, analytically, and reflectively, confidence in one’s abilities, the ability to collaborate, well-developed communication skills, and expertise and understanding through alertness and flexibility. These elements will go on to become integral constituents of such a mindset. Apart from the traditional teacher-centered approach, various innovative learning methods such as computer-simulated business games, role-play, personal and group projects, workshops, group discussions, and case studies can be used to foster an environment for the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. Additionally, individuals can build an entrepreneurial tribe, consisting of folk who possess an entrepreneurial mindset. The members act as a support group with whom the entrepreneur can bounce ideas off, learn from their practical experiences, as well as choose role models who can mentor and guide them. To summarize, developing an entrepreneurial mindset through effective entrepreneurial education transforms an individual’s mindset into a growth mindset, enhancing their adaptability in a fast-changing world and strengthening it, reducing their high failure risk and ensuring survival.

To gain a different perspective on the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, six ways as demonstrated by Arash Asli can be analyzed. To begin with, it is important to revisit one’s vision. While it is important to be committed to a vision, being in a challenging and evolving environment necessitates a re-evaluation of the vision to make necessary amends to the steps required to achieve the vision. Next is to put oneself in challenging situations. By embracing challenging situations more frequently, entrepreneurs can gain the skills and confidence from experience, thus being able to eliminate mistakes and the fear of failure. Subsequently, an entrepreneurial mindset requires reading on a daily basis. To be able to excel and gain a competitive advantage, it is important to constantly update one’s knowledge and skillset. Additionally, entrepreneurs need to approach problems from all sides. One size doesn’t fit all, they need to cultivate a mindset that approaches issues from all aspects, as there can never be a universal solution. The ability to think outside the box will help in survival and growth. Lastly, analysis of the vision is not sufficient, they need to be putting it into motion. By following a flexible approach, they strive to meet the end goal of delivering value. This is possible only when each obstacle is viewed as an opportunity to adapt and better oneself (Asli, 2018).

To conclude, an entrepreneurial mindset is about being motivated to improve. Successful entrepreneurs are never content with the status quo, instead strive to better themselves. It is about accepting the means at hand and utilizing resources efficiently to profit from chosen opportunities. It also focuses on excelling in the present to ensure a better future by learning from past mistakes rather than obsessing over them. It is equally important to build and value a network of peers that support and motivate an entrepreneurial mindset. Finally, by incorporating all of the above, an entrepreneurial mindset can be strengthened and an entrepreneur is equipped with the necessary tools to cement a positive future.

Essay on the Importance of Corporate Governance

Corporate governance is centered around the sustainability of organizations because it is important for the development of society and the organization in general. It also provides a sense of faith and trust in the corporation leadership within companies. It is in the best interest that the corporations take the best practices or actions possible to reap the benefits of better relationships and goals in the corporation and its society. Additionally, the implementation of the pillars of corporate governance and the aspects of sustainability is to increase market value, reduce operating costs and wastage, increase profits along with production, and protect the well-being of society. This improves the corporation’s ability to thrive and prosper in the economy.

Corporate governance involves a system that encompasses rules, practices, procedures, and processes by which an organization is directed and controlled. Corporate governance implies the relationship among various participants (shareholders, the board of directors, and the company’s management) in determining proper guidance for the performance of its corporation. This illustrates a structure that attains a company’s objectives as it associates itself with every aspect of management, for example, action plans, internal controls, performance measurement, and corporate disclosure. The importance of corporate governance is to its investors as it represents a company’s blueprint and integrity. Good corporate governance helps companies build trust with investors and the community. As a result, they help accomplish a company’s end product, guide decision-making and provide sustainability in a company’s economic performance by promoting financial viability with a long-term investment opportunity for market participants. Furthermore, the sustainability of an organization is the ability to achieve its goals and increase long-term stakeholder value by integrating economic, environmental, and social opportunities into its strategies. Sustainability demonstrates its potential by fostering balanced development of its aspects as it can provide high ethical and economic concerns. This illustrates economic/organizational gain with profits as it works for social and environmental purposes as well.

To achieve a successful functional company and a solid working relationship four corporate governance pillars must be implemented. These pillars include accountability, fairness, responsibilities, and transparency. To provide the concept of good corporate governance along with sustainability in an organization, the use of the four pillars along with the three aspects of sustainability can be used to evolve the value to society and the long-term growth of a company. The first aspect is economic sustainable development which can be best applied by the organization. This is because of the responsibilities of the employees as they carry out ethical and appropriate actions of the firm by following the desire of employers in keeping with the law and the financial obligation to maximize value capital and profits for its shareholders. Economic sustainability can be related to the level of production or production costs. Considering the stakeholder’s issues can provide greater competitive advantages as this creates value and profitability in the company.

With a manufacturing organization, environmental sustainability is important as it indicates the uses of energies along with other alternatives/resources that can impact positively or negatively based on the activities/actions of an organization. Sustainable progress involves a range of environmental issues such as waste/pollution reduction, energy efficiency, decrease in air radiation, diminish the utilization, or disposal of hazardous/harmful materials to avoid environmental accidents, etc. To achieve these goals, corporations must be accountable in managing the board of directors based on their decisions for the company by being fair to protect, treat, prevent, and provide effective redress for violations that may or have occurred. This can occur with the use of economic decisions and policymaking.

Based on a company’s context, social sustainability is about attaining knowledge of the impacts the corporation can have on its people and society. Social responsibility is a measure of achieving sustainability. Adopting key social responsibility principles, such as accountability and transparency, can help ensure the long-term enhancement and success of any organization or system. Social sustainability should be a critical part of an organization as it can affect the quality of a business’s relationships with stakeholders and its customers (society). Sustainability can also be defined as a strategy of a sustainable development process by providing equal opportunities, fostering diversity, encouraging social contacts within and outside the company, and guaranteeing the quality of life and safety and security of its employees. Corporate sustainability is seen to positively affect the ecosystem, the product/service provided by the company, and the community based on the health and welfare of society with the use of ethical behavior/decisions. Poor social sustainability is a risk to both the brand image and the quality of the product of the organization.

Consequently, corporate governance is central to the sustainability of an organization as it encourages the betterment and well-being of society and for the organizations to reach their full potential through social, economic, and environmental. It is an investment in growth and fairness, as well as in providing unity within the internal and external views of an organization. Corporate governance demonstrates structure as a form of guidance to aim for sustainability. Sustainability provides consistency because of a sustainable lifestyle or decisions.

Thesis Statement about Success

Details of Research

1. Proposed title:

‘Factors driving the success of Korean’s entertainment industries: an analysis study in Vietnam market’

2. Introduction:

The entertainment industry of Korea is typically referred to as the K-Wave because of its success as the latest and powerful dominance of ‘overflowing’ into the entertainment industry around the world in general. The term ‘Hallyu’ is also translated into English as K-Wave which appeared at the end of the 20th century and in the early 21st century, refers to the global phenomenon of Korean culture, especially in Southeast Asian countries, recently expanded widely in Latin American countries, part of Europe and the Middle East (Ravina, 2008). According to Jonathan Woodie et al., 2017, Korean cultural products, including the entertainment industry, have contributed to the national economy of 12.6 trillion won (US $ 11.6 billion), data collected in 2014. The extent of Kwave’s influence in terms of culture and economy is extremely profound and is in command of the government’s cultural policies and its national media, said Hye-Kyung Lee, 2013.

In less than 15 years, from 2005 to 2014, the Korean music industry has proven its position globally when climbing from position 33rd on the ranking chart of countries with the largest music market to the top 10 and ranked first in terms of growth (+ 19.2%) according to IFPI official report, 2015. Apart from that, Korean screen culture is also recognized as a validating tool in interactions with the real world and many South Korean cultural experts have opinions of Hallyu as the country coming-of-age, as stated by Peter Lang, 2013. It is assumed that K-Wave was following and inheriting the development of the natures of Chinese and Japanese entertainment culture. In addition, Kwave during the period of 2010s also had coverage of all East Asian countries when the application of information technology flourished, which made Korea grow more dramatically than ever, and Vietnam is not an outsider of this trend. However, it was only in 2014 until now that Korea actually recognized Vietnam as the target market for exporting its cultural products. The below part of the paper will clarify the reason for this issue, while also analyzing the opportunities and challenges of Korea to develop in this potential Southeast Asian market.

This paper aims to understand and evaluate the qualitative and quantitative level of success of the Korean entertainment industry and related factors that promote this success. The PEST framework (Francis Aguilar, 1967) was applied in the study to describe and analyze the macro-environmental factors, thus understanding the boom of the K-Wave; in which governmental policy and social culture would be analyzed more thoroughly. Nevertheless, the weakness of this framework when applied to the case of evaluating an industry is not comprehensive (due to being developed from the evaluation of the business model). Therefore, marketing – communication will be studied independently in this article along with the SWOT model, developed by Albert Humphrey, in the 1960s. Along with that is Korean media conceptual parallel research under the perspective of K-Wave as ‘transnational cultural consumption’ (Youna Kim, 2013), which is a successful cultural product under the impact of globalization.

3. Preliminary literature review:

If Kwave is regarded as an intangible business product and the Korean government, in general, has made K-Wave one of the target industries to raise the level of recognition of the domestic economy in the global market, then PEST may be used to assess the overall picture of this economy on the industrial level. The research will reference and compare the information values ​​of the study ‘The Globalization of Kpop: The Interplay of external and Internal Forces’ by Hiu Yan Kong, 2016. The author focuses on researching the external factors to clarify global strategies in ‘achieving the organizational objectives of turning K-pop into a successful global business,’ said Hiu, 2016. In addition, key values ​​such as customer relationship management or activities or assignments are also assigned. as a factor that creates K-pop’s success.

There are different conflicting views when assessing the potential as well as the level of dominance of political factors for the Korean entertainment industry. Political procedures might be extensively characterized as the set of activities and approaches that a state can institute to advance the productive and effective tasks of organizations working inside its purview. This incorporates the ‘provision of infrastructure’ (Kuwahara, 2014), which demonstrates in part how the government genuinely cares and supports the development of this economy in terms of business protection and economic ability of growth. It is not possible to exclude the idea that the Korean government uses the power of the country’s entertainment industry to empower its power in the world. In 2017, Korea’s Ministry of Culture had a financial plan of $500 million and its point is to assemble a culture trade industry worth $10 billion by 2019. Numerous researchers guarantee that the extension of Korea’s social enterprises was driven by the focal government. It was a strategy executed so as to help the tourism industry and different business organizations by improving Korea’s situation as a delicate power all over the world (Negus, 2015).

In addition, the historical-cultural factor influenced the Korean economy, laying the foundation for K-Wave’s leap to be analyzed in ‘The Korean Wave: The Seoul of Asia’ by Sue Jin Lee. , 2011. The American journals, for instance, the Korea Herald are in a great light over neighboring nations on this particular issue. Furthermore, the Korea Herald stated that ‘in the wake of having been colonized by its neighbors, Japan and China, for quite a long time, the nation at long last gets an opportunity to exceed them on the social phase’ (Cho, 2009). According to the OECD newspaper distributed in 2015, it accentuated the significance of redesigning the South Korean economy. In the following 50 years, Korean culture will experience the drastically quick maturing of any OECD part and should support profitability to verify practical, long-haul monetary growth. The word ‘The Republic of Korea: K-culture and the Next Wave of Economic Growth’ by Jonathan Woodier and Sungwoo Park, 2017 offers a prologue to the extremely prompt difficulties that the new government faces, revises the literature regarding the matter, and does a situational investigation key to structuring and refreshing national approaches, methodologies, and plans. This research likewise proposes further research and examination of the Moon president’s techniques and tactics.

Regarding Korean inner culture factors, the book ‘East Asian Pop Culture: Analyzing the Korean Wave’ by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi, 2008 endeavored to look at the direction of Korean mainstream culture ventures that connect them to worldwide and nearby political monetary relations and the residential social condition; debate about the administration arrangements and domestic business moves that changed the Korean film industry, assessing the worldwide political financial context. Steven Chen examines in his study ‘Cultural Innovation: A Framework for Marketing Cultural Exports – analysis of Hallyu ( the Korean Wave)’ every one of the four fundamental variables adding to the worldwide achievement of the Korean music industry: the advancement of the media advances (internet), the Korea government ( authorizing the inundation of remote popular music and upholding copyrights), the reverberation of the Korean cultural products with other East Asian societies, and the diaspora of the Korean. In recent years, the Korean media industry has been empowering rethinking the role of the country state in transnational social streams just as in territorial media joint efforts. While the Korean media industry had been viewed as a fringe framework, today the Korean media have achieved more extensive than at any other time in the universal market and have reinforced the extent of media practices and business impacts, as stated by Yasue Kuwahara, 2014 in the book ‘The Korean Wave: Korean Popular Culture in Global Context’. According to Nicoleta Stefanÿ Valean, 2017, Korean’s transnational substance business has been dynamic inside Asia however today it goes topographically far further regions, for example, South and North America and Europe. A method for observing the Korean Wave is as an impression of ‘glocalization’ by the Korean media industry.

Besides, research on K-Wave in the Vietnam market is still a fragile and unnoticed category. However, new methodology and research will be applied to analyze this market. SWOT model (Albert Humphrey, 1960s) is the core model in this part of the research.

4. Research question(s):

This dissertation seeks to address two primary research questions and two secondary questions for each broad question (four secondary questions in total):

• a. What factors contributed to the success of the Korean Wave?
  • What role did Korean government policies play in encouraging growth in the Korean entertainment industry?
  • How has the Korean Wave been depicted in the media?
• b. What are the challenges and opportunities for the Korean Wave in the Vietnam market?
  • What makes it so appealing to the Vietnamese audience?
  • What is a strategy used to export cultural products to this market?

5. Proposed research method(s):

The dissertation consists of three main parts. The first part of this research will focus on clarifying and responding to the first broad question and the first sub-question of that section. The PEST model created by Francis Aguilar, 1967 is applied to study the external and internal elements driving the success of the Korean entertainment industry through quantitative research methods. Previous research works related to the topic such as: ‘East Asian Pop Culture: Korean Wave of the Wave’ by Chua Beng Huat and Koichi Iwabuchi, 2008; ‘The Globalization of Kpop: The Interplay of External and Internal Forces’ by Hiu Yan Kong, 2016 are discussed, and paved the way for newly updated statements in terms of progression and data quality.

The second part of the research is a continuation of part one but yet independent. This paper is the study of the success of K-Wave in view of the effectiveness of communication – marketing. In response to this second sub-question, the researcher will use the mixed methods approach because of the complexity and coverage of the problem. Studies from ‘The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global’ by Youna Kim, 2013; Korean Screen Culture: Interrogating Cinema, TV, Music, and Online Games by Andrew David Jackson et al., 2016 will be discussed in parallel with the first sub-question. In addition, the questionnaires and interviews will be included to refer to the new values ​​brought about by the media from the perspective of cultural consumers. The interview method was used to delve into the reasons for the problems related to the level of success of Korean entertainment in the context of new markets like Vietnam.

The third largest part is dedicated to the market context. Due to the specific and complex market environment, it is recommended to use primary and secondary data, adding to other research methods such as surveys and interviews. Subjects participating in in-depth interviews are limited to the target group and are affected by the level of identification of K-Wave. Interviews will be conducted throughout and repeated to provide objective and valid results for the research objective. The survey will take place on a wider scale due to the requirement of K-Wave’s current coverage level in Vietnam. The results of the survey will be used to measure the current success of the Korean entertainment industry in Vietnam and from there discuss the challenges and development direction for K-Wave in this market.

6. Ethical issues:

• Justification: This proposed paper has a clear direction in using past studies and developing new perspectives. The inheritance and promotion value of the research topic is purposeful and valuable to the entertainment industry in particular and the creative industry in general.
• Access to participants: Participants in the interview or survey will be assured of personal information and sensitive opinions. The collected data will be completely used for research purposes. There will be no exchange, utilization, or sale of personal information of participants. All related individuals in this study, regardless of colleagues friends, or strangers, will have equal rights in intellectual property.
• Informed consent: The purpose and general core content of this dissertation will be fully provided to all participants in the project. Participants have a right to know how the information they provide will be used in the process of analyzing data and giving valid results. Participants also have the right to refuse to provide information that is not appropriate for them during the course of the study and other related security rights.
• Potential harm: The research ensures that the purpose of the study is completely virtuous, without adversely neither affecting relatable parties or the surrounding environment. If any person/ property incident is affected, the researcher will bring out appropriate methods for solutions.
• Conflict of interest: The research is conducted independently, without sponsorship or protection of any representative. The researcher will be mindful of the agents that may affect the research results and avoid causing confusion in the transmission of information.
• Data integrity: Similar to the interests of the parties involved in the dissertation mentioned above, data security will also be protected in this research. The data used will only be given the analysis process and will produce results as long as it is legal and agreed upon by the relevant people.

7. References:

Books:

1. Chua, B.H. and Iwabuchi, K. eds., 2008. East Asian pop culture: Analysing the Korean wave (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press.
2. Emilie, D.T., 2012. Emergence of the Korean Popular Culture in the World. Unpublished. Thesis. Turku University of Applied Sciences.
3. Howard, K. 2014. Youna Kim (ed.): ‘The Korean Wave: Korean Media Go Global’. xvi, 233 pp. London and New York: Routledge, 2013. ISBN 978 0 415 71278 1. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 77(3), 644-646. doi:10.1017/S0041977X14000998
4. Kim, Y. ed., 2013. The Korean wave: Korean media go global. Routledge.
5. Kuwahara, Y. ed., 2014. The Korean wave: Korean popular culture in a global context. Springer.
6. Messerlin, P.A. and Shin, W., 2013. The K-pop wave: An economic analysis.
7. Shin, Y., 2007. Book Review: Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004, 191 pp., 14.00pbk., 25.00 hbk.). Millennium, 35(2), pp.458-460.
8. Tuk, W., 2012. The Korean Wave: Who is behind the success of Korean popular culture? (Master’s thesis).
9. Valean, N.S., 2017. Creative industries in South Korea: the Korean wave.
10. Williams Jolin, J., 2017. The South Korean Music Industry: The Rise and Success of ‘K-Pop’By: Johan.
11. Kong, H.Y., 2016. The globalization of K-pop: The interplay of external and internal forces (Doctoral dissertation, Hochschule Furtwangen).

Journals:

1. Jonathan WOODIER and Sungwoo PARK, 2017. ‘Republic of Korea: K-culture and The Next Wave of Economic Growth-IJCCI – International Journal of Cultural and Creative Industries’ [online] Available at: http://www.ijcci.net/index.php?option=module&lang=en&task=pageinfo&id=249&index=7 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2019].
2. Aisyah, A., 2017. Korean-English Language Translational Action of K-Pop Social Media Content: A Case Study on Bangtan Sonyeondan’s (BTS) Official Twitter. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 23(3).
3. Sue Jin Lee, 2011. ‘The Korean Wave: The Seoul of Asia’ [online] Available at: http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-web/academics/communications/research/vol2no1/09suejin.pdf [Accessed 14 Feb. 2019].