Category: Case study

Developing Leadership And Management: Case Study On Moneyball

Introduction to the film

The film Moneyball was screened in 2011 in the cinema, which came in second in box office result for the opening weekend. The film was then being nominated for a total of 6 Oscar awards in the same year. This film depicts a Major League Baseball team named Oakland Athletic that was eventually managed by Billy Beane – Starred by Brad Pitt.

It showed how a season wonder Baseball team managed to put together a run of an impressive 20-game winning streak and went on to set a new American League record, but however went on to lose the following 11 games in a row. Akin to comparison to the football scene now, Oakland Athletic saw its best 3 outfield players being approached and signed up by richer clubs who could offer them better incentives such as salaries. Hencefore, manager Billy Beane had to look for ways to manage and rebuild his team without the three.

The introduction of the theories of analysis and making senses from performance statistics by Peter Brand, who was just a nerdy Yale latest Yale graduate student who had crunched numbers – starred by Jonah Hill. Peter Brand was actually a fictional character in this movie, whose real role name was supposed to be DePodesta. The director of Moneyball respected his request for not having his name portrayed, and thus Peter Brand was named to take on DePodesta’s role in this film (Reid, 2011). He was able to convinced manager Billy Beane to look for undervalued outfield players and recruit them solely base on their key performance statistics on the field. It was a bold and risky move on the part of the Oakland Athletic’s manager while their endured to cope without his best three, but yield the best result from some bargain selection criteria.

Personality of Billy Beane in Moneyball

Billy Beane started off as a promising young Baseball player who had impressed many baseball scouts when he was still in high school. He was said to be willing to sacrifice a Stanford football program scholarship to chase for his dream in the Major league baseball as his career (Carole D, 2019). During his first 6 years stint with the Twins as an outfield player, he had requested for a change due to his inability to concentrate and stay focus on the game. As a result, in the year 1990, he became the advance scout of Oakland Athletic at the tender age of 27. In the year 2001, he was the general manager for the team.

The Oakland Athletic’s manager was portrayed as an inward and lonely man, who had a failed marriage and is in the midst of recovering from it while managing the Baseball team. He has a daughter, Casey, and he was a very doting father. In the film, it was visible that he sometimes felt lost as he was driving his car aimlessly along the road while tuning in to the radio. He was driven and very ambitious to win the Major League Baseball Championship with Oakland Athletic, and was constantly ready to challenge his own beliefs on and off the field (EmanuelLevy, 2011). The manager also had his own principle, which was never to watch Oakland Athletic’s game in person, although many would have argued that a manager should do so in order to understand the flow of the game, the opposition team’s strength and weakness and his own, and from there develop a game plan to counter or preserve the game points.

Personality of Peter Brand in Moneyball

Peter Brand studied at Harvard and played both college football and baseball during those years, although he wasn’t good enough to be selected as an outfield player for the Major League Baseball. In the year 1999, he officially signed a contract with Oakland Athletics as a scout. He was put into the test when the 3 outstanding outfield players left the team, and the team owners were unable to inject more cash for quality players in the market. Discussions on affordable prospects and evaluations from statistics between the pair started. He went on to take up the role of the Assistant Manager of Oakland Athletic.

Common Traits of Billy Beane and Peter Brand

Through this film, I am able to recognise a few common traits between the pair. Firstly, they were very determined and focus on their job. The departure of their 3 outfield players had crippled many plans, but they took on the challenge and grind out solutions on tight budget and training. Billy Beane and Peter Brand were both committed individuals who had given their all in their roles. They did not sit on the fence and hedge. They were both passionate and were not natural outfield players to begin with.

Through the lens of Leadership

Moneyball had a couple of leadership lessons that individuals can draw from. A simple example can be the sentence made by the manager of Oakland Athletics – Billy Beane, “My bar is to take this team to a championship”. This sentence may be short and easy, but it is a result from delicate goal settings within the team, communicating it to the players and fans to ensure that they are on the same page, and aligning expectations. This goal also serves as a benchmark of the measurement of success towards the end of the campaign.

Dealing with Constraints

In every setting from big to small – organisations, departments or even teams, there are constraints. Within this constraints, there are many layers of severity, some could cost more implications, while some may just be too small to even talk about it. Billy Beane mentioned that ‘There are rich teams and poor teams. Then there is 50 feet of crap and there’s us. It’s an unfair game.” This showed that he understood that although the club owners have the say in how they control the overall budget allocated for the team in terms of transfers and salary, Billy Beane main role is to make do with the selection he has on hand and bring in players whom fits the budget and criteria and decide how the deployment of players and tactics. Lastly, outfield players control their role of play and onfield behaviours. In reality, a leader who aims to beat the competitors who are better positioned in terms of funding, manpower or history will have to think out of the box and deliver strategies that are missing from the competitors (Priestly, 2015). Value-added services or playing to its employees’ strength are valid examples.

Identifying the Problem and Sourcing for Solutions

Leaders need to have the ability and foresight in envisioning solutions, uniting and leading the team out of crisis when called upon. Some issues might be due to underlying factors, such as unhealthy practices and poor usage of resources. Some leaders may be blinded by short term thinking, therefore it is important that leaders think through the long term and identify the best solutions.

Defining Strategies

Billy Beane rightfully mentioned that “People who run ball clubs will think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn’t be to buy players, but to buy wins. And to buy wins you must buy runs.” This implies that a leader must be able to define and implement strategies that are different, bold, and a strategy that is able to bring out the best of the individuals collectively. The leader must also be able to convince the followers to step out of their comfort zone if required and stick to the strategy as a team. It is often said that if you can’t win a game, then change the game.

Patience and perseverance to see through strategies implemented

In Oakland Athletic’s case, the first 6 weeks of the season upon the recruitment of the undervalued players and Billy Beane strategies was nothing but a poor return of results. Even though the manager was heavily criticized by his staff, fans and media at that stage, Beane stood firm in his vision and belief in his strategies. He was patience and took measured risks that 6 weeks is too short to evaluate his tactical approaches success. Eventually, they were rewarded with the team’s record breaking run of 20 games without a defeat.

Leading by example

For most part of the movie, it was portrayed that the Oakland Athletic’s manager does not have the full backing from his staff, players, fans and media. It also showed that both Billy Beane and Peter Brand caught up with their players to show them how those statistics that they had reference to had actually resulted in the players’ better performance. This allows the players to see the little results of improvement although results aren’t going their way yet. This kept the spirit high and is also a way to win over support.

Ignore the Stereotypes

The Stereotypes in the film were those undervalued players that were unwanted by the other clubs, but snapped up by Billy Beane and Peter Brand. There were branded as out of sort as compared to relatively better players. However, it had proved that with the right strategies, such ‘left-overs’ does have a point to prove and are able to perform as well as the ‘better’ ones and expensive ones. Other teams’ management soon began to notice how well Oakland Athletic had done with its limited budget through its cost-effective strategies and were quick to try it out.

Empowerment

In a particular scene after both Billy Beane and Peter Brand talked to the players, Beane went on to approach Dave Justice alone. Dave Justice was one of the newly recruited ‘undervalued’ player that they had decided to signed against the advice and wish of the rest of the scouting crews in Oakland Athletic. Beane was transparent and upfront in relating his difficulties in getting the players to agree on his approaches to Dave Justice, and seek his assistance in stepping up and lead from the field (Stewart, n.d.). Justice was a prime 36 years-old player, and the players respected him. This leadership empowerment to Dave Justice meant that Beane was selfless and truly wanted the team to do well.

Through the lens of Investment Management

It was obvious that budget constraint was the main setback for Oakland Athletics when the 3 outfield players have to leave the team, and they were unable to find quality players from the professional market for transfers. There were many factors that can determine the ‘price tag’ of an outfield player – many could be highly valued if they possess specific specialized skills which may be in any form of pitching, batting, fielding, or all. On the other hand, there could also be unimportant factors that devalued players, for instance being an unpopular left-handed player.

Billy Beane and Peter Brand worked together to recruit these ‘unpopular’, less famed, and ‘cheaper’ alternatives as replacement for the 3 outfield players who have departed for bigger teams. They managed to assemble a team who is worthy to challenge for the Major League Baseball Season, having spent so much lesser as compared to other teams. In other words, their results have far exceeded what they had paid for.

In the context of Investment Management, there were so many fund houses and indexes in the market today. Some are definitely more popular, while some are less appealing. Funds managers who often market themselves as someone who is able to identify under-valued stocks are just like what Peter Brand had done in his role as Oakland Athletic Assistant Manager. In direct comparison, scouting of players were done with statistics on field, and investments can be done with appropriate business analysis with the help of technologies and news sources (Fitzsimmons, 2017). Technologies had greatly improved many passive investment tools such as Exchanged-traded funds (ETFs) or other index funds that has the ability to track the market or a particular market segment of interest more accurately, and most importantly, at a lower ‘price’ in terms of commission fees as compared to actively managed funds. Always be on the look-out for cheaper alternatives, and understand that not all rejected things are not good. It is subjective to the requirement of individual and the expected returns from the ‘investment’.

Moneyball had also shown viewers that the changing landscape in terms of payroll. Organisations and leaders are constantly expected to keep as close to the payroll budget as possible without comprising much of the ‘outfield’ quality. It is also worth noting that statistical comparison is widely used in this decade. For instance, on a particular season, the Tampa team was able to notch a win more than the Red Sox team which had spent comparatively $121.7 million more (Grier, 2011). This would not be a wise investment decision by looking at the result yield.

Through the lens of Start-up Management

Inspiring Start-up to Overcome the Barrier against success

Many start-ups are small set-ups with big ideas and drive, but lack concreate proof of success and establishment to convince investors in backing their ideas and proposals. Lots of hard works, sheer determinations, trials and errors, testing of strategies and products procedures were visible in these start-ups phases. In relating to Oakland Athletics, the loss of the 3 outfield players had prompted Billy Beane and Peter brand to experiment and experience ‘just like a start-up’.

Inability to get funding from investors

Oakland Athletics in a way looks like a typical start-up, being low-cash and a new team of members brought in together. Hencefore, it is rather comparative that many start-ups failed to pitch their start-up ideas and plans to potential investors to get the required funding they are looking for. Billy Beane, in this case a ‘proposal pitcher’, failed to entice its owners into injecting more cash into the team for transfer and salaries. He was instead asked to work with the constraints and although he gained success from his recruitment and strategies employed on the tactical field, he failed as a ‘start-up’ pitcher in requesting for new cash injections plan.

Trust needs to be earned

Billy Beane knew that trust towards his strategies and tactical approaches needs to be earned, especially when they are something that are out of the comfort zones of the players and staff. When he tried to talk to the players and staff to explain his ideas, he received more engagement from them and this had led to the improved performance on field. Taking time out in these ‘talks’ ensured that the expectations and visions can be aligned. In a new-start-up, these talks are often the easiest way to pitch for funding during a presentation.

Growing and expanding the comfort zone

Billy Beane had to study economics at the UC San Diego during his playing career in the season breaks. Even as an executive, he continued to work on his interest such as software and video-game development, authoring articles and being an advisor (Newsville, 2016). In a way, he had never stopped learning. A new start-up also requires the always-learning spirit to better itself and enhance its product speciality and specialisation field in the future after its initial establishment. A start-up may do well by concentrating its efforts on a single product or service at its infant launch stage, but continuing it to the grown phase would be insufficient for the company to have the cutting edge compared to its competitors. It is through constant learning of the market outlook and the analysis of consumer behaviours that the company can develop more products and services to stay competitive and remain relevant to the consumers over time.

Metrics in success

In the film, Billy Beane communicated to his players and staff regularly about his strategies and tactical approaches, before getting them to work on it and improve their game. In business context, everyone in the department or team has a role to play for a larger organisation success. What comes next is the metrics that determines the success of these collective efforts. What defines success and what defines failures?

Through the lens of Hiring Processes

Is experience everything?

In sports, most scouts took on the task to look out for talents who were young and possess certain criteria, such as an established and decorated career. Thus, they rely heavily on such profiles during hiring selections. In hiring context, almost every hiring company are now looking at the interviewee’s work experiences. However, in start-ups or established companies, there are bound to be workers who are going to be sitting for their first job and hence lacking the experience most are looking for. These people may lack the experience, but they have the hunger and talent within them that could possibly make up for it. Therefore, start-ups should hire these individuals in the early days. They could turn out to be one of the future stars that the company had groomed, because most start-ups may not be able to hire existing stars with a bucket of experiences out there.

The Wage War

In the context of Baseball, an established pitcher with a certain years of 5 years of playing experiences may cost a club a weekly wage of $50,000 for instance. This is the industry standard and competitors are all ready to invest such amount of money to lure these pitcher into their respective clubs. When more teams are offering baseline wages, there are bound to be teams that start the wage war by offering even more. What can Billy Beane’s Oakland Athletic do to keep up with these bigger clubs in the midst of their constraints and sourcing for an equivalent established pitcher?

There are many good pitchers who are playing at a lower division or are less experiences, but are able to make up for their hard work in training and some may have better sport attitudes that the established pitchers. These candidates generally are not the first cut for selection for clubs that could offer high wages to tempt the established pitchers away. As a result, Oakland Athletic could work within their financial constraint and still recruit good players, but requires the improvisation of game strategies to stand a higher chance of winning the game. Player’s sole influence is insufficient to win games.

Conclusion

The film Moneyball had provided audiences with ample lessons and learning points to be drawn in the context of leadership, businesses and start-ups, hiring processes and even investments. It is very closely related and applicable to the current outlook of these sectors, where many start-ups opportunities are there for the picking. While leaders and companies often wants to select and hire the cream of crop for any vacancies that are available, they have to bear in mind that not all dream teams consist of stars. When faced with constraints, sufficient opportunities and training can help to polish those discarded and undervalued candidates to be the next potential cream of crop. In-house training programs, leadership and guidance, job rotation and exposures, periodic job review and feedback, are channels of engagement to keep the candidate relevant to his jobs. Not all leaders and managers have to work with constraints in the case of Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane, but a great leader would be able to do so when called upon, or faced with such situations in bad times.

References

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Analytical Essay on International Trade: International Shipping Case Study

Introduction

To begin with, the law is a term where there is rules and can also be considered as a set of policy that the individual should have to follow. Now, when it comes to international trade law, it is mainly focused on various aspects of both imports and exports shipping of goods. It is necessary to have enough knowledge of what and how is international law applied to goods importer and exporter. This report is about evaluating the scenario regarding the good shipping by the sea where international trade law will be applied with the right recommendations towards the shippers. Both parties must come up with the proper execution of how international trade law will be applied to whatever the goods and services are being shipped to other countries. Knowing that nowadays, lots of traders have no enough knowledge of how the trading internationally being processed since they did not teach either by their local government when it comes to trading (Cohen, 2019).

This is just one reason why there are issues appeared during the process such as the lack of documented details of cargo, lack of legal terms implied, and the lack of regulations in transporting the goods or service. The local government has its role to conduct proper training if necessary to those who are in the business of trading. This is to improve the activities within international trading to listen to the risks in trading of goods, leading the activities to be globalized and increased its recognition. Hence, enough knowledge is necessary and is mandatory especially when it comes to the terms and regulations under the international trade law of shipping different types of goods and services (Micklitz, 2000).

There are different aspects of international law that should be known by both importers and exporters. But before proceeding with the in-hand scenario, it is important to first specify the four levels of relationships about this law. The first relationship is called unilateral, the bilateral is the second, plurilateral is the third, and the last one is multilateral. For the contractual details, there should be enough understanding of how these relationships abide between the two parties to clarify everything and understand what should be agreed or not and compile the details clearly on the agreement based on the international trade law aspect (Palmeter, 1994). It is required to have a deep evaluation first and analyze the situation before the signing of the mutual agreement, to have a benefit about both parties if both of them classify the options about the financial institutions together with the shippers that would help them in the decision making process. All information given in this case study will be done following the relevant information supported by valid sources and peer reviews.

Law of International Trade

International trade law is field has good not only deeper and not only more technically complex but also much broader. It is not just about the World Trade Organization (WTO), it’s not just at the multilateral level, it’s also at the level of free trade agreements and the United States has entered into much exciting news including ones with Korea and Colombia and Panama, currently negotiating one with the Pacific allies the trans-pacific partnership and potentially a new one with the European Union. For the particular levels of international trade law mentioned above, it is necessary to have an evaluation of each section to have proper indication and get significant information on how those four relationships work by giving its short definitions. First is the unilateral relationship mainly signifies the measures towards the national law. The second relationship involves the interactions of the two countries when it comes to the shipping of goods. The third relationship is the interaction of more than two countries and having an interaction of various countries belongs to the fourth relationship.

Knowing that the term law abides a different set of rules and regulations where the shippers should take into consideration seriously. Both private and public companies and sectors followed international trade law. There is a relation arises between international trade law and economic liberalism. Comprising the financial system and the economic system involves in the process of trading from one country to another, the law works on both parties in a complex process where both parties should agree on the financial terms and how the currencies work. Since, in every country, there was a different currency that evolves such an example, for the US, the US dollar imposed on shipping costs where the traders on the other party also have its country currency used on the trading process. These all undergo in the law system of international trading. Below is the execution diagram of how the international trade law being applied during the process of shipping of both parties.

International Trade law Diagram

Bill of lading that will be given to the carrier to the seller

Carrier

Seller exporter

Carriage contract

Bill of lading

Buyer/importer

SALES CONTRACTThe buyer will confirm the bill of lading

Bill of lading sent from seller to the buyer

International trade law Contracts

Proceeding in this case, it is important first to know those various types of contracts that the shippers either exporter or importer have enough knowledge on how these contracts can be applied and what are their significant terms to be followed based on the international trade law. This should be done accordingly to avoid any violations and to have the proper agreement of both parties internationally and professionally.

Commercial Contracts

This contract is mainly focused on both the sale and purchase of both services and goods. The documentation of these contracts forms in a way that both sales and purchase terms are completed under the legal process for both parties and all information bound for both importers and exporter’s agreement which can be formal with the proper assistant of the government.

International trade contracts

This contract abides both rules and regulations that have to be implied for both importers and exporters of goods that certainly indicate the terms of shipping process such its insurance, delivery, and together with the cost (freight). There is an indication of exporter control about the local government, its insurance companies, etc. that covers under the transportation process or either goods or services.

Export sales contracts

This contract signifies how the risks being classified within the transition and which party involved. The exporter in this contract should professionally follow the payment terms in which, there is authenticity and validation that the exporter can pay or eligibly have a strong modification of paying the amount imposed based on the terms and conditions regarding payment process of goods or services.

Incoterms

This is all about the rights and the obligations of both importers and exporters where all issues or risks about the transaction of business, shipping, insurances, etc. will be explained to both parties to have safe and efficient shipping.

Improving international trade activity

Development upgrading international trade permits nations and ally to grow by corrupting nature and the world’s assets, to reach the top and get most cash-flow. This implies for certain nations, the financial extension on account of international trade comes to the detriment of environmental quality. Hence, it is important to actively get some strong affirmation of improvement regarding the international trade law for both parties. Due to the motivation of countries to have a higher value of creating higher recognition of international trade, most of them used the free trading that can be accessed online using the internet (Delany, Signal, & Thomson, 2018).

This happened in different countries and some of them also appeared to be completely free where the shippers accommodate zero currency and failed to follow the process of trading law internationally. Also, it founds that other countries tried to reduce their trade barriers to having the increased trading process of goods or services promotion. This has jumped down dramatically since the government adopted this certain process just come up to the conclusion of being recognized globally. For instance, even the United States and Europe started to have a full free trade system, where the occurrence of WTO leadership is also started to impose in the government (Schoenbaun, 1992). Enhancing the multinational trade agreements those partnerships of various countries have arisen rapidly and contributes $160 billion profit for both importers and exporters.

Trade Scenario

My chosen scenario is all about the shipping of clothing to the Philippines from the United States. The shipping process is through the sea. This process of delivery will take a long period since we only use the sea shipping process. Shipping various types of clothes to the Philippines include competitive rates that are applied as an exporter. Trading to the Philippines will include the proper agreement of terms and conditions, implying on what is being included on the documents and what is being agreed upon the process of shipping such as the costs, the time duration, payment terms, etc. Hence, we need certain documentation about this scenario.

[image: Image result for shipping containers to sea from US to philippines]

Figure 1: Philippines Container Ship

[image: Image result for container ship of US]

Figure 2: US Container Ship

Figure 1 is the cargo ship of the Philippines where the goods will be shipped and the figure 2 s the cargo ship of the United States where the goods will be shipped to the Philippines.

Trade Commodities

[image: C:UsersUSERDesktopiez7yb2zgncl2effvxxvtnqcnoi4krlfxjxiurkz1iwbhwajrdpfnvxzywczsjwx-.jpg][image: C:UsersUSERDesktopclothing.jpg]

Documentations

In my chosen scenario, here is the possible documentation to be included in various contracts that are commonly applied in each trade:

Initiation to the tender letter –This will be informing the possible companies/firms to bid to conduct their bids. This is a letter type paper that inviting them to the biding process.

Terms of reference – This is including the authentic source of persons and backgrounds or certain possible bidders that should firmly give their information background for validation of their capabilities to attain the bidding or the trading process. This is important since we all know that in the trading process regarding goods and services, there is always scammers that occurred and it should be avoided, therefore background checking is necessary (Aliaj & Mekaj, 2019).

Form of tender – this will be given to the possible firms as a form of tender.

Draft Contract –This is a form where all terms have outlined and to make the transactions clear and also making sure that everything on documents is read and the firm understand everything on it. This will allow both parties to have soft and no-hassle negotiations.

Instructions to bidders – This is a form of guidelines to possible bidders where they have to understand how the process to be and what should be considered. This includes all steps that served as their guidelines.

Bid datasheet – this is all about the overall data that the bidders should read. In this sheet, all schedules and the evaluation of bidding will be included.

Specifications – this indicates the time frame of everything such as working on projects, the use of materials needed and all conditions regarding the project.

Schedule of rates and bills of quantities – this indicates the agreed rates or prices for each work done or for each good that the bidders should have and also it includes that bills to be agreed upon the outlined draft.

Carrier Selection Recommendations

These recommendations are before the selection of carriers that will handle the sea transportation process of goods that would ship from the United States to the Philippines.

Stowage -Hence, we are only shipped through the sea, it is necessary to consider the volume of the cargo to be delivered. The volume should be known so that it could not add the costs of shipping, knowing that the higher the volume of the cargo is also the higher the cost it may have.

Value –It is also important to consider that the cargo should have balance quantities since it is in a low-cost value from the United States and it should not affect its costs on shipping due to its weight value.

Quantity –Since it is through sea transportation, so consider that there will be lots of clothes to be shipped to the Philippines, so we are making sure that we can deliver lots of clothes in just one shipping or one transaction.

Costs – Choosing a carrier should apply critical thinking and one of the most required factors in decision making is the cost. We have to make sure that the cost of the carrier is efficient as we have to make sure that everything is under control and well-balanced.

Reliability and safety concerns – this is the important concern that we have to firmly considered in choosing the carrier. Asking if this is safe to transport? Is this capable of any risks that might happen in the sea, hence, these questions should be cleared in a way that the chosen carrier is trusted enough to carry our clothes goods?

With the above-listed points in considering choosing the best carrier in transporting the goods, as an exporter, I will make sure that everything complies under the international trade law where the documents were mentioned properly based on the terms and regulations on proper shipping process to the other country (Philippines). Hence, the above points are highly recommended to be followed and should apply during the process of transportation of goods by sea.

The importer’s checklist

Shipping the clothes goods to the Philippines will include checklists that would lead the importers to classify which documents are included or missed out. Hence, below are the checklists to be considered:

Before shipping process

• A commercial invoice for both the buyer and the seller. This should not be missed since it is a validation of rates and prices applies to the goods being delivered.
• The return or warranty process if any.
• The collaboration of both parties regarding the agreed agreement during the process of trading.
• The custom invoice where stated all information on clothes goods basically its prices, freight costs, weights, payment method, insurance included, the volume of each cargo, etc.
• Packing slip of the goods. This should be included to have basic proof of orders from the designated buyers from the Philippines.
• Marking the clothes goods as the country origin.
• Making sure to apply the licensed customs broker.
• Make sure that transportation (carrier) obtained insurance.

After shipping process

• Confirming that the shipment is done based on the time duration.
• Confirm that all documents are received by the buyers
• Make sure that you know the arrival time of the carrier
• Make sure to know the information of the carrier such as the phone number, trailer number, and everything that could connect to them.
• Make sure to know the inland shipping of the carrier before the designated location in the Philippines.

Conclusion

Transporting and exporting goods and services is not easy, it needs proper decision making and most of all, and it should comply with the provision and the terms and regulations under the international trade law. With the cooperation of local governments of both parties, all activities were managed according to the international trade process while making sure that it could also motivate the other nation or country to participate in the trading process worldwide. The documentations and the different types of contracts under the international trade law were imposed based on the scenario or situation of the shipping system of both parties. In this business report of international trading law, the learned knowledge is mainly how both importers and exporters apply the set of rules and regulations when importing or exporting the goods. Both parties performed deep analysis on dealing with various documents and contracts under the provisions of international trading law complying with all aspects of information that been documented from choosing the carrier, transportation method, paper guidelines in before and after shipping and all required checklists in performing the process of delivery.

References

1. Aliaj, K., and Mekaj. G. (2019). Legal Aspects of International Trade. Research Gate. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330066648_Legal_Aspects_of_International_TradeDOI: 10.21113/iir.v8i2.444.
2. Cohen, H. (2019). What Is International Trade Law For? American Journal of International Law, volume 113, pp. 326-346. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/what-is-international-trade-law-for/F8C98A6B262B92A3C97632E402D01EDC. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/ajil.2019.4
3. Delany, L., Signal, L., and Thomson, G. (2018). International trade and investment law: a new framework for public health and the common good. BMC Public Health, volume 18, Article number: 602. Retrieved from https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-018-5486-6
4. Micklitz, H. (2000). International Regulation on Health, Safety, and the Environment – Trends and Challenges. Journal of Consumer Policy, volume 23, pages3–24. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006302721189.
5. Palmeter, D. (1994). International Trade Law in the Twenty-First Century. Fordham International Law Journal, Volume 18, Issue 5, Article 9. Retrieved from https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2560&context=ilj.
6. Schoenbaun, T. (1992). Free International Trade and Protection of the Environment: Irreconcilable Conflict? The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 86, No. 4 pp. 700-727. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/2203788. DOI: 10.2307/2203788.

Principles of Marketing: Case Study of Kellogg

Executive Summary

The aim of the report is to review the marketing mix strategies such as product, price, place and promotion of two reputable companies i.e. Weetabix and Kellogg’s Coco Pops. The aim is to understand the practical implementation and go through a practical experience of implementation of these trends as studied in the course. The report begins with a brief introduction of the topic under consideration, moves through marketing mix comparison of both the companies and ultimately commences with the conclusions and recommendations of the analysis that has been done

Introduction

The marketing mix is the collection of tactical controllable marketing methods that an organization uses to provide its target market with a desired response. The product, price, position, and promotion are included. It is also a strategy and implementation mechanism for marketing. The marketing combination of four Ps can be redefined as 4 Cs. For starters, consumer solutions cost rather than price, comfort rather than promotion instead of contact with the consumer. The products chosen for marketing mix analysis are Weetabix and Kellogg’s coco pops. In more than 80 countries, Weetabix exports its breakfast cereals worldwide and every area has different characteristics. Weetabix’s share of total cereal revenue is about 7 per cent in its intensely competitive UK country of origin. In comparison, Kenya accounts for 70% of its grain revenues. Kellogg’s Coco Pops is a cereal made from Kellogg’s breakfast that comes as a boxed cereal, as well as a snack bar, and has a dried milk rim. It is rice Krispy cocoa variant with actual chocolate. It is the biggest cereal corporation in the world with revenues of more than $14 billion. It is the second leading manufacturer of cookies, savoury snacks and crackers. In 1958, cereals were launched in the U.S. This assignment covers a detail analysis of the marketing mix strategy of Weetabix and Kellogg’s Coco Pops. The paper commences with a detailed review and recommendation in light of existing literature (Festa, 2016).

Segmentation Targeting and Positioning Strategic Approach

Marketing segmentation, targeting, and positioning reflects a model that helps marketers create and generate messages that concern segmented target markets and provide them with personalized and appropriate messages. This is a marketing strategy toward the audience and consumers. The purpose is to provide the commercially appealing segments with appropriate messaging. Segmentation is used to identify niches with specific needs and desires that we can articulate clearly. In mature markets we use segmentation to find new customers. Segmentation allows us to focus our messaging and deliver it more effectively. (Arif, 2016)

Figure1. Market Segmentation, Market Targeting and Product Positioning (Goldsmith, 1999)

Findings

Comparison of Brand’s Target Market

In marketing mix price refers to the pricing of a commodity. It depends on production costs, the particular sector, business capability, availability, demand, and many other direct and indirect factors (Leigh, 1992). The product applies to the product currently distributed. The place corresponds to the purchase point. In all the markets, it’s easy to catch the attention of the customer. Promotion applies to all actions to educate the customer and exchange for the good or service. They make up a company’s strategic strategy and manage it correctly. It could take years to recover if treated improperly (Borden, 1964).

Figure2. The 4P’s of Marketing (Constantinides E. J., 2007)

The Marketing Mix of Weetabix and Kellogg’s analyses and describes the marketing plan for the brand covering the 4Ps which include Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. By 2020, many marketing initiatives have led to the brand’s success, such as product/service creativity, marketing investments, customer engagement, etc. (Weetabix, 2018)

Product

]Weetabix preserves the principles, qualities and characteristics of nutrition that remain but through microencapsulation, with the inclusion of Omega 3. Weetabix has introduced a new luxurious feeling product to the goal of our target adult market, with a more designer look, in order to demonstrate the product a highly regarded and adult food. Rather than the standard package, which is either cut or torn open, put a zip lock pocket inside the packet to hold the Weetabix refresher and more enticing for a longer time (PHILLIPS, 1974). Kellogg’s has a number of segments depending on the type or geography of goods. Consumer category divisions are American morning food, American snacks. Kellogg’s products include breakfast cereals and other foodstuffs in the marketing mix. Breakfast cereal produces annually worldwide revenue of over $400 billion and forms the bulk of worldwide sales. Snacks generate a total sales volume of $230 billion annually and account for an important share worldwide (Brown, 2010). Therefore, based on the segmentation of the business market, both brands have adopted innovative strategies for their competitive advantages.

Price

• Price of Weetabix £4.80
• Price of Kellogg’s £4.26

Pricing policy of Weetabix is focused on pricing for the market, targeted at attracting more new market purchasers. The reduced prices would be 20 cents higher than standard Weetabix products, which would make them more attractive to existing and future consumers. Weetabix and Weetabix goods of the original size would have the lower prices (Smith, 2019). However, according to consumer price index (CPI) shows that the inflation increased to 1.6 per cent last month, up from 1.2 per cent in November, although higher prices for raw materials and fuels forced up manufacturer prices (Weetabix, 2017). The dynamic pricing of Kellogg’s reflects that it is focused on industry dynamics and analysis. Kellogg uses services like discounts and other systems daily, such as free food coupons. In order to compete and rely on growth in sales, Kellogg’s keeps pricing flexible. That being said, the price policy in Kellogg’s marketing mix is mostly driven by their own brands, considering its market leadership (Nickell, 2018).

Place

Weetabix operates on positioning targets and distributing the most revenue generating product in supermarkets to meet the product goal of getting greater market share. In the US, the location of the Weetabix items is normally not part of US cereals that are generally full of sugar or other garbage in a ‘balanced cereal’ environment. I see that they combine with the American cereals in Canada and they’re not as perceptible as they normally sell, just 1 box row. London Medicines are an anomaly and mostly show in the aisle instead of on the shelves or in a conspicuous position on themselves (PHILLIPS, 1974). Considering Kellogg’s, the four main cereals markets are the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and Australia. The priority of Kellogg is on emerging markets. The sales networks of Kellogg’s include convenience, retail, mini-supermarkets and high-frequency shops. Kellogg sells its goods for resale through retail stores through its own sales force. For some goods Kellogg also uses a dealer and distributor system. Kellogg markets some of its products to supermarkets with a direct distribution scheme for the store door. Kellogg’s very quickly tries to make their goods affordable. Kellogg’s also provides e-commerce delivery. (Constantinides. E, 2006)

Promotion

The advertising campaigns of Weetabix concentrate on established target audiences for consumers of children and adults focused to their professions. Because both of these goals are busy, they will require constant exposure in several ways; first of all, they will make the new product conscious, so they will test the product and ultimately keep it wanting to buy Weetabix on an on-going basis. The target demographic is extremely likely to become daily Weetabix customers by continuous marketing and incentive rewards and donations (Goldsmith, 1999). The aim of Kellogg is to create a solid brand to boost its sales. Under its campaign blend, Kellogg supports different sales tactics. Kellogg’s was US gymnastics and children’s series affiliate, featuring dragon storeys. As an advertising tactic for children in cereal boxes Kellogg’s uses gifts. The brands have pets that reflect the brand and draw kids. Motorsports activities were also funded by Kellogg’s. Another sales technique is merchandising. Kellogg has launched several exclusive packets of cereal for a PC game called Project Nutrition. For advertising campaigns social media is included (Dang, 2014).

Conclusion and Recommendations

The established food products brands in the United Kingdom are both Weetabix and Kellogg’s. The firm is experiencing a substantial decline of its market due to the large rivalry or drop in its cereal commodity. The marketing study showed that Weetabix’s revenue decreased to 4.3% and distribution value plummeted to 7.9%. If the organisation is using Ansoff Matrix for the growth of its market, it will be helpful. The most important elements in the Ansoff matrix are: market penetration: The organisation is trying to increase its market positions in this approach. Diversification must also be taken by all businesses. This approach would increase the company’s market share and launch new offerings to the market in combination with its products (Dominici, 2009).

References

1. Arif, M. Z. (2016) International Journal of Trade and Commerce-IIARTC. Using the 7Ps of Booms and Bitner as Controllable Tactical Marketing Tools: An Exploratory Study on Selected Super Shops in Bangladesh 5 (1), 12-29.
2. BBC News (2017) Weetabix Warns Of Price Rises This Year [Online]. Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38794292 [Accessed 1st November, 2020].
3. Borden, N. H. (1964) The concept of the marketing mix. Journal of advertising research 4 (2), 2-7.
4. Brown, G. K. (2010) The Kellogg company optimizes production, inventory, and distribution. Interfaces 31 (6), 1-15.
5. Constantinides, E. (2006) The marketing mix revisited: towards the 21st century marketing. Journal of marketing management 22 (3-4), 407-438.
6. Dang, T. (2014) The success of applying marketing mix 4Ps in Vietnamese dairy industry: Vinamilk–a typical case. Report number: 1.
7. Dawes, J. (2018) The Ansoff Matrix: A Legendary Tool, But with Two Logical Problems with Weetabix. Harvard Business Review 1 (1) 101-113.
8. Dominici, G. (2009) From marketing mix to e-marketing mix: a literature overview and classification. International journal of business and management 4 (9), 17-24.
9. Festa, G. C. (2016) The (r) evolution of wine marketing mix: From the 4Ps to the 4Es. Journal of Business Research 69 (5), 1550-1555.
10. Goldsmith, R.E. (1999) The personalised marketplace: beyond the 4Ps, Marketing Intelligence & Planning 17 (4), 178-185.
11. Leigh, J. H. (1992) Symbolic interactionism: its effects on consumer behaviour and implications for marketing strategy. Journal of Services Marketing 1 (1), 93-105.
12. Nickell, S. & Metcalf, D. (1978) Monopolistic industries and monopoly profits or, are Kellogg’s cornflakes overpriced. The Economic Journal 88 (350), 254-268.
13. PHILLIPS, C. (1974) THE WINNING WAYS OF WEETABIX. Industrial Management.
14. Smith, G. (2019) Weetabix: Steeplechase. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festival (106-106). In ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Computer Animation Festival 1 (1),106-106.

Case Study Approach to Critical Evaluation of Effective Leadership, Management and Collaborative Practice in Nursing

This reflective essay will use a case study approach to critically evaluate leadership, management and collaborative interprofessional practice used in nursing ( 1.Harvis and Mayo, 2018). The scenario took place in an elderly ward where the nursing and medical team participated in seizure care (see Appendix). The contextual focus of this essay is on the nursing leadership and management style used. Firstly, defining and introducing the importance of leadership in healthcare, followed by analyzing effective leadership, some theories of leadership and styles. Furthermore, an evaluation of relational leadership in the role of ‘self’ discussing the roles of multi-professional team working, specifically the student nurse. Interprofessional collaboration benefits, challenges and different approaches will be critically reviewed. Finally, the conclusion will highlight main points of the essay. Complying with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (2. NMC) (2018) of maintaining confidentiality names of colleagues, hospital trusts, patient and family have not been mentioned but links will be made to the scenario and patient-centred care.

Definition of leadership.

Leadership ………………………………The National Health Service (NHS) needs effective leadership and collaboration in today’s complex system, due to the challenges of improving patient care in climate of workload pressures and workforce shortages and high level of stress among staff (3. Ham, Berwick and Dixon, 2016). This is combined with ageing population, complex health issues and poor life style (4. Department of Health, 2008; NHS, 2014). Therefore, there is a greater need for efficiency to meet these demands and to sustain a comprehensive high-quality NHS (5. NHS, 2014). 6.Sullivan and Garland, (2013); 7.Field and Brown, (2016), adds other reasons such as social and cultural diversity; high expectations to provide quality patient-care; current state of public finances and new emerging roles call for effective leadership.

An effective leader will know what it is they want to achieve, communicate this to their followers, and effectively delegate tasks (8. Ellis and Bach, 2015). 9. Skinner (1965) behavioral theorist states that nobody is born a leader and leadership is learnt with time and grown into whereas Great Man theory by Carlyle (1840) believes been a leader is hereditary, certain people are born with leadership traits (Stodgill, 1948 cited in 10. Yoder-Wise 2011; 11. Hughes et al., 2014) the idea has been developed into the trait theory by Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) where several traits of good leadership were identified and believe aids to achieve the skills required to become an effective leader but not sufficient enough on their own to ensure success. Some of these traits include knowledge of business, motivation, drive and self-confidence (12. Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1991).

This reflection highlights some of the leadership theories, used in nursing particularly the one I witnessed in the scenario. The ward manager in the scenario, leading the care, portrayed some of these traits like motivation and drive, easily taking on her role as a leader and delegating effectively, showing her confidence and knowledge of the organisation, she knew the strategic steps to follow and the seizure protocols. As a leader she applied staff competencies towards attainment of goals by her allocation of task (Sygue, 2006). However, although Kirkpatrick and Locke (1991) states that these traits are not enough for a successful leader, they do agree that they make the necessary actions for success more achievable, such as role modelling, creating a vision and goal planning. Therefore, this suggest that aspiring leaders who do not have these traits are at a significant disadvantage of leading successfully, contradicting the idea (point) raised by Ellis and Bach (2015) that anyone can be a good leader.

There are theories that look at types of leadership when reviewing effective leadership and some were applied in the scenario. The manager appeared to have adopted an autocratic leadership style since she was directive in her approach, delegated task accordingly and made swift decisions regarding patient’s care increasing productivity.

13. Seow (2013) states that in emergency circumstances, research shows that leadership requires quick analysis of complex situation and effective management of individuals and swift effective decision making, that requires experience and knowledge, which goes beyond basic skill (Seow, 2013). Which is similar to autocratic style of leadership, mostly suitable for emergency circumstances and ensure the best outcomes for patients (Seow, 2013; Sullivan and Garland, 2013 and 15.Sfantou et al., 2017). However, autocratic style requires the leader to possess power and authority to change the teams behaviour in achieving goal (14. Stetler et al., 2014). This comes with some challenges like lack of flexibility leading to hostile, unmotivated and uncommitted team in relation to the leader’s control and directness (Sullivan and Garland, 2013). It can be argued that the manger observed in the scenario which is an emergency management of seizure used the best and most effective leadership approach, to achieve goal, lead inexperienced staff well.

On the contrary, it would have been inappropriate for the manager to adopt a different style like laissez-faire, where the leader makes no decision or little direction is given, team makes their own decision with no supervision (Sfantou et al., 2017). Laissez-faire may be appropriate on a ward with a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals (Hughes et al., 2014but not with staff nurse, student and healthcare assistant in an emergencies situation (Hughes et al., 2014; Sfantou et al., 2017). This would have led to delay, an unsafe practice and impacted on patient’s health according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) 2018).

A flexible leader sometimes applies situational leadership approach depending on the commitment and competence of staff (Hersey and Blanchard, 1988) This is the part where relational leadership is added.

LEGO Games Company Case Analysis

1. Introduction:

In Denmark, the company LEGO started in 1916 with the focus on housing and farming furniture. When the first wooden building blocks were created in 1932, LEGO sought its niche, which was the first time the business saw an interest in making children’s toys. The play line was more improved and eventually the wooden blocks for plastic parts were slowly withdrawn. Through designing numerous product ranges and engaging in the creation and manufacturing cycle for specific age groups, LEGO developed the brand.

During the era 1993 to 1998, though, LEGO and the rest of the toy industry suffered sluggish production. Originally, a declining youth population was responsible for the decrease in key population sizes, a decrease in play spending, and the increase in toy products driven by technology. (Shellshear, 2016). This time warned LEGO and the organization began to diversify to accelerate production. Even though LEGO did not experience the development it needed for its toy industry to become a major actor, this can be accredited externally and internally for several major problems of the LEGO infrastructure.

However, in this report, I will discuss many things. Firstly, discussing the reason behind LEGO’s bankruptcy in the early 2000s, focusing on both external and internal, and analyzing the strategy they took to abolish bankruptcy. Secondly, Define the steps LEGO must take to maintain its competitive advantage in the future, and describing lessons learned from LEGO’s past that should guide it in the direction of their future. Finally, a critical evaluation of the organic and inorganic approaches adopted by LEGO and discussed which of the two methods has resulted in sustainable growth.

2. Discussion:

2.1. The reason that makes LEGO to faced bankruptcy (focusing on external and internal factors).

LEGO, the popular Danish construction toys group, reports strong profits in the financial year 2013. Its profits fell by 10% to 3.4 billion euros. The pre-tax income came to €1.1 billion. In eight years, sales had increased, succeeding Hasbro and being, after Mattel, the world’s second-largest toy maker. Yet LEGO was thought to have lost focus 10 years ago and drifted among businesses rather than its core one. The business has just crashed. In 2003, its net revenues fell by 26% total and certain distributors had a rise of 40% in production. The pre-tax loss on sales of EUR 188 m, which declined by €268 m relative to 2002, it was also recorded among other unsatisfactory financial figures. At the moment, LEGO was advised that ‘We are on a burning market and we lose a lot of money in negative cash flows, which may force us to abandon the business’ (Ashcroft, 2013).

However, he has no background in the toy business, although he was an expert. LEGO was managed centrally by the new boss from France, claiming that LEGO’s home town was too local. LEGO continued to develop and diversify on a great number of levels with its new leadership and moved away from its core, which culminated in its decline. In producing a Saturday morning cartoon named ‘Galidor,’ LEGO switched from its heart to becoming a fashion company to create the clothes and jewelry advertised LEGO items.

Of many reasons LEGO was faced with bankruptcy at the beginning of the 2000s. The main external factors that contributed to the rapid revenue drop were the rising rise of electronic gaming and video games, which fuelled the imagination of many young people around the world. As there were too many replacements for the simple brick items, remaining on the markets and drawing exposure to customers for their current goods became difficult for them. The poor quality imitation bricks have infected consumers in China. Furthermore, Due to LEGO’s personal computer revolution in the 1990s, the popularity of children including video consoles and computer games has started to wan. The main internal reasons contributing to bankruptcy is that they replaced the CEO, turned someone who did not have a lot of experience of the industry into an overly young CEO, who at the moment could not be a successful leader. They have also changed their key skills and focused on spending in other various projects that were negative for the company. A confused management plan and a lack of strong leadership to help restore the firm to bankruptcy led the company. It began too fast and far from its core, which contributes to mistakes, to creativity and diversification into too many fields. The creators of the business thought of innovative products without affecting the commodity quality or manufacturing costs. In high-cost nations, including Denmark, Germany, and the United States, the manufacturing facilities of LEGO were located. In fact, in the company’s main franchise regions, weak client support and spot-on product quality were both issues.

2.2. Strategic initiatives used by LEGO to eliminate bankruptcy.

The first strategy the company took was to appoint Jgrgen Vig Knudstorp as CEO. Knudstorp declared LEGO ‘to back to the brick’ and to concentrate on its main products. Owing to its strategic reorientation, LEGO has split many properties like its theme parks. It has also drastically healed its portfolio, from some 13,000 to 7,000, by almost zero percent. In tandem with LEGO again focusing on its core strengths, Knudstorp was always cautious to combine development, use existing information to boost company output in the near term with innovation to explore new knowledge to increase potential results. Furthermore, LEGO has grown its revenues by improving interoperability between specific LEGO items with certain sets in order to foster consumer ingenuity and imagination, in general with their well-known goods. In order to foster creativity, LEGO has put its adult supporters into the latest product creation phase, using line-forums and other internet-based tools to get feedback from a broad supporter of goods. LEGO has taken much greater caution in its line extensions in order to encourage potential development. LEGO’s brand was freely allowed in the past to cover Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, the Ring Lord, Superman, the Simpsons and Iron Man.

2.3. Focus on the directions of growth by using Ansoff Matrix.

Having a deeper look at the current business is often less risky. LEGO can try to increase the market value on different distribution platforms. Even if eBay is popular primarily for online auctioning, for example, they provide professional facilities for direct producers through their portal. Improving consistency of the commodity will help the current industry penetrate. As a super online toy store, LEGO will develop itself. Growing relationships with customers may improve market share. Beyond the European and American markets, LEGO and LEGOland will grow. LEGO will now operate its own store highway toy shop. Interactive fun ride may be applied to LEGOland Park, or so.

1. Penetrating the market: The LEGO group aimed to gain expansion, in this case, from the current market share of other mainstream toy brands with the primary goal of growing the market share in Europe and also beyond. Work hard to promote the growth of the traditional European and America markets with sales of the simple LEGO model line.
2. Development of market: Here the business wanted to take a new girl-specific ‘new’ for the current commodity but continued to improve it. In specific Denmark and Mexico, the LEGO Company has agreed to strive for growth by bringing its current product concepts to new markets.
3. Development of products: In their existing market niche, the company LEGO aimed to develop new market toys. LEGO is focused even more closely on the lines formed to join up with film franchises including Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indi,ana Jones and Caribbean Pirates.
4. Diversification: In developing new goods to take on a larger market segment, the LEGO Group has decided to expand its brand in completely diversifying towards emerging industry markets. LEGO has stumbled at least twice, despite innovation always being at high risk. First of all, the organization had a expensive transfer to theme park. And in 2011, the hyped online LEGO Universe cooperative title was quickly folded. Nevertheless, elsewhere in LEGO the Nintendo DS, Mac and console versions have flourished.

2.4. Analyse the current directions and suggest future growth directions with proper justification:

The following two recommendations could be included in LEGO group’s competitive strategy in future.

Four, diversification as a technique for the production of a specific toy product; LEGO Company should diversify its products and thereby make it easier for the Brand to draw a wide variety of buyers from various cultures or industries. The quality issue should be considered for the LEGO group to enter the market with great ease while undertaking diversification. Other related methods of gaming and entertainment websites, particularly full of unique toys and robots, are expected to be part of this diversification. It would protect LEGO by benefiting from one aspect of its market while another part is less competitive from becoming interested with more than one sector. Gaming and entertainment (and toy products) meet the needs of various customers. Although this variety does not guarantee profitability immediately, it lets the hotel align its income in many industry sectors. The other recommendation is a development plan that involves interacting with social networks including Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Friendster. It may be helpful resources for advertising, promotion, and assistance. The programs consist of broad numbers of individuals that are grouped into social networks and communities. People create links to shape a larger social circle, in order to communicate with people in the same network. These people relate to issues such as traditional goods and cultural traditions in specific cultural networks and groups. People create clear, practical relationships with others. Social network helps people to communicate with network members who are not directly related. Individuals create their own laws and regulations to engage their social networks in various forms of interactions.

The competition strategy is based on the fast entrance of certain future rivals into the business. To do so, the LEGO Community divisions are located at key positions where toys like Europe and certain areas of Africa have a very large chance of being eaten. Franchising should insure that the first mover benefit is exploited in the immediate future activities by increased numbers of markets and supply chain companies. The social network works towards a guaranteed quality framework of market policy which ensures good governance. This should be taken into consideration in the publicity campaign. Furthermore, Within the LEGO group threats could be caused by government regulations for the toys industry that could imply a minimum life span for permits secured in different countries, changes in these service industries are slow, and the risk of product imitation due to competitiveness will be reduced by the speedy development of new toy and brand products, diversification through promotions and By diversifying the brand and delivering quality toy products, this can be minimized.

However, the main competitive advantages of LEGO over its rivals are focused on and innovative core products. They use high-quality materials to improve the reliability and health of their items for children, which make them a popular toy brand for many families. Their collaborations with several big brands render them much more successful and appealing and strategic advantages for children of all ages. They sell their goods globally and thus have an immense customer presence that makes them massive profits.

2.5. A critical evaluation of the organic and inorganic approaches adopted by LEGO:

In the industry, the toys are related to major suppliers such as Mattel, Hasbro, Sony, Sony, PLAYMOBIL, BANDAI NAMCO, K’NEX, Konami, PlayFusion, Anki WowWee, DXTR Labs, and Leka. Such players have implemented different development strategies to improve their global footprint and market shares. New product releases and alliances are two of the core approaches embraced by the major players for the growth of their partnership toys.

Benedettelli (2014) said that LEGO Group (Denmark) is a major leader with a comprehensive strategic collaboration network in the connected product business. The company has also concentrated on delivering the best standard and safety kids with enjoyable and stimulating play products. LEGO specializes in reduced danger, a highly competitive approach that has helped LEGO develop more original ideas that have become a popular business tactic than the industry has ever seen. The group aims to develop organic and inorganic business growth strategies. The LEGO Group, for example, announced its favorite Star Wars collection in May 2019. The latest LEGO Star Wars BOOST Droid Commander collection provides LEGO BOOST’s whole imaginative and coding fun and the opportunity to build 3 of the most popular droids of the film franchise: R2-D2, the Gonk Droid and the Mouse Droid.

2.6. The approach that has resulted in sustainable growth:

The focus is on the success of the use of new product development and innovation as the driver of sales and profits. Culture and development are not nonsensical things in LEGO. LEGO’s growth history is organic so it could take years for that to develop. By 2003 LEGO products have been in great trouble for 80 years and captivated kids and parents. However, the LEGO group never made a purchase.

3. Conclusion:

Ole Kirk Christiansen founded LEGO, a carpenter who began to produce wooden toys. It was founded in 1934 under the name LEGO. According to Mazzarella (2019), LEGO is the sixth most popular children’s product maker. The key component is colorful plastic interlocking which can be mounted to create items, such as cars, houses and so on. This is the philosophy of LEGO that ‘healthy playing’ enriches the childhood of the child – and his maturity later on. To this end, the LEGO Group has produced and commercialized a range of items, all of which are based on the same basic principle of learning by play.

Mega Bloks threatened the LEGO brick industry with items close to LEGO, but aimed at the childhood audience as a different category. The merchandise Mega Bloks is actually less costly to purchase than LEGO since Mega Bloks requires resin quality while the resin LEGO requires is far cheaper, so LEGO is more costly than Mega Blocks

Through LEGO needed to make realistic decisions on what it desired and where it decided to find itself in the toy industry across multiple ups and downs. The approach differs but the theory is taken into consideration and creative items are created to enable children improve and acquire different techniques while playing.

4. References:

1. Benedettelli, D., 2014. The LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Laboratory. 1st ed. San Francisco, CA: Wiliam Pollock, pp.55-59.
2. Butler, A., 2018. Innovation At The LEGO Group A Generic And Intensive Growth Strategies. [online] Essay48. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2020].
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4. Hadjiyski, L., 2019. Block By Block: How LEGO Came To Dominate Its Market — Business Today Online Journal. [online] Business Today Online Journal. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2020].
5. Menicanin, L., 2017. Mini Case #12.Docx – Lela Menicanin April 4 2017 LEGOs. [online] Coursehero.com. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2020].
6. R. Mazzarella, S. and C. Hains., R., 2019. Cultural Studies Of LEGO: More Than Just Bricks. 1st ed. UK: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.107-110.
7. Shellshear, E., 2016. From Bankruptcy To Industry Leading Success – The LEGO Story | Innovationmanagement. [online] InnovationManagement. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2020].
8. White, T., 2012. Pink Bricks For Girls? Lego Builds A New Strategy | Business | Tutor2u. [online] tutor2u. Available at: [Accessed 8 August 2020].

Research Design: Case Study of E-Z Pass

Abstract

Problem identification process includes different steps which are interrelated with each other. Going through the steps one at a time, leads to identification of a problem. Research design is setting an objective and setting up a guideline to what should be done to get to the objectives. In the case of E-Z Pass, it is recommended for the task force to perform an exploratory research design. Researchers are able to complete an entire research without a hitch when research questions are properly defined. Dummy table refers to the research tool which showcases the result that is expected by the end of a research.

Keywords: Research, Problem Identification, Research Design, E-Z Pass, Electronic Toll Collection.

Introduction to Case Study

E-Z Pass is a case, where the main objective of the study is to understand the feasibility and desirability of bringing in Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) for inter-regional roadways. The main purpose of it was to reduce the traffic at toll plazas. For the study, task force of executives of seven regional transportation agencies in the New York- New Jersey are was formed. Electronic Toll Collection was already popular around Texas and Louisiana. Moreover, the task force top focus became investigating on commuters’ preference for how the service should be configured ideally. With this the research question to be tested were prepared. According to researcher, they thought it to be necessary to identify commuter’s demand for the service. However, the task force deemed it unimportant as they were committed to implement the Electronic Toll Collection.

Electronic Toll Collection is accomplished by providing the commuters tags which emits radio signal. These radio signals can read from a car which is in motion and ETC can reduce traffic jams at toll plazas by allowing tag holders to pass through at moderate speeds (Babin & Grifin, 2009). According to (Chen, Fan, & Farn, 2007), ETC is a part of an intelligent transport system which allows for the electronic payment of highway tolls by using the vehicle to roadside communication resulting in a decrease in the road traffic in tollbooths.

Research Process

Research refers to the scientific and systematic process that includes collection of data and information, documentation of such information and analyzing and making a critical assessment of the information. When a gap is identified in a market, then researchers thrive to receive an answer. As research is a process, this process entails identification of a problem, selection of a research question to be tested, selection of research design, collection of data- Primary Data and Secondary Data, documentation of data, interpreting and analyzing the data to reach to certain conclusion. There is different type of research that is Basic Research and Applied Research. These research types are further divided into three other research types which is Qualitative Research, Quantitative Research and Mixed Research.

Problem definition is an initial step to research process. Identifying the problem in a research is necessary as it becomes the base to another step of the process. Problem definition process is backed by review of literature. Problem definition does not necessarily lead to its literal meaning. The term could mean identification of a gap in the market or identifying an opportunity. For defining the research problems, different research instrument must be used. Once the problem of a research is defined, drawing out the structure of entire research process will be easier. Problem identification process includes different steps which are interrelated with each other. Going through the steps one at a time helps in understanding the core of a problem.

Next step is selection of research question. Research question are integral part of research process. These question makes the overall research understandable. Researchers are able to complete an entire research without a hitch when research questions are properly defined. Research question is the base of where one can take the study. According to (Nassaji, 2019), research questions is clear, specific, and goal-oriented query related to a problem that needs to be addressed. One of the most commonly suggested ways of generating ideas for research question is by identifying the gap in existing literature (White, 2017).

Following the selection of research question comes identification of research design. Research design is setting an objective and setting up a guideline to what should be done to get to the objectives. Selecting an appropriate research design from among the available research design methodologies is one the most difficult task, which is why it is important to know about different research design methodologies (Groenewald, 2004). Research design are divided into two parts:

Exploratory Research Design

This research design refers to the research design which is followed to discover ideas, problems, gaps. They are informative but cannot be applied. Research following this design are better suited for the startups. This research is a part of qualitative research. This research research has been criticized for lacking participants’ voice and a meaningful interpretation (McKim, 2017).

According to (Reiter, 2017), the design seeks to provide new explanations that were previously overlooked and it can do so through the active involvement of the researcher in the process of amplifying his or her conceptual tools to allow him or her to raised new questions and provide new explanations of a given reality, from a new angle.

Conclusive Research Design.

This research design is followed to reach towards certain conclusion. It is further subdivided into descriptive research design and casual research design. These research designs are costly for the startup. Established companies follow this research design for further development.

Other steps include collection of data and information and its documentation. After the research design is selected, it is an easy task to choose what type of data are needed to be collection. There are two types of data that is firstly, primary data and secondly, secondary data. Various instruments are used to collect these data. The information collected during the process are documented and then they are analyzed and interpreted.

Research Process in Relation to the Case Study

Problem Definition Process

In the case of E-Z Pass, the broader problem that was to be investigated was about the feasibility and desirability of the commuters to the service of Electronic Toll Collection. Along with toll payment, ETC helps authorities to keep track of the vehicle for security reasons passing the tollbooths. As a problem definition process, the task force that were assigned the investigation, prepared set of research questions which were mostly focused on the features of Electronic Toll Collection and how it works. In this case, the questions identified do not assist in problem identification. Moreover, the research question drifts from the objective of the investigation.

Research Design to be Recommended

In the case of E-Z Pass, it is recommended for the task force to perform an exploratory research design. Defining an objective of the investigation is necessary. Exploratory research design will be able to provide in depth knowledge about Electrical Toll Collection, their feasibility and demand in the market. Furthermore, using different research design instruments such as survey, interview, secondary data, the task force will be able to understand the commuter’s behavior and their perception regarding the ETC. Exploratory research design is recommended here because the task force has already committed to implement the ETC.

Research Questions to be Tested

From the above case study, the research questions that can be tested are listed below:

1. How bad is traffic in New York–New Jersey area?
2. Are the commuters familiar with ETC?
3. What is their view regarding the service?
4. How and from where can the commuters get E-Z Pass?
5. Is it secure?
6. For how long should the commuters wait in a queue in tollbooth?

Dummy Table

Dummy table refers to the research tool which showcases the result that is expected by the end of a research. It is to be noted that the results presented in the table are hypothetical. In the case of E-Z Pass, dummy table might include the research question set by the task force, feedbacks of the commuters, insights gathered from the interview and secondary sources and conclusion that the task force want to come at.

Conclusion

Research is an important part of decision making. E-Z Pass, is the service which adopts Electronic Toll Collection. This system can be used in highway, bridge & tunnel. The major area of implementation of our project is related with traffic management system (Wani, 2018). The research design beneficial for the task force would be exploratory research design. This research design is not appropriate for decision making but these are informative research modules. The research question sorted, provides base for how to conduct research.

References

1. Babin, Z., & Grifin, C. (2009). Business Research Method. South Western College Pub.
2. Chen, C., Fan, Y., & Farn, C. (2007). Predicting Electronic Toll Collection Service Adoption:
3. An Integration of the Technology Acceptance Model and the Theory of Planned Behavior. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 15(5), 300-311.
4. Wani, M. (2018). An Electronic Toll Collection System. Asian Journal of Convergence and Technology, 4(1).
5. Reiter, B. (2017). Theory and Methodology of Exploratory Social Science Research. Ijsrm Human Journals, 5(4), 129-150.
6. Nassaji, H. (2019). Good research questions. Language Teaching Research, 23(3), 283-286.
7. White, P. (2017). Developing Research Questions. London: MacMillan Education; Palgrave.
8. McKim, C. A. (2017). The Value of Mixed Methods Research: A Mixed Methods Study. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 11(2), 202-222.
9. Groenewald, T. (2004). A Phenomenological Research Design Illustrated. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 3(1), 42-55.

Google Case Study: P.E.S.T.L.E. Analysis and 5-Forces Model

In the mid 1990s, two Stanford University students would meet and meld minds to create one of the most well-known technological giants of the twenty-first century. This company, the creation of Sergey Brin and Larry Page would come to be recognized after multiple name transitions as Google. Throughout the midst of the early 2000s technological boom, Brin and Page would manage to develop and market a technology that is used by ordinary citizens, students, academics, and more from across the globe. On the path to success with Google, the co-founders had to manage strategic challenges and develop an approach to conquer the competitive advantage of pre-established companies such as Yahoo and AOL which held majority of market share. While the current commanding status of the technological giant is apparent, Google continues to face many internal and external challenges to continue its relevance in an ever-growing field of rivals. To greater understand these challenges, a PESTEL, 5-forces, SWOT, and VRIO analysis will be used to conduct an examination of the forces faced.

P.E.S.T.E.L. Analysis

Political Factors

The first area of the P.E.S.T.E.L. analysis is understanding the political factors that hinder or advance the strategy of Google today. Given a trend towards globalism and an inter-connectedness between countries, the ability of Google to create access to information has positively helped many around the globe in pursuit of knowledge. However, due to such a large influence on the access of information, governing bodies such as the Federal Trade Commission and European Union have become concerned regarding the level of power Google holds. In response to this, the FTC and EU initiated investigations into the company which resulted into conclusions of anticompetitive behavior and punishment of anti-trust sanctions (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 266). Opposite of these restrictions, recent political changes regarding the change in U.S. tax code have been of benefit to Google. These massive cuts allowed for large tech companies to purchase stock buybacks which in turn raised the price per share and benefitted analytical numbers of the company such as earnings per share. Figures from Bloomberg show that tech giants spent an extensive $169 billion on share purchases post Tax Cut and Jobs Act creation (Grant & King, 2019). On the next front for Google is the most substantial factor of economic forces.

Economic Factors

Stepping back to the foundation of Google, the company has long been impacted by strong economic pressures. Google initially was able to get a foot into the market by brokering a deal with Yahoo stemming from 2000 which implemented the search capabilities into the platform of Yahoo which was sourcing almost 900 million-page views per day at the time (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 267). Ever since the launching point of working with Yahoo, Google hasn’t looked back, recording the first profitable year for the company in 2001 and an astounding no net losses since that time even during the financial collapse of 2008 (pg. 267). Conversely, despite a continued strong economic presence on a global stage, Google is facing increasing competition in the advertising market which is based off of their search platform. A need for expansion of markets is a necessity to keep the trend of growth in the right direction. However, as previously referenced in the political factors, many countries fear Google’s ability to control the spread of information which has caused these nations to censor the entrance of the tech giant. Leading the way in this suppression are Russia and China which have requested 61,471 informational removal requests and China has banned Google all-together respectively (Ma, 2019). Were Google able to enter these markets, a brand-new population, and marketing base would be wide open for their advertising partners and continuously growing database of information. Nonetheless, Google must find a way to enter these markets even at a marginal level if they are to continue competing with other economic powerhouses such as Facebook and Amazon.

Sociocultural Factors

While economic markets continue to trend towards globalization, Google must also maintain its relevance and prominence with its number one priority, the consumer. Given the rise of technological innovation, many consumers are becoming more concerned with their privacy and amount of data and personal information known by big tech. This concern was even further sparked by the Facebook and Cambridge Analytical data scandal revolving around the 2016 presidential election in which 87 million Facebook users had their data unknowingly shared with the U.K. based data firm Cambridge Analytica which helped candidates as a political strategist (Kozlowska, 2018). This became such a large scandal that it resulted in multiple Capitol Hill hearings for Facebook. While Google was not at the epicenter of this crisis, it has signaled a further trend towards privacy concerns on the consumer end. This has lead towards customers starting to use newer search engines such as Firefox Focus and DuckDuckGo which boast numerous privacy benefits such as no data collection or ads meaning a user cannot be tracked or targeted based on their past searches since no personal information has been stored to create a curated selection (Cihodariu, 2019). Despite limited privacy, Google continues to hold the upper hand for those consumers who still prefer to have an integrated platform for all personal technological needs from email, maps, web-searches, data storage, and more.

Technological Factors

As a controller and primary influencer of the technological movement, Google has made many steps towards maintaining its relevance as a leader in the industry. These measures include evolving with a consumer trend towards usage of mobile devices over traditional web-surfing likely sparked by the Blackberry in the early 2000s and later the iPhone which has remained dominant in the technological landscape. To get up to par with this trend, Google launched its own Android operating system in 2008 and has recently begun to create its own line of phones after an acquisition of Motorola (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 276). Critics of the open-source Android operating system have pointed to vulnerabilities in malware and corruption which Apple devices are known to be relatively secure from. Another technological trend sparked by Apple which Google is trying to come to par with is the user preference for continuity between all devices owned i.e., the MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and more which can all link between one account. Efforts to compete on this landscape include the invention of the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, and the ability to link social networking sites such as Pinterest to a Google account. This progression towards becoming more than just a one-service search site will continue to be key in the competitive efforts of Google.

Ecological Factors

As the world continues to become more and more concerned with the impact of climate change, many are looking at the practices of Corporate America with concern. In turn, these companies have begun to look inward in effort to become more sustainable and appealing to customers with environmental concerns. Results of an in-house analysis revealed that such extremely large amounts of searches and data by Google consumers caused the company to invest in expansive data centers to house all the serves and historical information. Furthermore, these data centers employed swaths of electricity which has spurred Google to invest in research and development of sustainable solutions to help power their infrastructure which limits their electrical pollution (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 279). Nonetheless, Google’s efforts in other areas of ecological improvement such as autonomous vehicles are facing much more of an uphill battle in legal and political regulations.

Legal Factors

As mentioned above in the political section, Google has been facing heavy criticism from regulatory bodies such as the FTC and EU for perceived monopolistic behavior. Beyond the individual legal factors faced by Google, the industries in which it operates are increasingly complex in their legal intricacies. Examples of this include the push for autonomous vehicles which have received high levels of consumer complaints, in certain areas, to the government and may be facing more legal challenges as more autonomous vehicles become a reality. Other industries in which Google operates in that are heavily regulated include the telecommunications sector which has been in a back-and-forth battle in recent years over Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is best defined the “policy of no Internet Service Provider (ISP) giving preferential treatment of any kind, either in terms of slowing down or speeding up transmission of any specific Internet traffic” (“Google’s Take”, 2020). This specific policy was over-turned in recent years, but the battle is likely to continue as companies like Google and Netflix vouch for Net Neutrality to return to its previous form.

With these factors in mind, the P.E.S.T.E.L. model brings to a head numerous challenges Google and similar companies will likely face. While Google is still undoubtedly one of the most powerful companies in the world, one of the biggest matters for the company is the consumer concern of ethical practices in the industry. For many years’ consumers were in awe of the power and capability of companies like Google and Amazon, but tides signal a referendum on the use of personal data. Other challenges Google needs to be wary of is avoiding the criticisms that Facebook has faced for allowing the rampant spread of misinformation, or “fake news” as it has been dubbed”, on its platform. Lastly, Google and other internet-technology industry giants must be aware of the likely pushback it will receive as more and more of its inventions cause displacement of workers due to an autonomous information technology revolution. While hints of the revolution have hit sectors such as manufacturing, more and more will likely be impacted in the coming years.

5-Forces Model

I. Rivalry

Albeit the success of Google, their rise to popularity as a technological giant was not a simple feat. Dating back to their origins, competition in the industry has been strong and majority would say is at its peak level of competition in today’s age. This can be surmised from noting that in 2002, Google maintained just 31.8% of web-searches on its own volition, however, due to heavy capital investment through agreements with competitors like AOL and Yahoo, Google now maintains a 67% majority on internet searches (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 268). Although, Google is no longer just competing based on its search function; it now battles against competitors like Amazon and Facebook for advertising shares and Apple in the phone, computer, and user experiences category.

II. Threat of New Entrants

As a result of Google’s effort in expansion of its services, the list of competitors can be endless depending on the analysis of which industry it is specifically competing in. Based on the primary strength of the company as a search function, Google’s faces mild new entrant competition from DuckDuckGo and Firefox Focus as mentioned above due to their ability to boast stronger security features. Other older competitors based purely on their search capability include Yahoo and Bing which hold 10 and 18% of the search market function respectively.

III. Threat of Substitutes

From a full-service standpoint as a browser, Google’s medial substitute competition is primarily in the likes of Internet Explorer, which is developed by Microsoft, Firefox, and Safari, although Google holds majority share of browser users with 56.1% (Rothaermel & King, 2016, pg. 268). What makes this industry different than those such as retail is that users can download as many browsers as they’d like, although Safari is exclusively an Apple application. There is very little switching costs on the end of the consumer and each of the browsers offer similar features, thus Google has maintained some semblance of dominance by coupling its search feature with the likes of creating an individual Google account for each user which provides them with email, saved map information, and access to applications such as Google Docs and Google Sheets that competitor Microsoft offers through its dominant Office Suite of applications.

IV. Buyer Power

In contrast to the strong competition Google faces in its revenue generating advertising business, consumers appear to have little power over the technological giant. This is likely due to the fact that the primary revenue source for.

Case Study of Costco: Critical Analysis of Business Model

Costco’s business model is a distribution model. The model is a low cost with limited but high-quality products. Bigger volume purchasing, a huge range of product category and only available to customers with membership. The model is appealing as its main idea is to have a high volume of sales by providing members low and competitive prices on limited but top quality products (John E. Gamble & Margaret A. Peteraf, 2018).

Strategy elements include low pricing and selection of products. They provide low and competitive prices for their customers with membership. With this strategy, they attract more members that also help them in maintaining the existing members. Another strategy i.e. merchandising helps business to attract more customers to spend more money on the products that you do not always see on sale by giving special deals on them.

According to my view, when it comes to CEO, he was effective. I would give him an A grade in implementing strategies in an exceptional manner. The Stats suggest that he possessed great people skills, which played a great role in building great relationships between him and his employees and customers. He was approachable and always willing to help customers. He was always able to communicate his vision clearly and concisely. He was the one who brought Costco to the position it is today. Figure 2.1 that states he was able to set goals, the vision, which leads to making the strategy. He was exceptional at observing the strategies and evaluation of performances from his employees (John E. Gamble & Margaret A. Peteraf, 2018).

The core values that were stressed on includes taking care of members, as they are the main reason for the existence of this company, Taking care of employees by creating a culture of maintaining the relationship between employees and management. Giving respect to suppliers as maintaining the relationship between the company and suppliers is important for the organization to prosper. Finally yet importantly is by providing support to the stockholders by allowing them to invest and get benefit from it (Douglas R. Satterfield, 2015).

Within North America, there are four major wholesalers include Costco, Sam’s Club, and Walmart. I believe rivalry or competition among the competitors is the strongest competitive forces as all of the rivals are having a similar kind of business model that is trying to attract more and more members by offering lower and competitive prices. Other factors that influence the number of potential customers or members are having more number of locations. More the number of locations, more the chance for the company to influence potential members and other competitors have then lesser chance to make any impact.

Costco is performing financially very well. Exhibit 1 data states that they have a current ratio of 1.05, which means they can meet their current liabilities. The assets turnover of 11.54 means that Costco only holds onto the inventory for less than 12 days. The ROE shows $0.13 of gain per dollars of net assets (John E. Gamble & Margaret A. Peteraf, 2018).

Exhibit 2 data shows that the expansion of Costco globally (outside U.S) is financially more successful. Since the company has globalized, the operating profit and revenue have rapidly increased.

Costco is performing strategically well too. Costco does not have any competitive advantage over other competitors, especially when there is no rival warehouse located in the area where they are located. Costco’s main strategy is to attract more and more members whenever they open a new location. I believe Costco’s strategy to win is by opening more locations and attracting more members both locally and globally that will influence sales numbers.

Costco’s compensation is on the higher side as compared to its competitors. Employees of Costco get great compensation and benefits package that includes health and so many other benefits. Surprisingly, Costco employees are getting great compensation even with a lower price margin on the products. The main reason behind this is the principles of Costco to take care of customers and employees as well.

References

1. John E. Gamble, Margaret A. Peteraf, – Essentials of Strategic Management: The Quest for Competitive Advantage-McGraw-Hill Education 6th Edition (2018).
2. Satterfield, D. R. (2015, February 3). Core Values: Costco. Retrieved from https://www.theleadermaker.com/core-values-costco/

Case Study of Johnson and Johnson: Social Responsibility and Managerial Ethics Obligations

Introduction

Johnson and Johnson is an American worldwide association built up in 1886 that makes helpful devices, pharmaceuticals and customer-packaged product. Its normal stock is a section of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the association is situated No. 37 on the 2018 Fortune 500 overview of the greatest United States organisations by outright salary. J&J is one of the world’s most critical associations.

Johnson and Johnson is headquartered in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the client division being arranged in Skill-man, New Jersey. The association recollects around 250 reinforcement associations with undertakings for 60 countries and things sold in excess of 175 countries. Johnson and Johnson had generally speaking ideas of $70.1 billion during plan year 2015. Johnson and Johnson’s brands consolidate different ordinarily perceived names of medications and crisis treatment supplies. Among its extraordinary customer things are the Band-Aid Brand line of wraps, Tylenol solutions, Johnson’s Baby things, Neutrogena skin and radiance things, Clean and Clear facial wash and Acuvue contact central focuses.

Q1. How does your chosen MNC Manage in the Global Environment?

A1. The Company is pleased to report Johnson and Johnson is joining the White House American Business Act on Climate Pledge. Crosswise over Johnson and Johnson we desire:

• Lessen outright carbon emanations 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050
• Produce/Procure 20% of power from clean/sustainable sources by 2020 and try to control the entirety of our offices with sustainable power source by 2050

Working in excess of 200 overall associations transversely over Johnson and Johnson requires an unending movement of rough material, fuel, control, and various resources for offer their things available to be purchased to people in general. Consistently, they work to constantly improve their imperativeness profitability, cut down their characteristic impression and associate on innovative techniques. They can uncover to you direct that they recognise this work. As the world’s greatest and most completely based social protection association, their focal objective is to help people with living longer, increasingly invaluable and progressively cheerful lives, and they understand the regular association between a strong circumstance and human prosperity.

Johnson and Johnson began its appropriate essentialness the board program more than 30 years back and continue trying to be an industry head in imperativeness profitability and clean imperativeness. In 2000, they developed their first attempt wide, open obligation to reduce CO2 releases. In the wake of achieving this and resulting goals, they are motivated to pass on their latest imperativeness obligations. Furthermore, they are well on their way.

They’ve quite recently begun different changes. In the earlier year alone, they’ve extended close by reasonable and clean-development imperativeness limit by presenting two breeze turbines on our properties in Cork Ireland, two power gadgets on our properties in California, and sun fuelled bunches on our properties in Puerto Rico.

With respect to associations, they’ve accepted an enthusiasm as a blemish on the Corporate Renewable Energy Buyers Principles pushed by the World Wildlife Fund and World Resources Institute in the US, and joined the Rocky Mountain Institutes, Business Renewables Center which are both based on settling challenges to give organisations better access to feasible power source decisions.

As of late, in simultaneousness with Climate Week in NYC, we likewise authoritatively reported that they have joined RE100 with the yearning to control the entirety of their offices with sustainable power source. They are glad to be the main social insurance organisation to join the positions of other unmistakable organisations that have made this promise. Together, we accept business can play a significant and persuasive job in bringing down carbon discharges so they can leave a superior, more beneficial world for the people to come.

Q2. What are the Key constraints faced by your chosen MNC is your Selected MNC trying to improve its culture?

A2. The Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies in Australia is fulfilled to announce that the association has been surrendered the Employer of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) in 2017-18 by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA).

‘We’re eager to have been permitted the Employer of Choice for Gender Equality by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. We’re satisfied with our wide help tasks, exercises and procedures that enable the two women and men working inside our associations to prosper in their occupations and individual lives,’ said Doug Cunningham, Managing Director of Johnson and Johnson Pacific.

WGEA is an Australian Government association made by the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012. The WGEA EOCGE reference sees Australian affiliations that show best practice in, and are adequately committed to, achieving sex consistency in their workplaces. Only 120 affiliations across over Australia got a reference for their plans and chips away at during 2017-18.

The Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies in Australia and New Zealand is stalling the hindrances to sexual orientation uniformity in the neighbourhood business and medicinal services part, bragging a number significant accomplishments as it moves towards grasping and advancing sex fairness inside the organisation and all the more extensively, inside the business.

A portion of the organisation’s drives to help sexual orientation fairness include:

An improved parental leave approach supporting 14 weeks paid leave for Birth moms, two months paid Bonding Leave for accomplices and two months paid Adoption Leave for new parents.

Adaptable working practices, combined with broad leave alternatives.

Practices that empower sex balance in progression arranging and learning and improvement programs.

Supporting representatives encountering Domestic and Family Violence, with access to paid leave.

Audits and techniques to help guarantee equivalent open door in remuneration, employing, improvement, and headway.

Drawing in and holding various ability.

Building comprehensive authority capabilities.

Q3. What key initiatives has your chosen MNC in place to address its social responsibility and managerial ethics obligations.

A3. At the Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies, their essential center is to make life getting updated, long haul contrasts in human wellbeing by focusing on the world’s significant wellbeing related issues.

They satisfy their duties through network based associations that improve wellbeing and prosperity. They tune in to and gain from their locale accomplices to guarantee the projects that they bolster have an important effect in individuals’ lives.

The entirety of their projects are adjusted to their Credo and key center territories, and are intended to:

• Convey substantial and important outcomes inside the network and satisfy the long haul objectives of the associations we support.
• Increment worker commitment for their projects and move representative cooperation.

Their worldwide key centre zones include:

• Improving the lives of ladies and kids.
• Reinforcing the social insurance workforce.
• Anticipating ailment.

The Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies encourages various commitments exercises in Australia and New Zealand. Our accomplice associations work in an assortment of zones, including air restorative injury reaction, kids’ welfare, illness counteractive action, careful missions and vagrancy.

Corporate associations

Our Family of Companies in Australia and New Zealand takes an interest in multi-year relationship with useful affiliations whose work is changed in accordance with our key focus locales. These associations are minded at standard between times, ordinarily as expected, to ensure we are, as one, passing on compelling outcomes that bit of leeway the systems where we live and work. A segment of our current corporate assistants join The Salvation Army, Variety – the children’s magnanimity, Barnyards Australia, Interplant Australia and New Zealand, the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Australian Red Cross.

Disaster lightening

The Johnson and Johnson Family of Companies the world over have a long history of giving assistance during times of issue. In Australia and New Zealand our disaster lightening response fuses budgetary responsibilities and blessings of thing. We work personally with not many bound together establishments that have a shown capacity to pass on help on the ground in influenced locales and direct sponsoring where it is required most.

Blessings and valuable assistance

Our associations in Australia and New Zealand take mind blowing pride in supporting our systems and the enthusiastic work endeavored by our benevolent assistants.

References

1. Richardson, J. (2019). Our Commitment to the Environment. [online] Content Lab U.S. Available at: https://www.jnj.com/our-company/our-commitment-to-the-environment.
2. Jnj.com.au. (2019). Johnson & Johnson – Diversity & Inclusion. [online] Available at: https://www.jnj.com.au/diversity-and-inclusion .
3. Jnj.com.au. (2019). Johnson & Johnson – Our Giving. [online] Available at: https://www.jnj.com.au/caring/corporate-giving .
4. En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Johnson u0026 Johnson. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_%26_Johnson .

Reflective Essay on Corporate Wellness: Case Study of Johnson and Johnson and Pepsi

The Dilemma

Businesses are very dynamic in the way that they are easily able to adapt and engage in new operation frameworks in order to improve their out turn and consumer satisfaction. Following the rise in education and exposure to the importance of mental health in the 21st century, many firms have made it their primary objective to improve their work place environment and culture in an attempt to heighten the overall wellness and productivity of their employees (Litchfield, Cooper, Hancock and Watt, 2016). However, despite these efforts, many wellness programs which have been implemented by firms have been unsuccessful, resulting in low returns for many businesses in the global economy (Frakt and Carroll, 2014).

So, what exactly are the current efforts being integrated by firms to create a healthy workplace environment and why have many of them been unsuccessful? In addition to this, is there even a relationship between a healthy working environment, wellness and greater success in the workforce?

Although these questions are limited by the fact that there are many coinciding factors which influence and individual’s wellness and a firm’s success, I will indulge myself into the knowledgeable web browser and formulate an answer to solve this wicked problem.

The Determinants of a “Good” Working Environment

Firstly, before I take the first initial step in uncovering the efforts being implemented by firms to enhance the quality of various working environments, I must first familiarise myself with what a good working environment actually is – especially in the context of an everyday worker.

In a study conducted by Dr Lindsay McMillan OAM (2019), over 1000 Australian workers were surveyed to identify the different perspectives of a workplace environment. According to the study, 86% of Australian employees believed that a good working environment was one which increased employee trust, satisfaction, engagement and loyalty. This was closely followed by 85% of Australian employees who also thought that a healthy workplace environment was one which proactively addressed stress (McMillan OAM, 2019). In contrast, physical activity at work was viewed as being the lowest priority for many employees, with only 66% of Australian workers viewing physical activity as a necessity for a healthy working environment (McMillan OAM, 2019).

Clearly, a good working environment is one which actively engages with its employees, making them feel valued in their given industry. Stress is another component which needs to be addressed by firms – highlighting the important role wellness programs play in many enterprises. However, although fitness may be seen as a key component for employers (McMillan OAM, 2019), it is not viewed as favourable by employees.

The Leap for Corporate Wellness: Johnson and Johnson

Johnson and Johnson, founded in 1886, is a multinational corporation which focuses on medical equipment and supplies (Forbes, 2019). As this corporation has a large employee base of 135,100 workers (Forbes, 2019), corporate wellness has become a large focus for this firm, with many wellbeing and health programs being integrated to try and improve the experience of its employees (Bartz, 2018) – even before the 21st century when the words workplace and wellness were viewed as being an oxymoron.

However, Johnson & Johnson had always been a trend setter and in 1978 the corporation introduced its first wellness program, called “LIVE FOR LIFE” (Isaac, 2016). This program was aimed at making Johnson and Johnson’s employees the healthiest in the world through providing on-site employee voluntary access to nutritional education, stress management techniques, behaviour modification tools and much more (Bartz, 2018) – underlining the corporation’s strong incentive to improve corporate health and wellbeing.

Overall, more than 50% of Johnson and Johnson’s employees actively participated in the program at their given headquarters with the positive influence of the program being published both internally and externally (Isaac, 2016). According to these publications, within the first 5 years of the program, Johnson and Johnson companies which had integrated the LIVE FOR LIFE program obtained hospitalisation costs which were one-third the cost of Johnson & Johnson companies which chose not to include the LIVE FOR LIFE program (Isaac, 2016).

This can be attributed to the program resulting in improvements in blood pressure, weight control, cholesterol levels, and smoking cessation within employees – according to sources (Isaac, 2016). Evidently, this program has played an important role in improve the health and wellbeing of many Johnson & Johnson employees.

In addition to the program being beneficial to employees, it has also yielded a significant return to the employers. As a result of this program, employee absenteeism decreased by 18% – this accompanied with a reduction in health care costs resulted in Johnson and Johnson achieving a 1.7:1 return on its initial investment on the program (Isaac, 2016). This suggests that the inclusion of LIVE FOR LIFE program did provide (and still does) an economic benefit to the firm, which in turn would have improved the firm’s success.

This eager effort by Johnson and Johnson to try and improve the satisfaction of its employees has continued to this date, with many more programs being introduced. One of these includes a two-day program called “Energy for Performance” which was recently introduced by Johnson and Johnson to try and improve the resilience and energy of its employees at work (Bartz, 2018). This was achieved through the program allowing employees to identify the most meaningful aspects of their life in which they would prioritise. Consequently, the program boosted the productivity of 91% of the program’s graduates, further enhancing the growth of the firm (Bartz, 2018). These graduates also experienced greater levels of satisfaction within the firm as they were less likely to leave the firm over a 6-year period (Bartz, 2018).

The Problem Associated with Wellness Programs

However, despite the success of Johnson & Johnson, wellness programs aren’t as basic and easy to implement as they seem, they are complex and diverse and need to be included carefully to ensure that they don’t do more harm than good.

This is addressed by Carl Cederström and André Spicer in their book titled, “The Wellness Syndrome”. As detailed by the book, many wellness programs are becoming an overwhelming pressure on employees which are not only failing to improve the wellbeing of employees in the workforce, but are also deteriorating their enjoyment of life as a whole (Poole, 2015).

According to Cederström and Spicer, this syndrome is created by employers over idealising the concept of wellness (Poole, 2015). This can be seen by firms going to extremes to find the perfect diet, forcing employees to give up smoking and making employees wear self-trackers to monitor their sleeping patterns and daily activity in the quest to improve corporate wellness (Poole, 2015).

This is not only intruding on the personal lives of employees; it is demoralising and creates a toxic environment for workers to operate in. If employees fail to comply with these health precautions, they are reinforced with the idea of them being “lazy” and “weak willed” (Poole, 2015).

Ironic. Wellness programs deteriorating wellness – but its true, and it can happen if firms don’t take the necessary steps required to ensure that their program best caters the needs of its employees.

Pepsi Case Study

PepsiCo is another company which has implemented many wellness initiatives to improve the health and lifestyle of its employees. In 2003, the company introduced two wellness programs: one which focused on lifestyle management, and one which focused on chronic illness management (Paladinahealth, 2015).

Over a 10-year period, thousands of PepsiCo employees were examined to determine the effectiveness of these individual programs on corporate health and wellbeing (Paladinahealth, 2015).

The chronic illness program recorded positive results with PepsiCo saving $3.78 for every $1 invested on healthcare costs (Paladinahealth, 2015). The participants in this program also greatly benefited by saving $136 per month, in addition to having their health care admissions decreasing by 29% (Paladinahealth, 2015). This indicates that this program was very effective at improving the health of participating employees.

However, the lifestyle program received negative results with there only being a small reduction in absenteeism and there being no significant effect on the level of savings (Begley, 2014). This reinforces the idea that programs which aim to adjust specific behaviours of employees (such as diet, exercise, smoking, etc) have little to no benefit on corporate health and wellbeing – as mentioned by Cederström and Spicer.

My Understanding

From the gathered research presented above, I believe that wellness programs do have a strong influence on the employee and the success of an organisation. However, this can be for the better or for the worse.

It all comes down to structure of the programs and their fundamental role in the company. For example, the wellness program LIVE FOR LIFE illustrated by Johnson and Johnson took a proactive approach in resolving stress at work. Stress regulation was a key aspect which needed to be addressed by employers to create a healthier workplace environment, and as a result the program proved successful and saved the company millions. Furthermore, instead of forcing their employees to change their lifestyle habits, Johnson and Johnson educated their employees to encourage them to quite smoking and engage in healthier eating – making it the employees’ own choice.

However, when the concept of choice was removed, wellness programs failed to obtain positive results. This was seen in PepsiCo’s lifestyle management program which made employees change many of their behavioural habits such as smoking, physical activity and more.

In saying this, a healthy working environment should correlate to greater success and wellness in today’s society. It all comes down to the key word, “communication.” I believe if firms actively and effectively communicate wither their employees, they will be able to address what is important and vital to create a good workplace environment. In doing so, the employees will feel valued in their given environment which will increase their level of trust and loyalty towards the firm. This will improve the employee’s wellness and contribution within their given industry.

References

1. Bartz, A. (2019). Johnson and Johnson. This Healthcare Company Is Determined to Have the Healthiest Employees in the World. https://www.jnj.com/innovation/how-johnson-johnson-is-improving-workplace-wellness-for-healthiest-employees
2. Begley, S. (2014). REUTERS. PepsiCo’s Workplace Wellness Program Fails the Bottom-Line Study. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wellness-workplace-idUSBREA0510R20140107
3. Isaac, F. (2016). Johnson and Johnson LIVE FOR LIFE Program: Now and Then. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11842975_Johnson_Johnson_Live_for_LifeR_program_Now_and_then
4. Forbes. (2019). #81 Johnson and Johnson. https://www.forbes.com/companies/johnson-johnson/#3d7b55254f91
5. Frakt, A, Carrol, A. (2014). The New York Times. Do Workplace Wellness Programs Work? Usually Not. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/upshot/do-workplace-wellness-programs-work-usually-not.html
6. Litchfield, P, Cooper, C. Hancock, C, Watt, P. (2016). NCBI. Work and Wellbeing in the 21st Century. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129275/