Staples-Nicole Damboise-Question #2

The organizational culture of the company has four parts, which are diversity, environment, community and ethics. Staples ensures that the workplace is diverse and accepts all races, age, and genders. They seek environmental excellence through providing products that are recyclable. Staples also helps the community by giving to charity. Lastly, Staples has a Code of Ethics that all employees need to follow, such as customer privacy and conflicts of interst.

Assignment #15- Apple/Napster Ques #3- Mike Dombrowski

I forgot to put my name in the title of the post below. I did the third question for the goup that is doing the Apple/Napster case. I just wanted to make sure it was clear since I forgot to put my name in the title of the post. Much apologies.

Assignment #15- Apple/Napster- Question #3

When looking at the case study, it can be seen that there are two main companies talked about and looked at. The first company mentioned was Napster. We all know about this company due to their prevelance in the news in the early part of the 2000s due to their legal woes. Well after some time, the company has risen again, this time in the legitamite nature and is running operational, abiding by all laws. The organizational structure that can be seen here in the new stages of Napster could be characterized as a "funcitonal structure". This is due to the fact that the first time around they were very small. Due to this they found themselves in many tight spots due to the fact that they did not have people to specialize in certain aspects of the company. This could have been a huge problem for why they got into such leagl trouble earlier in there inception because they did not have competent people looking out for the company in the legal area. Now that they are larger, they have specific individuals set aside for certain tasks so that the company runs well and has all of its bases covered. The second company that is talked about is Apple. We can see that Apple is a company that has the organizational structure that can best be summed up as a "product structure". This is so due to the fact that they offer an array of products. They focus their products, whether it be with the personal computer area or the ipod area, to the tastes of thier consumers and feedback they get from their target market. The production of different products makes them operate with different divisions of the larger company within its whole.

Pepsi and Coke- Eric Yoshikawa- #1

One of the ways both of these companies have been able to evaluate their performance is with the "pepsi/coke challenge". They ask people randomly to try both coke and pepsi, neither of which are labeled. One of the goals with this is to establish who has more consumers. Regardless of the outcome it helps because if pepsi isn't selling as well as cola but people prefer the taste over coke, it's something that they can hit on for their advertising. If it's already selling more then coke and people don't prefer it over coke, they can advertise that it's the best selling brand. From their the managers can compare the actual performannce against the established targets. If pepsi were to decide that they are spending more time making the product faster versus variation in quality they would start by making it flawless in production. This would change the difference in taste from each batch to making them all the same. This would make it so that testing would be more universal with little variations. Also it would make it so the consumer more willing to buying the product if religiously it would be the same. Finally they'd do more with research and development and diversification. One example you see with pepsi is advertising mountain dew to a younger generation versus pepsi. One example is snowboading events, you see mountain dew ads everywhere and almost never see pepsi ads. This is just one of a few examples how pepsi as well as coca cola market themselves

Daniel Wolski: Post 15 question 3

Toyota's Organizational structure by function is "product". Toyota as listened to to the customer and responded to their needs. Toyota's automotive products are one of the most expensive in the market, however the consumer is purchasing Toyota because they have focused on quality and listened to the costumer. In the 1950's Dr Edward Deming told U.S. automotive manufacturers they had to focus on quality, and he told them how to do it. they didn't listen, instead they relied on their laurels, and falled victim to a big ego. Deming went to Japan and taught Toyota and other Japanese manufactures about quality. they listened, and learned to listen to their costumers. while Ford and Chevy have continued to make gas guzzling eight cylinder trucks, Toyota was busy making fuel efficient cars like the Corolla and hybrids. Toyota's Cars last as well and offer features the costumer desire. Toyota Organizational structure by function is "product"

Senior Seminar- Assignment #15

This group blog must be completed by 7:00 AM on Thursday, December 6. Read chapter 9 and as a group answer all of the following questions about the company that you are doing your case study on. The first person in your group should do an original post, all subsequent entries from your group should be under COMMENTS to that person. Each person must answer a different question. You must identify the source you used in order to answer the question you selected. Label your post: The name of your company- your first and last name -and the number of the question you are answering.
(1) What strategic control systems are in place in your company?
(2) Describe your company's organizational culture.
(3) Is your company's organizational structure by function, geography, product, product-team, or multi-divisional?
(4) Is your company's structure tall or flat? How many levels exist in your company's structure?

Assignment #14- Ques 2- Mike Dombrowski

The most recent acquisition by Apple happened right before the original IPOD was introduced in October 2001. While developing the IPOD and licensing the software to run it, they learned that Toshiba was building a comparable hard drive that could hold over 1,000 songs. Apple quickly cut a deal with them allowing them exclusive rights to the drive for eighteen months.
The strategy was to prevent Toshiba from entering the market while being able to be the first to get their product out to the masses. This was a very intellligent move because they capitalized on the initial buyers and made large profits right from the beginning. This acquisition made a lot of sense and was a good idea for Apple in the long run.

Assignment #14~ Mallory Clynes

(1) Identify a strategic change your company has gone through in the last decade.

In 2003, Pepsi-Cola unveiled a new advertising campaign, "Pepsi. It's the Cola," whichis the brand's first major campaign shift since 1999. This new campaign highlighted the popular soft drink that goes with everything from food to fun. In 1999 Pepsi's campaign was, "The Joy of Cola," and in 2000 it was changed to, "The Joy of Pepsi." Also in 2003, Pepsi promoted, "Pepsi Play for a Billion" where they gave 1000 consumers the change to play for $1 billion on a live television show in The WB.

Assignment #14 (5) - Sandra Adams

(5) The core competencies of Toyota are customer first, people are the most valuable resource, continuous improvement, and shop floor focus.

Using the customer first and people are the most valuable resource are the best core competencies to use to decide which new business opportunities to pursue. Since the demand has been growing for fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars, Toyota decision to improve upon the hybrid car will only bring them towards more success. People are not able to afford gas guzzling SUVs and have developed a new found interest in the environment. By moving towards meeting those customer needs, Toyota will continue to be one of the most successful car manufacturer.

Assignment #14 - Danielle O'Neill

(3) What is the most recent strategic alliance your company has formed? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this alliance. Does it make sense?
The most recent strategic alliance that Sirius has formed was in December 2003, when Sirius signed a seven-year exclusive deal with the NFL to broadcast games in the 2005-2006 season. Sirius also signed a five-year deal with Howard Stern.
The most recent strategic alliance that XM has formed was in October 2004, when they signed an eleven-year $650 million deal with the MLB, giving XM exclusive rights to the satellite broadcast of MLB games beginning in 2005, including the World Series.
This makes sense for the companies because it justified the premium subscription price of its service for Sirius, and for XM it was a response to moves made by its competitor.

SENIOR SEMINAR- ASSIGNMENT #14

This group blog must be completed by 7:00 AM on Thursday, November 29th. Read chapter 8 and as a group answer all of the following questions about the company that you are doing your case study on. The first person in your group should do an original post, all subsequent entries from your group should be under COMMENTS to that person. Each group member must answer a different question.
(1) Identify a strategic change your company has gone through in the last decade.
(2) What is the most recent acquisition your company has made? Identify and evaluate the strategic rationale behind this acquisition. Does it make sense?
(3) What is the most recent strategic alliance your company has formed? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this alliance. Does it make sense?
(4) What is the most recent internal venture your company has undertaken? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this internal venture. Does it make sense?
(5) What are the current core competencies of your company? How could your company use these core competencies to decide which new business opportunities to pursue?

Thermo Electron- Question #1-Nicole Damboise

Thermo electron strategy created alot of value in regards to the company and its share holders, using an unusual diversification method. The companies sales went up an historic 3.6 million dollars through a numerous amounts of different products. This process happened very quickly and it created a large compound return average for its sharholders.

thermo Electron- #2- Eric Yoshikawa

While at first this strategy sounds very good, the idea of massing a bunch of companies together in a conglomerate. This however tends to do well for established companies. Such as GE owning GM and various other companies. Some argue if they have over extended themselves. Now back on the topic of Thermo Electron, more companies means more reports and earning statements. This means more money being spent. While this means that a few companies that aren't ass successful as other companies under Thermo Electron will bring them down. It also means that some of these companies will rush to produce products that might not be ready. Because whether you think it's true or not, they are competiting against each other. Take this for example, if one of the companies isn't doing as well as other companies there'll be more pressure to do atleast as well as that company. This will mean that the company will produce products that aren't quite ready for production. After all nobody wants to be financing the "black sheep" if you will. Buy having all of these companies under them, they are pushing companies to move faster then some of them really should be. Also as soon as Hatsopoulos stepped down as CEO in dropped about half of the companies it had aquired.

Thermo Electron- Question #2 Chad Schrepper

Although the success of Thermo Electron's diversfied strategy there are many drawbacks that they have encoutered as well. The complex strategy has a negative effect on share price, investors also complain that the strategy is to complicated. Having twenty-three subsidaries also means producing twenty-three annual reports and nintey-two quarterly reports, which has turned out to be a very costly process. Also having so many companies it spreads thier management and engineering talen very thin. Aurguably the biggest drawback is that if one of the subsidaries is not doing well, it effects the the whole company.

Question # 3 Danny Santana

The Thermo Electron strategy holds major drawbacks that beed to be assessed. When the company expaneded the parent company was losing track of the subsidiaries that were tangent with the company because there were too many subsidiaries. Rather then holding out and not going public most of the subsidiaries went public too early in the begining. This created more work for the parent company to keep up with overall. Thermo Electron could have used the strategy more efficiently if they would have invested time and thought in each of their companies. Because they did not do this it was hard to throw these the subsidiaries in the market and make them efficient on there own.

Thermo Electron- Question #1- Mallory Clynes

Thermo Electron was historically seen have having an unusual diversification strategy that created value for the company and its shareholders. They grew their sales over $3.6 billion, which also included power plants, artificial hearts, and laser hair removers. During the 1983-1997 time period, shareholders compound returns is averaged 28 percent a year.

CoCo Minott-#2

Because Thermo Electron chose to use a diversification strategy; problems occured quickly, and they were in every division. Thermo Eledctron should have established themselves with their main branch before even try to expand into different productions. It is nearly impossible to become successful on a different product/branch when the main one is not even successful and well known yet. Also by doing this Thermo Electron loses trust from their shareholders.

Thermo Electron - Question #3 John Garrity

The problems that occurred for Thermo Electron may be considered a downfall, but in comparison, shouldn’t degrade or invalidate the strategy that Mr. Hatsopoulos has created. Although rapid growth produced “premature” products per say and a complex corporate structure, the numbers say everything. Any large company are going to run into problems and downfalls in business, some more severe then others, but unless the numbers drastically change and the company’s success goes down the tube, the validity of the company shouldn’t be ruined by a few imperfections. Most of the problems due to the complex structure can be fixed or restructured with a little work. On the other hand, recalls and premature production needs to be relinquished because in the long run, there are no excuses for bad business. Bad business leads to more problems, and more problems pose a risk to the validity of the company.

Giardina #1

The Thermo Electron's unusual disversification strategy created value for the company and it's shareholders very quickly. Because they were so diverse into many different things, their sales were the first thing to grow and they did to 3.6 billion. If the company is making money then the stock is going to go up, making money for the shareholders.

Thermo Electron- Question #2 - Sandra Adams

The strategy used be Thermo Electron holds some major drawbacks. As the company expanded into various fields, the parent company was losing track of all the subsidiaries because there were too many too quickly. Rather than building a reputation for any of the subsidiaries almost all of them went public in the beginning, creating more work for the parent company to keep track of. Overall, Thermo Electron could have used this stragety more efficiently if they would have invested more time and thought into each of their companies rather than throwing them into the market to see how far it could be pushed.