Role of Leaders in Shaping Organizational Culture

Management Principles

Organizational Culture – Development and Importance

Management Principles

Five Important Organizational Cultural Models

Management Principles

The Customer Satisfaction Model – Based on American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)

Marketing Management

Rumours in Business Organizations

Business Communication

Case Study: McDonald’s Entry into the Chinese Market

The history of the McDonald’s Corporation dates back to 1954 when a man by the name of Ray Kroc heard about Mac and Dick McDonald, two brothers who were running a burger and shakes joint in San Bernardino, California. Kroc paid the two brothers a visit and this visit culminated in a franchising agreement to use the McDonald’s name limitlessly. Seven years later and with more than one hundred and thirty McDonald’s restaurants across the United States, Ray Kroc bought the chain from the McDonald’s brothers for 2.7 million dollars. The growth of McDonald’s Corporation continued in the United States and soon Kroc set his eyes on markets away from home. Today, the McDonald’s Corporation is the leading fast-food chain globally, and owns the restaurants in different continents: South America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and even Africa. McDonald’s Entry into the Chinese Market Due to the diverse cultural beliefs and practices Continue reading

Abey Francis

Case Study: Fiat Automobiles Survival From Turbulent Times

Fiat is a manufacturer and a seller of the common Fiat brand vehicles based in Italy and with many sales branches around the world. It has been successful for many years in the production of its vehicles and has made a lot of returns from that. However, the company has faced a lot of challenges, especially the effects of the global financial crisis, factors that have caused it to undergo a recession and a great fall in its business resulting to very low returns. On the other hand, the company has undergone a lot of pressure from its competitors in Italy and also other car manufacturers from prominent countries like Germany and Japan and this has resulted to a lowered competitive advantage. All these factors have contributed to what has been referred in the vehicle business world as the fall of Fiat. In addition, the company suffered a lot of Continue reading

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Cultural Integration in Mergers and Acquisitions

First, it is necessary to understand why the field of cross-cultural differences is vital to business interactions. In many situations, it is beneficial for companies to merge. Some businesses are failing to perform on their own, but still possess resources that may be valuable for businesses in the same sphere. Other companies aim to expand to increase their growth and support the rising demand for their services. Overall, joint ventures and alliances happen to raise the value of the merging entities, whether this value is connected to the brands presence, technologies and other resources or economies’ scaling. Cross-border acquisition and merger can be motivated by these factors as well – companies often want to enter new markets, for which international collaboration is essential. Its unique challenge, however, is that the market the foreign company is entering is completely new to it in many aspects. Merger and acquisition (M&A) are processes Continue reading

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Case Study of FIAT: Deployment of Robotics in Manufacturing

Fiat was among the first companies to adopt a Post-Fordist system in production after its recovery from the 1970 oil crisis. The large-scale deployment of robotics in the production process of Fiat Company was the most significant move to cope with increased competition and demand. In 1972, the company initiated the adoption of FMS so that it could shift to flexible production methods from the Fordistic inflexible mass production systems. The move was considered as the first step towards discontinuity in management and organization involving the shift in planned goals and replacements of procedures supporting operations supervision. The Robogate technology was developed in-house by Fiat Company and used to create flexibility with enhanced product-mix flexibility. Product-mix flexibility is the conferred ability of an organization to produce different products sequentially using the same lines of production. As indicated, the shift from Fordist mass production systems enables a company to reduce tool specificity Continue reading

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Real-World Examples of Marketing Segmentation

While developing effective marketing strategies and plans, managers refer to segmenting the market in order to determine the areas in which the product or services will be proposed. The overall levels of segmentation include the mass market, the segments, niches, and individuals. The managers choose whether to compete within the mass market, the certain segment, the specific niche, or be oriented to individuals. When segments are selected, the managers focus on their characteristics and differences in order to address the chosen category directly. In their turn, the segments as groups of customers with specific needs and expectations in the market can be determined with the help of focusing on variables or differences of potential customers. The process of dividing the market into segments includes the focus on variables or characteristics of customers. Traditionally, the managers divide the market into segments while referring to such variables as behavioral, geographic, psychographic, and Continue reading

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US vs. Japanese Corporate Philosophy and Strategies Analysis

With the advent of the word ‘Americanization’, management ideas and practices started evolving and influencing other nations of the world. However, there still is no doubt that during the 1970s and 1980s, Japanese firms under ‘capitalism’ type of Japanese Management System achieved better performance than their American competitor, counterpart and teacher. Japanese firms differed characteristically from the latter in such areas as owner-manager relations, industrial relations, inter-firm relations and business-government relations. Ironically, from the start of the 1990s, just after the Japanese Asset Price Bubble (1986-1990) era, firms and capitalism in Japan deteriorated in their performance. They then again found themselves under the influence of the United States, this time they named it ‘Re-Americanization’. Initially the 1990s for the Japanese Management System was followed by the imitation of American business and capitalism which extended to all functions of Japanese firms and all aspects of capitalism. At the individual firm level, Continue reading

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