Organizational downsizing is the conscious use of permanent personnel reductions in an attempt to improve efficiency and/or effectiveness. Downsizing is being regarded by management as one of the preferred routes to turning around declining organizations, cutting cost and improving organizational performance most often as a cost-cutting measure. Main Reasons for Organizational Downsizing Corporate downsizing has been the biggest fallout of the troubled times, the world is witnessing. As we continue our efforts to fight the global downturn, downsizing has become a stark reality. There are a number of reasons why a company downsizes its employee base. Merging of two or more firms: When a certain firm combines its operations with another firm and operates as a single entity, in order to stay in profit or expand the market reach, it is called a merger. In case of a merger, certain positions become redundant. The same work is done by two Continue reading
Business Strategies
Case Study: Wal-Marts Competitive Advantage
Wal-Mart’s competitive strategy is to dominate every sector where it does business. It measures success in terms of sales and dominance over competitors. Its strategy is to sell goods at low process, outsell competitors, and to expand. Generally, Wal-Mart does everything it can to win over competitors. A typical Wal-Mart model is to build more stores, make existing stores bigger, and to expand into other sectors of retail. Every step of the way, it strives to make money and dominate its competitors, to the point of putting some of them out of business. The corporate mission of Wal-Mart can be stated as follows: As Wal-Mart continues to grow into new areas and new mediums, our success will always be attributed to our culture. Whether you walk into a Wal-Mart store in your hometown or one across the country while you’re on vacation, you can always be assured you’re getting low prices and that genuine Continue reading
Why Firms Introduce New Products Into Markets?
Excess Capacity as a Reason for Expanding Product-line The presence of excess production capacity is, perhaps, the most important single factor leading to product-line diversification. Broadly conceived, excess capacity is said to exist when it would cost the multiple-product firm less to make and sell the new product than it would cost a new company set up to produce only that product. Excess capacity may occur for several reasons. It may be the result of an unduly over-optimistic estimated market for the firm’s products. In such a case, if anticipated level of demand is not forthcoming, the firm develops excess capacity. Excess capacity may be due to seasonal variations in demand also, the latter being a result of weather and custom, e.g., greeting cards, ice-cream, etc. Companies faced with seasonal demand for their products would certainly find it advisable to add to their product-line in off-season a new product to Continue reading
Case Study: Kraft’s Takeover of Cadbury
Cadbury’s origins date back to almost two centuries when it was founded by John Cadbury who started the business by selling cocoa and tea in Birmingham, UK. Later he expanded by starting a line of beverages after a merger with Indian Schweppes changing the company name to Cadbury Schweppes. Successful product developments and launches have enabled Cadbury to boast of an extensive confectionery line consisting of Cocoa Essence, Easter Eggs, Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Fingers, Dairy Milk, Bourneville Chocolate, Milk Tray, Flake Creme Egg, Crunchie, Picnic, Curly windy, Wispa boost, Twirl and Time Out. Kraft, on the other hand, is a US company about a century old, which started off as a door to door cheese business but expanded into other confectionery items through many takeovers previously such as Ritz Crackers, Nabisco (Oreos) and Phenix Cheese Corporation (Philadelphia Cheese) to achieve success. It is second in terms of sales and popularity Continue reading
The Effect of Organizational Culture on Decision Making
To define organizational culture, people should understand what culture means in a society. In a broad sense, culture is the summation of spiritual values and material values which was recognized and formed in the historical activities of the society. In a narrow sense, culture is the ideology and the organization, rules which matched with it. But the organizational culture is different from the culture in traditional meaning, and it is the result of effect from several elements such as the awareness, character, habit of the member in the organization and their scientific and cultural level. Organizational culture is the beliefs and values that are shared and it is based on the organization, and forming with the organization or dying with the organization, it exist no matter it has been presented. As a kind of culture which formed in a organization, organizational culture can be influenced by the managers, and that Continue reading
Mergers and Acquisitions – Synergies through Consolidation
Synergy implies a situation where the combined firm is more valuable than the sum of the individual combining firms. It is defined as ‘two plus two equal to five’ (2+2>4) phenomenon. Synergy refers to benefits other than those related to economies of scale. Operating economies are one form of synergy benefits. But apart from operating economies, synergy may also arise from enhanced managerial capabilities, creativity, innovativeness, R&D and market coverage capacity due to the complementarily of resources and skills and a widened horizon of opportunities. An under valued firm will be a target for acquisition by other firms. However, the fundamental motive for the acquiring firm to takeover a target firm may be the desire to increase the wealth of the shareholders of the acquiring firm. This is possible only if the value of the new firm is expected to be more than the sum of individual value of the Continue reading