Pkolino case study
Introduction
P’kolino’s story is all about passion for superior products and how they can change people’s lives. Founded by Antonio Turcos-Rivas and J.B Schneider, the Company’s goal is: to “make better products to improve play at home”. In the course of developing safe and quality products, implementing and marketing other strategies, P’kolino Company aims at improving children’s play thus , improving sales by $51million (Bygrave and Andrew, 2008). The Company’s goal was comprehended during their MBA’s study. During their study, the two entrepreneurs began a thorough research and development project with more than twenty international design students.
With constant partnership of a global network of designers and local
…show more content…
P’kolino Company believes that the most important differentiating gains would include the versatile product’s nature, increased functionality, and an upgraded educational value. In this perspective, the products versatile use and an enhanced functional design will be a learning experience for the children thus creating the focus of the company’s competitive advantage. In this context, the competitive advantage will allow P’kolino Company to find strong brand and a strong customer base.
Areas that need improvement
Pkolino Company should develop awareness as regards the positioning of its operations in future. The Company should be quite familiar with the high segment market since this may fall short of the expected target. In my opinion, when a company aims only at a specific segment, there is a great risk of buyers’ shortage for the given product due to fundamentals for instance high prices. According to Nassif et al. (2010), it is always beneficial for a Company to target a bigger segment for instance the low and average income earners. Therefore, P’kolino Company needs to invest more in terms of capital since it may need to spend huge finances at the early stages as compared to later stages. Additionally, if P’kolino Company fails to meet the targeted sales, it needs extra capital for the provision
Like many others who start out, BP Plc. was a small company struggling to succeed after experiencing almost two bankruptcies. B...
Because the business is so important to the Ivanovics, they should consider adapting the business to an organic organization and a
Robertson, David C. BRICK by BRICK: How Lego Rewrote the Rules of Innovation and Conquered the Global Toy Industry. First Edition. New York: Crown Publishing, Division of Random House, Inc., 2013. Print.
Build-A-Bear Workshop was an American toy retailer, which was founded by Maxine Clark in 1996 in St. Louis, Missouri. Build-A-Bear Workshop main served teddy beard and other stuffed animals, and accessories for teddy bears and other stuffed animals. According to professor Eisner, Korn, Baugher, and graduate student Vojtkova (2011), “Build-A-Bear Workshop was founded 13 years ago on a simple but powerful idea: to create a successful company with heart” (p. C259). In order to differentiate itself from other toy producers, Build-A-Bear Workshop served customers with interactive experience by “allowing its customers to make, personalize and customize stuffed animals od their choosing” (p. C262). As professor Eisner et al. (2011) concluded, “the company (Build-A-Bear) differentiated itself from the competition with marketing initiatives that facilitated stronger connections with its customers” (p. C262) In addition, Build-A-Bear Workshop exercised its focus strategy by narrowing its product lines. Build-A-Bear Workshop earned a big success in the past decades.
In an increasingly competitive market with strong rivals such as Reebok, Adidas, Nike’s latest strategy is offering consumers the shoes they desire. This is done by providing customers with the option of designing their own shoes. At Nikeid.c...
The vigorous schedule of practises every day and two to three games a week continued as the season progressed. The team got to visit new schools in the area for away games, and enjoyed unique experiences such as wearing old-fashioned “pinnies” in a game. Overall, the team got to bond and became very close, helping and teaching each other every step of the way. Although it was sometimes difficult to be committed or retain hope, the team’s amazing
It is also highly beneficial to use children as informants. This role allows children to share ideas and opinions with the design team acting as consultants during the product development and design process. This role enables children to contribute their ideas to the design process through interviews, questionnaires and focus groups which could prove invaluable in terms of design. This means that design ideas come from the collaboration of adults and children.
The high-risk, cyclical nature of our business demands a strong financial base. We must retain the capital resources to meet our current commitments and make substantial investments to develop new products and new technology for the future. This objective also requires contingency planning and
Obviously, financial establishments can endure breathtaking misfortunes notwithstanding when their risk management is top notch. They are, all things considered, in the matter of going out on a limb. At the point when risk management fails, be that as it may, it is in one of the many fundamental ways, almost every one of them exemplified in the present emergency. In some cases, the issue lies with the information or measures that risk directors depend on. At times it identifies with how they recognize and impart the risks an organization is presented to. Financial risk management is difficult to get right in the best of times.
One of the initial of most common reasons why designs and products fail is due to the lack of having a set product vision. Many designers often chase behind the factor of having a good feature for their product design and neglecting the main idea of having a set vision and strategic thinking. Also, another reason for a design to fail is the lack of learning for the culture of the product. A good design can be created w...
There is a range of criteria relevant for a decision of financing a new venture. To construct my list for the evaluation of a new company as an opportunity I have selected to refer to t...
Financial distress which results in bankruptcy are very common for businesses in today’s economy. According to CNN Money Fortune 500, “Last year marked the highest number of billon-dollar bankruptcies ever recorded. And corporate bankruptcies have continued at an elevated clip, with about twice the number of businesses filing for bankruptcies filing for bankruptcy protection in the 12 months ending June 2010, as they did during the same span of time in 2008, 2007, or 2006.” (Roane, 2010) It is very important for every financial manager to acknowledge that bankruptcy can be a reality for any company and financial managers have to know how to prevent it. Most all companies have debts and these debts are used for financial leverage, but they have to be closely monitored by the financial manager. Many monthly debts that companies are faced with are, making monthly payments to vendors, and paying employees. It is the financial managers to manage and monitor these debts, so that the debts don’t become more than the equity. (Ross, Westerfield, & Jordan, 2010)
Creativity, resourcefulness, inventiveness and flexibility are important to all children” and although children have opportunities to play on the playground or during gym at school, they don’t have the necessary conditions “within which they can find and create their own play”. Playgrounds were originally created to keep children off the street and out of trouble, however, playgrounds don’t offer much for children to increase their development, or socialize with diverse children, since they often attend parks that are close to their homes. Hart believes that this is a major issue and thinks that we should provide more “adventure playgrounds” in which “playworkers” provided several different materials and loose parts to let the children use their imagination and create their own adventures. Furthermore, Hart includes the fact that playgrounds do not offer much to children with special needs, and although they have created ramps for children with wheelchairs, these playgrounds do not offer developmental play to other children with special
In this article, it discusses creativity in the young children and how to promote it. As teachers in the classroom, there are cognitive skills goals that should be promoted inside the classroom such as color recognition, social behavior, and numeration skills. With all the time that is put into these cognitive skill goals, we intended to forget the importance of nurturing the children’s abilities to be creative. The power of creation can increase a child’s ability to have a want to learn and support their intellectual development. When defining creativity it focuses on the thought process which the article defined as the breaking up old ideas, making new connections, enlarging the limits of knowledge, the onset of wonderful ideas.
This article review forms part of a report, the intention of this literature is to review five articles namely; “Socially Responsive design: Thinking beyond the triple bottom line to socially responsive and sustainable product design” by Gavin Melles, Ian de Vere & Vanja Misic, published in 2011, CoDesign, Vol. 7, No. 2-4, “A “Social Model” of Design: Issues of Practice and Research” By Victor Margolin and Sylvia Margolin, published in 2002, MIT Press, Vol. 18, No.4, “Rethinking Design Policy in the Third World” by Sulfikar Amir, published in 2004, MIT Press, Vol. 20, No. 4, “Design for Children’s Behaviours in Daycare Playgrounds” By Nathan H. Perkins and George Antoniuk, published in 1999, Alexandrine Press, Vol. 25, No. 1, lastly “The Politics of the Artificial” By Victor Margolin, Published in 1995, MIT Press, Vol. 28, No. 5. By reviewing these articles this paper will expose the social responsibilities of a ‘product’ designer, by looking into the history and context of social design. This paper will further bring forth the “ideal” characteristics of a socially responsible ‘product’ designer, and look into participatory design as a methodology for the socially responsible design process.