Summary of Ethical Scenario Andrews is a sensor manufacturer in the market. While the company has been unable to develop a straightforward competitive advantage over the course of the past three years, the competitive landscape of the market has become a significant source of concern for the company’s leadership. There are other companies out there who produce better products, or are able to compete strictly based on price cuts. It came to the CEO’s attention that there is an opportunity for Andrews to shift a large portion of its production to an offshore location. This decision will not only allow Andrews to reduce its labour and material costs, but will also allow for improved distribution practices. When you are the smallest manufacturer …show more content…
The only reason Andrews seems to be doing well in the current round is because one of the major market player, Ferris, went bankrupt. It was easier to acquire a portion of Ferris’s usual sales and customers, and that has made Andrews more secure in terms of its cash position. However, this relatively profitable position will not be easily sustained. During some harder rounds, Andrews had to compromise on major R&D investments and marketing budgets to finance other important decisions. This placed the company in a serious disadvantage for the rounds to come. And as the CEO of the company wrote in the email exchange regarding the issue, if Andrews is unable to meet production goals at a cheaper price, it will be unable to compete with its competitors in the years to come. So this is where option 1 comes in. If there is an opportunity for Andrews to reduce costs, increase production to meet increased demand, then that should be quickly taken advantage of. It’s that simple. Connecting Content to Exhibit …show more content…
It will strictly follow the offshore labour laws. This was why Andrews decided to cut ties with the previous supplier. The risk of being associated with a supplier that violated labour laws would put Andrews under constant threat of legal problems and negative press. This condition would eliminate that risk to a great extent. 2. It will help Andrews reduce manufacturing costs and overall labour costs in the long-run. As acquiring a new supplier will take time and hinder manufacturing processes for a while, it will, ultimately, however, help Andrews reduce its costs once everything has settled down. The advantage of this offshore location is the lower labour costs and manufacturing costs. 3. In general, will help reduce the risk of getting into legal problems. As mentioned earlier, Andrews will be facing a profitability concern in the market. Competition is on a rise and the only way Andrews can compete in the market besides developing a competitive advantage in business ethics, would be to reduce costs. However, if Andrews continued its business operations with the previous supplier, there will definitely be more risk of legal issues as that supplier has a bad track
Cameron Douglas’s case could be a turning point in the US of the endless war on drugs. The 33 year old, son of the famous actor Michael Douglas has been serving a 5 year sentence with the court for the distribution and the possession of drugs. He had an additional 4.5 year term for the possession of Suboxone which it’s substances contains both combinations of buprenorphine (an opioid medication) and naloxone while being imprisoned. Though Douglas had never received any rehabilitation treatments for his addiction towards heroin during his imprisonment, the court judges still saw his continuing drug use during incarceration was his defiance. Addiction experts said to TIME magazine that drug addiction is often developed and built up by mental
Option 2 has long term sustainability. It involves a one term expense, and provides revenues for the foreseeable future.
Porter (1997) suggests in order to gain competitive advantages in the changing business environment, it is essential to design a generic strategy for the business: product differentiation or cost leadership. The competitive strategy is determined at round 2, when recognised our rivals held whole product profile which was the product differentiation strategy. To differentiate our strategy from rivals for competitive advantages, Digby designed to imply the cost
1) Albertson's has created some positive effects within it's value chain. Johnston has recognized that it is important to keep prices as low as possible. One thing he has done to achieve this is consolidate distribution centers. They are also using the web to coordinate shipments and reduce billing & invoicing costs. Albertson's has also upgraded several IT systems including its financial and human resource software. The use of RFID tags on product shipments has also helped to decrease their costs.
In the future, when other manufacturers are looking for a good distributor to do business with, the manufacturer might look at the distributor’s history of poor relationships with other manufacturers and customers. Since manufacturers do not want to conduct business with distributors who have a bad reputation, they will do business with another distributor, which will result in profit loss for the distributor with the bad reputation. For example, if there is a problem between Amazon and Dell, then Amazon might lose customers who were looking for Dell computers. This will also affect Dell, because customers might buy computers from other companies, resulting in losses for
... Additionally, the hurdles imposed by the government agencies will impact the cost of sourcing from China adversely and will have a negative impact on the profitability for the company.
The Newham Company is a publicly traded company that recently has had a change in executive management due to an inappropriate bonus structure based on company performance. As this type of bonus structure often leads to material misstatement of facts resulting in falsified financial reports, the new management at Newham has commissioned SNHU INC. to conduct an audit which assesses their risk of misstatement. The audit to follow will be broken down into three parts: Overall business risk, sample audit plan and a report of recommendations based audit results.
Shao, Benjamin B. M., and Julie Smith David. "The Impact of Offshore Outsourcing on IT
In general the customer bargaining power is low and therefore it raises the potential of market's profitability. Though, most of the companies provide "buy-backs" and price protection that lessens the chance to cash on moderately strong manufacturers position.
...y due to a water wastage allegation (). Another weakness is their premium pricing, which has competitors with lower prices eroding their market share, especially in times of economic downturn. Pricing has also proved to be a weakness in markets such as China.
This implies Primark is not rely on one particular supplier. The company is capable switch to another supplier easily if the costs increase. Hence, Primark can control the costs as well as improve its margins in the long term.
There are a variety of challenges that firms may face when attempting to be the best in their specified industry. Economic and political challenges can make it difficult for companies to maintain a competitive advantage. In addition to maintaining a competitive advantage, some firms also find difficulty in keeping its branding alive and by attracting customers as their strategies, products, and management change over the course of time. Industries such as the automotive industry, healthcare industry, retail industry, and many more experience a variety of challenges based on their competition. Firms must create successful strategies in order to maintain competitive with their competition and in order to gain advantages in their industry (Hitt, 2013).
For instance, Harley Davidson may be forced to change their marketing strategy due to the entrance of a new competitor into the market. Second, Harley Davidson has to learn new skills and technologies quickly. For example, technologies are changing rapidly, so it is crucial for Harley Davidson’s business plan to change or alter in order to keep up with innovation. Third, this organization has to effectively leverage its core competencies while competing with its competitors. This is, Flexibility is required for Harley Davidson to learn how to use primary value-chain activities and support functions in the way that allow the organization to produce their products at a lower cost with differentiated features compare to their competitors in the market
No company that falls behind the competition is guilty of standing completely still. But sometimes our efforts fail because of the level of commitment to change.
When Microsoft entered the video game console market, they were faced with a dilemma: whether to manufacture the Xbox themselves or outsource it to a third company. Microsoft ultimately chose to outsource the production to Flextronics. Flextronics’ 'industrial park' strategy is what allowed it to manage its supply chain, making the production of Xbox more efficient and cost effective. They also had factories around the world, which were all under the centralized information system, s they could shift the production from one country to another if necessary for optimal profitability.