Dell Followed A Hybrid Focus Strategy Commerce Essay

Dell Followed A Hybrid Focus Strategy Commerce Essay Porters theory of generic strategies, the Ansoff Matrix, the strategy clock and the TOWS Matrix are the important tools that are needed to produce strategic options (Proctor, 2000, p 37) (Williamson, et al, 2003, p 78) Based on Porters generic strategies, it can be said that Dell followed a hybrid focus strategy. A hybrid strategy is a combination of both differentiation and cost leadership strategy (Johnson et al, 2008, p.230). Dell is constantly structuring its business to be seen more than a PC business and is focusing on different areas of business such as security, business logistics and applications as well as minimising on its costs as far as possible. Based on the Ansoff matrix, Dell can be said to have adopted market development mainly to encourage growth. Selling directly to customers enable dell to enter market development phase by selling new products through new distribution channels. The strategy is based on selling existing products in new markets by reaping the majority of market share. The Ansoffs will be used to suggest the strategic direction for Dell. By investing in RD can be beneficial to Dell as it can continuously develop new products with the latest technology on the market before its competitors, thereby benefitting from first mover advantage. Its strong brand name can enable Dell to impose insurmountable barriers to its competitors. Moreover, it can expand its customer base and retain its customers. As discussed above, people also want the latest technology, thus there is high opportunity of growth in this market. However, focussing on RD will mean diverging from the direct sales model as innovative products necessitate various channels of distribution to ensure speedy delivery. As a result, RD can move Dell away from its mass customisation which is one of its core competencies. Dell can move into business consulting which may be a good source of revenue streams. The biggest opportunity which Dell can leverage is its efficient value chain. Its efficient value chain enabled it to achieve lot of success and therefore by moving into consulting can further strengthen its reputation. By entering into consulting, it will enter a new market and reach new customers which will help it expand its customer base. However, Dell only has specific knowledge but it is not equipped with the necessary expertise to enter into consulting and serve the market profitably which can tarnish the image of the business in the future. This strategy encourages Dell to return to its core competencies and calls for the company to get back to basics. It pushes the company to improve upon those competencies. The strategic direction can be market development and method here can be strategic alliance and joint ventures. The company can form alliances with consulting companies. This method is good in the sense that it does not require much investment. Dell can reinvigorate on its core competencies and further integrate in the market. Dell can strengthen its core competencies further by including more suppliers, improving its customer service, engaging in more marketing and promotion initiatives and expanding the turnkey solutions. By adopting this strategy, dell can improve its value chain, concentrate on the existing market and expand its customer base. Moreover, this strategy do not require much investment as Dell does not have to reinvent itself and product new products. Dell is dependent on Intel processor gives it limited choice to satisfy all its customers. Therefore, by adding more suppliers, Dell can offer more configuration choices to its customers. The growth of enterprise solutions and service businesses has led to a change in the revenue stream of the business in 2010. Dell therefore can leverage on that important asset by providing more predictable solutions to customers and hence strengthen its position in the market. By following this strategy, dell can continue to maintain its position in the market as a pioneer and differentiate itself from its competitors. The proposed method here can be Strategic Alliances and Organic Development. Therefore, by engaging into alliances, Dell can make use of the resources of its alliances to provide new goods and services to its customers more easily. Using strategic alliances in the existing market will enable Dell to improve and increase its retailing of products. Financial position Dells financial position shows a stellar performance which can be shown by its ratios. Revenues in May 2012 fell below the forecast due to high fall in sales as new technologies tablets and iPad have taken a larger share of the market. Therefore to overcome this gloomy outlook, Dell is diversifying into other line of business so as to remain competitive in the market. This clearly explains its recent waves of international mergers and acquisitions it has taken over the last two years (The New York Times, 2012). Dells profits slid by 47% in the third quarter of 2012. This is because Dells business is considered to be a static one which is tied to the sale of PCs, while consumers want the latest technology. This has led  to the continuous increase in demand for tablets and smartphones which have spurred growth in the market (Bloomberg businessweek, 2012). Dell has recently adopted storage as part of its business. Coupled with that, it is now aligning its storage portfolio to provide non-stop, fluid data solutions. There was an increase in revenue of 16% from 2010 to 2011 mainly due to an improvement in the economy. During a recession, people usually decrease their demand for luxury goods which clearly shows the decline for 2009. The growth of enterprise solutions and service businesses has led to a change in the revenue stream of the business in 2010. There was an increase in revenue from 14.3% in 2009 to 18.7% in 2011. Compared to the poor net income performance in 2010 due to a big fall in revenue, that of 2011 was pretty good. There has been an increase of 84% in net income in 2011 from 2010. This resulted from an increase of 1.6% and 2.5% in profit margin and ROA respectively. The improvement in growth can also be attributed to the increase involvement of Dell in service operation. As a result, Dell continues to invest a lot in its service aspect of business (Part 2, Item 7, Form 10-K, Dell Inc. 2011). Dell has touted an increase in growth mainly from its acquisitions. There was an increase in current assets by $4,776 billion from 2010. This resulted mainly from due to an increase in cash and cash equivalents which represented 4.4% of total assets. Cash and cash equivalents rose mainly due to an increase in revenue and a decrease in cash in investing activities. There was an improvement in fixed asset turnover from 24.3 times in 2010 to 31.5 times in 2011 which shows clearly that Dell has used its fixed assets more effectively to generate revenue. This represents a shift in their revenue streams (Part 1 2, Item 2 8, Form 10-K, Dell Inc. 2011). Both current ratio and quick ratio improved from 2010 to 2011 which shows that Dell managed its assets efficiently so as to maintain a good liquidity position. Due to a rise in retained profits in 2011, equity rise to $2billion. Equity rose from 28.9% in fiscal 2010 to 39.3% in fiscal 2011 mainly due to the purchase of shares and stock price variations. (Part 2, Item 8, Form 10-K, Dell Inc. 2011) Based on the BCG matrix, Dells PC can be classified as a cash cow. Its market continues to expand. To maintain its position as a cash cow, Dell has to come up with products to meet the needs and provide value to its customers. The star can be its server business and needs to be upgraded continuously so as to maintain its position. The question mark can be its service business and to turn it into a star, Dells has to increase its market share in that sector. GE matrix- dell PC can be said in the high segment as it has earned high growth in both the US and other countries by now. Its server business also has earned consistent growth till now. The service business is growing but not as much as that of server and PC business. This sector needs to be developed more so as to have a greater portion of its portfolio. Dells peripheral business which includes printers has significant growth in sales but is facing competition from its competitors hence placing it in the medium growth segment. Evaluating strategic options Strategic options can be evaluated by using assessment of Johnson Scholes (1999) who had put forward three criteria mainly suitability, feasibility and acceptability. Suitability takes into consideration whether the strategic direction chosen by the organisation fit the issues in which the organisation is operating and its appropriateness to the strategic positioning of the organisation, (Johnson Scholes, 2008). To evaluate the feasibility of the strategy, it is necessary to assess the capability of the business in terms of competencies. Concerning the market penetration, it can be said the strategy is feasible in terms of resource deployment. This is because Dell is not doing anything new. It already has a high market share in the industry and is just expanding its customer base. Thus, it does not need extra manpower. Also, by engaging into alliances it has the possibility to use the resources of its alliance. Product development- Focussing on RD to produce new innovative products require a lot of investment and new competencies. This can prove to be costly in the long run. Market development- Dell will have to hire more resources and even employ more staff to monitor the new business and also recruit expertise in this field. As a result, it can be costly. ACCEPTABILITY It is concerned with the future outcomes and it can be measured in terms of risk and return and impact on shareholders. After analysing the financial position of the company, it can be said that Dell has a good performance and though the market and product development needs sufficient investment, the company is well placed to undertake the option. Market penetration- Dell has a high position in the market and thus by adopting this strategy will not need much investment in terms of financial and human resources. After analysing Dells strengths and opportunities, it is found that Dell can adopt this strategy without much risk and can use the resources of its alliances to serve the new market Product development can be quite risky for Dell as it has to invest a lot on RD and also its competitors have already move ahead with innovative products. Hence, its products can fail thereby tarnish its image. Dells return on investment (5 yr avg) is 18.64 compared to that of the industry which is 14.96 (Reuters, 2012). This shows

Immigrants in Singapore

Name: Clara Soo Wen Lin (4) Class: 2E History Holiday SEQ Assignment Question 1(a) Immigrants came to early Singapore due to push factors such as famines and droughts as well as natural disasters and starvation, and the desire to seek protection and safety. India was overpopulated and the immigrants faced many droughts and natural disasters in their homeland. After droughts wiped out their crops and resulted in famine, many would be forced to find jobs in the city in order to earn a living to feed their families. However, jobs were scarce which caused many of them to seek employment outside of India. With the prospect of finding jobs outside, this would at least give them a chance to survive. Similarly in China, with famines and droughts being a common occurrence, accompanied by the shortage of fertile land for crop cultivation, a huge portion of the population who worked as labourers or farmers resulted in starving. Furthermore, there was much disorder and unrest in China as the people were trying to overthrow the corrupted Qing government, resulting in many Chinese seeking protection and safety outside China. On the coastal areas in the Malay Archipelago, pirate attacks were frequents; in war-torn areas in Sumatra, Java and Malaya, life was extremely unsafe, which was why many Malays were â€Å"pushed† to leave their homeland. Therefore, the first reason why immigrants came to early Singapore was because of push factors such as famines and droughts as well as natural disasters and starvation, and the desire to seek protection and safety. Pull factors which brought many immigrants to Singapore was because Singapore can provide more job and business opportunities as well as better living conditions, the free immigration policies and not to forget that Singapore was a free trading port. As news of the founding of Singapore spread to neighbouring countries and even the countries as far away as India and China, many traders and shippers were attracted to Singapore where they could enjoy freedom of trade, which meant that they did not have to pay any customs duties or taxes on goods they brought into, or out of, Singapore. Singapore also served as a efficient trading centre where the British traders could sell their goods to people throughout Southeast Asia. Large numbers of people from the Malay Archipelago, Southeast Asia, India, China and other parts of the world flocked to Singapore to trade or to look for work because of the free immigration policies which meant that the immigrants were allowed to come and go as they pleased. As there was no warfare in Singapore then, it provided the Malays with a peaceful and safe place to settle down into. In this manner, Singapore in the 19th century was like a magnet which attracted many immigrants due to the many pull factors such as free immigration policies, freedom of trade, more job and business opportunities as well as better living conditions. Question 1(b) I agree to a large extent that the success of Singapore as a prosperous trading centre depended solely on the contributions of the migrant workers who came to Singapore in the 19th century. To shape Singapore into what it is today – a successful and prosperous trading centre – was mainly due to the presence of trade activities and revenue earned. However, it did not depend on the immigrants solely as Farquhar and Raffles were key figures in solving the problems brought about by the migrant workers along with their contributions to Singapore. The Malays contributed to trade by bringing in straits produce like coffee, birds’ nests, spices and rice from the East Indies to Singapore. Straits produce are the products that are grown in the East Indies. These Straits produce helped to widen the variety of goods being traded between Singapore and other countries. Therefore, trade was enhanced. In the aspect of education, some Malays who were educated worked as journalists or teachers. One famous example is Munshi Abdullah who could speak many languages and also wrote books about the early Singapore. Malays were also expert boat-builders. Besides making boats for traders, they also served as sailors and officers on the ships. Others worked as policemen, fishermen and watchmen. The Chinese also made many contributions from middlemen to merchants and planters. Some Chinese businessmen acted as middlemen between the British and the non-English speaking traders. They bought straits produce from the Asians and sold them to the British. Most of the middlemen were Peranakans. Among them were Tan Kim Seng and Tan Tock Seng. Some Chinese were shopkeepers who sold daily needs like cloth, medicine and provisions. Hoo Ah Kay was a shopkeeper who supplied ships with bread and vegetables. He also owned a bakery and an accessories shop. He owned a large gambier plantation and he was the first businessman who produced cash crops in large amount. Other than the above mentioned, Chinese also served as skilled labourers like carpenters, barbers and goldsmiths. Those who were unskilled worked as hawkers, servants, coolies and rickshaw-pullers. In terms of business, North Indians became milkmen who sold milk to other Indians or Europeans. They reared cows, goat and buffaloes to get their milk. Others were shopkeepers who provided daily needs like food, cloth and laundry services. Besides these, The Indian Muslims served as moneychangers and also moneylenders. Lastly, we also have the Sikhs who were good policemen and watchmen because of their strength and body size. The thieves were scared of their Beards and turbans. Europeans had the knowledge of trade and commerce. They setup companies, which had connections with Europe with their capital. They sold the goods that were made in Europe and shipped the goods that they bought from Asia back to Europe. Among them were Alexander Guthrie and Edward Boustead. The European merchants gave their opinions and pointed out the weaknesses of the government here. Some of them volunteered to be unpaid judges. They helped to maintain law and order in this way. Even though the immigrants played a significant role in contributing to Singapore to aid her development, they also created many problems for the settlement. Singapore became a lawless society, where secret societies were rampant because many of the Chinese who voluntarily joined were lonely in a new settlement and sought for friendship, protection as well as help and assistance that they believed the secret societies could provide them with. These people committed many crimes, from gang robberies to obstruction to justice and even to the extent of murder. They were a powerful group of people as the inefficient police force was ill-equipped in the 1800s and they could not understand the language of the Chinese secret societies. This resulted in insecurities of the residents in Singapore and may result in traders doubting the security of Singapore and not coming here to trade. This would implicated our port prosperity and bring down our revenue earned. Other key figures such as Raffles and Farquhar also have to be credited for their share of contribution to the development of Singapore. Raffles drew up a Town Plan during his visit to Singapore in 1822 as he found that the settlement had grown in a most disorderly manner. The town was divided into different areas for government, business and residential. Different races also settled in different areas of town, which could help reduce conflict between the different races who practised different cultures. Farquhar, on the other hand, firstly helped to get the traders from the places nearby to come to Singapore and trade as not many people knew about the settlement in Singapore. He invited the immigrants from Malacca to come and trade and stationed an office at St. John’s Island to inform the trading ships passing by about the settlement in Singapore. Apart from setting a stable foundation for the trading port, he also took care of problems such as the lack of building materials, food, tools and other necessities, the pests that roamed all over the settlement and also tried to solve the problem of common occurrences of crimes and robberies by setting up a small police force. Therefore, in conclusion, I agree to a large extent that the success of Singapore as a prosperous trading centre depended solely on the contributions of the migrant workers . The migrant workers contributed in different areas, mainly building the settlement, promoting trade, working for the government and also serving the community. Their contributions went a long way in helping the people and improving their lives in the long run. Without the hark word of these migrant workers, the fact that Singapore became a successful port would not have been made possible. On the other hand, I would have to disagree that success of Singapore was only due to the immigrants' contributions. Other key figures such as Raffles and Farquhar played a significant role in guiding Singapore through, hand-in-hand with the immigrants.

Human Behavior in an Organization Essay

In an organization there are lots of factors to be considered for the company to achieve its goals and objective and succeed. These factors include communication, motivation, leadership skills, personal characteristics of employees, interaction between and among employees and teamwork. Communication is significant in transferring information because the information to be transferred must be precise and accurate to avoid miscommunication. Failure to communicate proper information might cause a negative long-term effect on the company. Furthermore, miscommunication may result to personal conflicts between members of an organization. Persons or employees in the organization must feel motivated to achieve the goals and objectives that should be met. This motivation may come from personal factors, such as for family and self-competence, or external factors, such as salaries or benefits are tied to performance of doing a job. Highly motivated members are the ones who mostly done their job efficiently. Management must motivate employees for them to do their jobs efficiently and effectively so as to lessen any probable negative impacts to the organization. There is always a person or a group of persons that will initiate any activities done by an organization and we usually call these people as leaders. A leader must be sensitive to feelings of others but not to the extent that it would prejudice any undertakings made by the group. We see different kinds of leaders, there are those who are autocratic or who don’t listen to what others has to say but there are also those that listens, hears and considers the point of view of others. Conflicts may arise in an organization primarily because of the personal characteristics of each employee that are not acceptable to others. This should not be done because everyone is different in his or her own way. Conflicts between employees would result to negative effects that would cause to fail to meet the objectives. These problems between members must be resolve to build a better relationship between them and to be able to prevent this problems to arise again in the future. In any activity that an organization should do, teamwork must always be present. This is very important to achieve the organization’s goals and objectives efficiently. In a team, each one must do their part to help achieve the goal and not help prejudice the activity. In a team, together everyone achieves more, which means that if members would just work together, all of the objectives, even the least important objective will be met. There are weaknesses and strengths inside a group and this must be taken into considerations, to eliminate these weaknesses and improve those strengths. Team building activities may be done by the organization to improve the relationship between and among members so as to have a team that works together for a common goal. Hence, goal congruence arises, which is very important factor that must exist inside the organization. Thus, proper communication, motivation, leadership skills, relationships between members and teamwork must exist within an organization. In this way, any goals and objectives of the organization will be met. As long as each one of the members do their parts well, nothing could go wrong and the organization will be successful in any activities they will undertake.

Gender, Race, And Class - 957 Words

In the All-New Volvo XC90 commercial the first words to appear on the screen is â€Å"What is Luxury?† In this commercial it appears that luxury can only be afforded by primarily white, rich males. The media in the United States has made a lot of progress towards showing gender and racial equality on TV but America still has a long way to go. As of 2015 white men still have a patriarchal ranking in media compared to women and minorities. This essay will be discussing how intersectionality, such as gender, race, and class, play a key part in gender roles in TV media today. Luxury is the main focus in Volvo Cars US’ commercial for their new Volvo XC90; but what does luxury mean? According to Merriam Webster Online, the definition of luxury is something that is expensive and not necessary (â€Å"Luxury†). But according to the All-New Volvo XC90 commercial, luxury signifies simplicity, a sanctuary, confidence, and safety. 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