Intel Company Analysis

Today, Intel is used in many personal computers and lab-tops. The company has made a brand for itself and has been able to sustain ranks among many notable competitors. Today, Intel holds greater than 80 percent of the microprocessors market because of the success of its Pentium chip (Semiconductor 1). This report contains information pertaining to the Intel Company from the beginning and up to 2001. As many computer chip companies Intel had battles being at the top of the competitor’s lists, as well as producing products worth individual attention. This report will give a background of the company, an industry analysis that will explain Intel’s top competitors in detail, a SWOT analysis, a financial analysis and will conclude with suggestions that can help the company grow further. The Intel Corporation began in 1968. Two men are named the founder’s of this company; Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore. Originally, Noyce and Moore wanted to name the company â€Å"Moore Noyce† after their names but realized it sounded like â€Å"more noise† and was not a suitable name for a computer chip company. The company was then named Intel for â€Å"integrated technology. The early focus of the company was on integrated circuit memory devices. One of the first tasks encountered by Intel was producing a DRAM (dynamic random access memory) with a lower price. In 1970, the 1103 was produced. The 1103 was the world’s first 1-kilobyte DRAM. This undercut prices and had increased performance while being smaller. By 1972 the 1103 was the bestselling semiconductor memory chip in the world and the first commercial computer available was the HP 9800 series. Intel was able to gain market share at this time and this allowed them to continue researching and developing new products. However, by 1978 Intel was a full generation behind the Japanese when it came to the 16K DRAM and by 1984 Intel’s total share in DRAMs was barely 1%. The EPROM was produced and it allowed easy programming and gave users the capability to erase memory with ultraviolet light. It was not until Intel decided to raise the prices of the EPROM technology that it made money and in 1984 the EPROM was Intel’s â€Å"money maker. † The microprocessor was invented in 1971 and at that time Intel did not see the potential to use it for personal computers. The 4004 microprocessor was primarily used in calculators but in 1974 the 8080 microprocessor became the standard and Intel became the Industry leader in 8- bit market (Intel 1). Then in 1980, Intel’s 8088 microprocessor was teamed with IBM’s first Personal Computer. This gave Intel a large competitive advantage. Grove stated: â€Å"The presence of IBM in the early ‘80s was crucial. By winning that contract, we won the whole industry design. † This led to the development of the 80386, the first 32-bit processor in 1985. The 386 was an instant success and at that time Intel also decided to sole-produce and stop sourcing to AMD. This led to an eight year legal battle that was eventually negotiated in 1995. To continue gaining competitive advantage Intel moved into other markets. In 1998 Intel begins moving into digital photography, video, networking equipment and Internet commerce markets by manufacturing special chips (Intel 1). However, by 2001 Intel announced it was going remain focused on microchips. At that time Intel had a clear competitive advantage over the microchip market. The SIC code for Intel is 3674 for semiconductors and related devices. The NAICS code is 334413 for semiconductor and related device manufacturing. The semiconductor industry is very cyclical. For instance, in the year 1995 sales grew 40% and were up to $150 billion but in 2001sales fell sharply to $139 billion (Semiconductor 1). In order for Intel to gain and maintain market share they needed to have unique success factors. There are many key success factors for Intel. Intel started with innovators. Noyce and Moore were able to take chances and risks that caused a very successful company. These two were also good managers. They made few mistakes and really took advantage of all their employees. They placed their employees as a top priority and stressed openness, innovativeness and responsibility (Carmichael 1). Intel Corporations top competitors are Texas Instruments, AMD, and Motorola. Texas Instrument started in 1930 by Dr. Clarence Karcher and Eugene McDermott. It started as a Geophysical service that had a unique way of using seismology to explore oil. In order to keep their equipment out of sight from competitors they hired J. Erik Johnson. The company made headway by teaming with the military and in 1961 TI invents the first computer with a silicon integrated base for the Airforce. Then, in 1967 TI invented the first hand-held calculator. Texas instruments have a variety of products from clocks to digital signal processors. Texas Instrument’s main competitive advantage over Intel is calculators. While Intel’s focus was personal computers, Texas Instruments was dominating calculators and the education campaign. AMD Corporation is a company similar to Intel. During the early years AMD and Intel worked together to produce quality products. AMD began in 1969 by founder Jerry Sanders. In 1982, IBM had AMD sign as a second source to Intel for their manufacturing (AMD 1). It was clear that these companies were competing to have the competitive advantage over each other. Another semiconductor company in the industry is Motorola. Motorola began in the 1920s by Paul Galvin. In 1993 Motorola was ranked third of the world’s semiconductor manufacturers (Semiconductor 1). During the early years Motorola had a communication focus. There first product was a battery eliminator that allowed customer’s to use radios without batteries. They began developing pagers and cell phones and their six sigma quality allowed for good competitive advantage. The five forces model helps to draw conclusions about the entire industry. For threats of new entrance the condition is low. In the semiconductor business many companies have patented products. The products produced in this industry are based on innovation. These patents will make it hard for a new entrant to join the industry. Another reason the threat of a new entrant is low in this industry is the asset specificity. This industry requires highly specialized technology and most potential entrants will be reluctant to acquire these specialized assets. For these reasons the threat of new entrants in this industry is low. For bargaining power of suppliers the condition is high. The condition is high because there is a significant cost to switch suppliers. An example of this is Intel’s relationship with PC manufacturers. Intel cannot switch manufacturers without expecting a high cost. The bargaining power of customers is associated with the impact that customer’s have on a producing industry. In the industry of Intel the power of customer’s is medium to low. In this industry the producer’s supply a critical portion of buyer’s input. Intel is the producer in this instance. They are supplying a crucial piece to the buyer and the buyer needs to be willing to pay the price for the piece of equipment. However, to have a competitive advantage in this industry there needs to be some bargaining power to the customers. Maintaining a reasonable price compared to other competitors is very important so the buyer’s keep coming back. In any industry there is going to be a threat of substitutes. In the industry of Intel the threat of substitutes is medium. Competitors in this industry are always going to try and invent the best processor that all individuals will eventually need. However, because of the number of patents and copyrights in this industry substituting other firm inventions become difficult. The last condition facing industries according to the five forces model is rivalry. In this industry the rivalry condition is high. There are many reasons it can be said that the rivalry is high in this industry. For one, the exit barriers are high. Even if the firm is unprofitable at a certain time the cost to exit the industry forces the firm to compete and stay in the industry. Second, high fixed costs in this industry intensify rivalry. The fight for market share in this industry is high because firms must fight to sell the large quantities in production. Another reason of high rivalry in this industry is the number of firms. With the large number of firms competing the rivalry increases because each firm wants to gain market share. Intel as a company can be looked at more in depth by a SWOT analysis. This analysis focuses on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the company. Intel has many strengths. One strength is their strong market position and brand name. The company started out with nothing and has become one of the best microprocessor companies. Advanced technology capabilities are also strength to the Intel Company. Without these advance technologies Intel would not be a successful company. The innovative technologies are at the core of the company. Another strength of Intel is their strategic alliances and partnerships. â€Å"The company has partnerships with major players including Asustek Computer, Comstar, Cisco, Fujitsu, IBM, Microsoft, Micron Technology, Sun Microsystems, Sprint,Verizon, and Yahoo! (Datamonitor). These partnership have enabled Intel to produce very significant projects. Also, partnering limits competition in the market. Without worrying about what the other company is going to come out with next, partnering allows for both companies to work together to come up with a great product Some weaknesses of the Intel company include their lack of customer concentration. Intel is a micro processing manufacturing comp any so the number of customer’s consuming the products is low. Intel has high dependence on these customers which reduces bargaining power. Not being able to reduce prices quickly can also hurt Intel. With Intel, reducing prices for customer’s quickly could hurt other areas of production which could lead to dissatisfaction in other areas. The response to customers is seen as weakness because in order to have a competitor advantage appealing to the customer is crucial. There are many opportunities for Intel as a company. Proposing acquisitions could broaden Intel’s portfolio and help them gain competitive advantage in the market. Intel could also grow in the global and PC market. â€Å"Intel offers products including microprocessors and related chipsets designed for the notebook and netbook market segments. Moreover, the company's Atom processor for these segments is very prominent with growing demand. Growing PC market will contribute to steady revenue flows for the company in near term (Datamonitor 11). † The last part of the SWOT analysis is the threats a company has. Increasing competition is a threat to Intel. When Intel’s competitors succeed in producing something a customer wants before them, Intel could run the risk of losing market share or position. No company wants to lose market share to another competitor. In Intel’s industry there is always a threat that another company will produce something at greater speed. Another threat to Intel is litigations and the regulatory commission. In the past Intel was investigated for alleged unfair business transactions, and alleged security failure. Future occurrences of these event will harm Intel’s reputation and investor reputation. The financial ratios and graphs can be found on the attached pages. The first analysis to look at is profitability. The net margin was used in calculating these numbers. By the graph you can see that Intel’s margin was the most profitable in the time periods 1999-2001. When a company has a high profit margin it means that they are selling their products at higher premiums. The graph shows that Intel sold its products at the highest premium. The next analysis estimates liquidity. Liquidity is the ability for a company to be able to meet there near term obligations. The current ratio was used in calculating these numbers. A firm wants a current ratio greater than one. If a firm has a current ratio greater than one it means that they are able to satisfy their near term liabilities. If a firm has a current ratio less than one it means the firm could have a liquidity issue. The graph shows all the companies were able to maintain a liquidity higher than one except Motorola in 2000. The next financial analysis was looking at leverage. The debt-to-equity ratio was used to determine how leveraged Intel and the competitor companies were. The debt-to-equity compares the companies liabilities to their equity. Companies want to have a lower percentage because that means they are using lower leverage and have a stronger equity position. From the graph it is apparent that Intel has the best leverage because of the lower percentage rates. The results shows that Motorola has a very low equity position because there liabilities outweigh there equities. The other two companies, AMD and Texas Instruments seem to be decreasing there liability numbers over time and in the coming years may have a better equity position. The last financial analysis estimate efficiency. The inventory turnover ratio was used to estimate these numbers. The inventory ratio tells you how often a company moves or sells inventory. To predict if a company has a good inventory turnover it is helpful to look at competitor’s results. In the graph included in the attachments, it can be observed that in 1999 and 2000 Intel had the second highest inventory turnover. This means that it took longer for Intel to sell inventories than Texas Instruments or Motorola at that time. However, in the year 2001 it had the lowest inventory turnover. In order to obtain a long lasting company these recommendations could help the company. Some immediate recommendations that should take place in 90 days or less could be to obtain ideas from employees to improve the company or how to gain competitive advantage. Listening to individuals that work for the company may help gain new ideas. Intel prides itself on the innovativeness their employees and it is important to give them a say in how they think the company is doing or where they think it can improve. Another immediate recommendation is a new marketing campaign to seek computer users to switch to Intel processors as opposed to competitors. I think it is important for consumer’s to understand the difference between core processors (such as Intel and AMD) not just the difference in the actual computer (like Dell and Apple). The average American does not know the difference and educating these individuals will help Intel gain a competitor advantage. Short term recommendations could include a price-reducing analysis. If the company could find ways to lower the prices of manufacturing they can gain competitive advantage. Also a short-term recommendation could be to research more about the cellular and wireless industry to see if it would be worth it to the company to branch out further form micro processors. Long term recommendations expand industry further not just for computer but gain market share in cellular and wireless devices. Intel has been the leader of microprocessors for many years. If they can use their knowledge Intel could expand .

Requiment Essay

Healthcare United aims to be the number one provider of Healthcare professionals in Australia. Healthcare United is an organisation that currently employs 1,500 Healthcare professionals with two sites, in Victoria and NSW and seeks to expand its operations and open another office in Hobart. As an organisation our vision is to provide: The best qualified and trained human resources available for clients. Up-to-date technology in all services for both clients and staffs. Innovative best practices and procedures from both inside and outside the organisation. Best facilities and procedures in a competitive environment. To address the future needs of organisation, Healthcare United aims to recruit a future 500 or the best possible healthcare professionals available, in three stages, over the next five years. 2. Executive Summary Healthcare United is a healthcare provider and currently employs 1,500 Healthcare professionals with two sites, in Victoria and NSW. They recently developed a new strategic plan that involves opening another office at Hobart. Part of their HR plan is to employ 500 workers in three stages. An analysis and review of Healthcare United’s 2000 and newly developed 2010 policies and procedures for recruitment and selection have been conducted in this report. Conclusions have been made from the comparison between the 2000 Healthcare United recruitment and selection guidelines and the newly developed 2010 Healthcare United recruitment and selection policy and relevant legislation. Recommendations have been made for the changes necessary to improve procedures and the overall process of Healthcare United’s recruitment and selection policies and procedures, based on current research. 3. Purpose of Report The purpose of this report is to review analysis and compare Healthcare United recruitment and selection policies and procedures for the year 2000 and 2010 for the following 5 key areas: Timeframes Personnel involved Documentation Training Monitoring and evaluation Conclusions have been made from the comparison between the 2000 and the newly developed 2010 recruitment and selection policies and procedures. Recommendations have been made for changes to the 2010 policies and procedures to improve the newly developed recruitment and selection policies and procedures at Healthcare United. 4. Analysis and Review: Healthcare United 2000 and 2010 Recruitment and Selection Policies and Procedures The following is the analysis and review of 2000 and 2010 recruitment and selection policies and procedures: Key Area 2000 2010 Timeframe The whole selection process from: analyse the vacant position position description lodge an advertisement short-list applicants interview preparation interview applicants reference checks Total: 35 to 51 days The whole selection process from: analyse the vacant position position description lodge an advertisement short-list applicants interview preparation interview applicants reference checks Total: 14 to 21 days maximum. Personnel Involved HR department will assume major responsibility for the recruitment and selection of staff, the training of required personnel and supporting documentation. Managers will support the managers in role. Managers will assume major responsibility for the recruitment and selection of staff, the training of required personnel and supporting documentation. HR department will support the managers in role. Documentation All vacant and new positions will be advertised internally and externally for ten working days unless special exemptions apply and be advertised online and in leading national newspaper. All positions must first be advertised internally for a minimum of ten working days in the HU newsletter before being advertised externally for a period of ten working days. Training HR department will hold the training for all new employees. Manager will hold the training for all new employees. Monitoring and Evaluation HR department will monitor and evaluate each new employee about their work performance. Managers will monitor and evaluate each new employee and report it to HR department about their work performance. It can be noted from both the 2000 and 2010 Healthcare United’s recruitment and selection policy and procedures make no reference to all relevant legislation for the recruitment and selection processes. However 2010 policy and procedures briefly mention that Healthcare United is an equal employment opportunity (EEO) employer. 5. Conclusions and Recommendations 5. 1 Conclusions It can be concluded from the analysis and review of 2000 ; 2010 Healthcare United policies and procedures for recruitment and selection processes that 2010 policies and procedures are superior to those of 2000 in all key areas in term of efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment and selection processes. For example, 2010 policy and procedure envisage a timeframe of maximum 3 weeks which is for efficient in selecting the best candidate when compared to the 2000 policy and procedures which specify selection processes requiring 35-51 days. Also, 2000 policy and procedure require participant of a large number of HR personnel when compare to 2010 where only the department managers are principally involved with the HR a support role only at all stages of recruitment and selection processes. 5. 2 Recommendations It is recommended that the newly develop 2010 policies and procedures for recruitment and selection should be adopted by Healthcare United for its recruitment and selection processes for future employment needs. However, the 2010 policies and procedures should include the provisions of legislative Acts, such as Anti- discrimination and the latest individual relation laws and regulations in addition to the EEO laws already included for the recruitment and selection processes.

Yahoo – Strategic Management Analysis

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Yahoo! Inc. , over its journey of almost 17 years has become the world’s largest online network integrated services provider with users exceeding 500 million in numbers worldwide (Yahoo FAQ, 2012). It has a presence in more than twenty markets and regions across the globe and is best known for its search engine and host of other services like finance, e-mail, advertising and social media. Yahoo! Inc. was started as a personal website directory by two doctorate candidates at Stanford University named David Filo and Jerry Yang.Filo and Yang realized the potential of generating revenue from their web directory by allowing companies to advertise their products on their online directory. Soon, Yahoo was notable enough to gain the attention of Sequoia capital, a venture capital firm. Sequoia provided much needed capital to Yahoo and Tim Koogle, a Motorola executive was hired as Yahoo’s Chief Executive Officer. Koogle’s excellent management skills and vision took Yahoo to the new heights of success i. . Yahoo! Inc. ’s stock price rose from $5 a share to almost $244 a share in 1999 (Jones, 2007) However, despite the leadership that the company enjoyed in its initial years, the company over the past years seems be losing market share to its arch rival Google Inc. Google has been outdoing Yahoo for the past many years now, gaining market share and increasing its customer base manifolds. Over the course of past few years, Yahoo! Inc. ade a slew of changes in its objectives, business model and to its external, internal environment and strategy to shore up its performance and regain lost ground to its main competitor Google. Herein, we shall take a close look at some of such factors through defining the company’s mandate, internal analysis as well as external analysis. INTRODUCTION The company under consideration Yahoo! Inc. (referred to hereinafter as â€Å"Yahoo†) is one of the world’s largest online netwo rk integrated services provider with a combined user base in excess of 500 million.Yahoo provides a whole host of network based services, however over its existence of past 17 years, many such similar service providers have shored up especially after the dot com boom. Some of these new players took the path of specializing in a particular form of service while others brought a whole gamut of new services with the old ones. World Wide Web has grown exponentially over the past years giving rise to the intense rivalry between companies involved. This intense rivalry especially with the likes of Google is one of the biggest challenges for Yahoo.In this case study, we try to first understand the backdrop in which the company is operating including its mission and vision for the future, its ultimate goals and philosophy regarding its business, its business model, external analysis based on Porter’s five forces model and finally internal analysis based on distinctive competencies, c ompetitive advantage and profitability. This document is prepared based on the information provided in the case, â€Å"Yahoo† (Jones, 2007) as well as numerous external sources such as Yahoo’s website and its annual reports circa 2011. COMPANY OVERVIEWYahoo was incorporated as an Internet service provider that would serve both the users and the businesses globally. Yahoo was founded by two Stanford PhD candidates in January 1994 named Jerry Yang and David Filo. However, today Yahoo has become one of the world’s largest global online network integrated services provider. Yahoo today has a user base of 500 million per month. It has a presence in more than 30 countries worldwide and provides services in more than twenty different languages. The company presently operates out of Sunnyvale, California in the United States.Yahoo first went public on the NASDAQ (YHOO) in the April of 1996. The stock had opened for $ 13. 00 per share of the company and by the very dayâ €™s end; it had reached a closing of $ 33. 00 per share (Yahoo Overview, 2012). In Dec 1999 the company was also added to the S&P 500 index. Recently, in early 2012, Yahoo had appointed Scott Thompson as the new CEO who was then replaced by Marissa Mayer in the month of May (Perez, 2012). Also in June 2012, the company also hired the former director at Google, Michael Barrett, as its Chief Revenue Officer.In April 2012, the company announced a cut of about 14 % of its workforce. This was expected to save the company around $ 375 million annually and is scheduled to be completed by end of this year (Liedtke, 2012). MANDATE The mandate of a company sheds light on why it exists, what it hopes to achieve in reference to the expectations of the stakeholders. Yahoo changed it mission statement from just â€Å"focusing on being a search portal† to â€Å"want to connect people to their passion, communities and world’s knowledge† (Baker, 2007).Yahoo’s mission Statement refers to the fact that the company envisages to achieve two major objectives; first one is to provide personal digital experience to their customers so that they remain happy doing things they like especially in the web and secondly to provide a unique way to the advertiser to connect to the consumers and help to build their business (Yahoo FAQ, 2012). In simple terms, as Yahoo enables people to connect with their passion in various fields i. e. sports, music etc. , it will in turn provide Yahoo with an excellent opportunity to generate advertising revenue from music and sports companies etc.The core values of the company provide a sense of direction that the company adheres to and the way it is going to do it, and the goals it wishes to achieve via the same. The company on its website has outlined six Core values that drive the company forward. These are namely (Yahoo Values, 2004). a. Excellence: The Company mentions of it always seeking quality and knowing that the suc cess should never be taken for granted and hence learn from own mistakes. b. Innovation: The Company believes in creativity and is ready to adapt to change in market trends and respond with calculated and responsible steps. c.Customer Fixation: The Company is always looking to maintain the trust of the customers and respond to the customers need and try to exceed them. d. Teamwork: The Company believes in and tries to encourage the best of the ideas from the entire organization and to foster collaboration and yet maintain individual accountability. e. Community: The Company seeks to serve both communities globally and the Internet Community as a whole in general. f. Fun: The Company also possesses a sense of humour and believe that the same is essential to the success of the company and also do appreciate and celebrate their achievement.From the aforementioned Core Values and the present scenario of the company, it seems Yahoo’s main challenge is keep up with its two very imp ortant core values namely Innovation and Customer Fixation which are integral for it to be the market leader in web portal industry. The main stakeholders of Yahoo are; its stockholders that invest their capital in the company, customers that use Yahoo’s web portal, advertisers that market their products through Yahoo’s online services and employees who provide it intellectual capacity leading to the creation of innovative new online products and services.Yahoo’s employees want a fair, ethical treatment and a stable job, advertisers expect to connect to their market segment by advertising on Yahoo, customers want enjoyable and innovative products that make their daily life easier and most importantly stock holders have an expectation that Yahoo will pursue strategies that increase company’s revenue and profitability maximizing shareholder value. EXTERNAL ANALYSIS COMPETITIVE FORCESYahoo operates in â€Å"the Internet products, services, and content marke ts, which are highly competitive and characterized by rapid change, emerging and converging technologies, and increasing competition† and that their most significant competition is from â€Å"Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and AOL (Yahoo 10K, 2011). Yahoo is a part of web portal industry where revenue generation is dependent on online advertising which in turn requires a large number of user base to generate any significant revenue.Advertisers prefer to advertise their products through web portals that have a large user base and offer products and tools which help them reach their target audience. In web portal industry, degree of rivalry amongst competitors is quite high, competitors compete aggressively against each other through innovative new product offerings and/or by lowering prices for advertising but Product differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult due to the fact that over the years industry has gone through consolidation and main players such as Google, Yah oo, MSN etc. ave gained a significant amount of market share creating an oligopoly. Industry has entered a mature stage in the western hemisphere such as Europe and North America but a lot of potential is available in emerging markets of Asia and South America where it is in growth stage. Due to the nature of internet, entry in to the web portal industry is relatively easy but based on the amount of capital, innovative skills and technological knowledge required to attract and maintain a large user base in the web portal industry, the threat of new entrants that can compete directly with Yahoo is quite low.Yahoo does charge some fees for certain premium services but generally its main services such as email and search are free of cost which is common amongst competitors in web portal industry. The range of services offered in web portal at little or no cost means that switching cost for users is quite low. Buyers also include those advertisers who would buy ad space on the website. Even though Yahoo’s revenue stream is not concentrated at any individual advertiser or user but low switching costs for users combined with the intense rivalry in the industry to gain advertisers puts bargaining power of the buyers at medium.Yahoo’s search engine essentially is a mechanism that provides users with an ability to search through content present on the internet. This content is freely available on the internet for Yahoo to collect and categories hence supplier power for Yahoo’s search engine is quite low. Web portal industry in which Yahoo operates does not have a lot of substitutes. Some possible substitutes for Yahoo’s products and services are; postal service is substitute of Yahoo’s e-mail service, financial newspapers are a substitute for Yahoo’s financial section, etc. but most importantly there are no efficient substitutes for search engines on web portal industry in both online or offline world. Because of the lack of ef ficiency of substitutes to products and services offered by web portal industry, the threat of substitutes is low. Recently Web portal industry has gained a possible complementor in the form of latest smart phones with high speed mobile internet access which gives user an ability to be online at any place at any given time. Smart phone technology combined with the web portal industry gives both parties involved a better opportunity to satisfy customer demands.MACRO ENVIRONMENT Aforementioned analysis was based on Porter’s five forces model which is subject to macro-environment. We shall now analyse different forces in the macro-environment. Economic conditions might affect Yahoo as it derives most of its revenue from businesses and individuals who advertise their products and services on the internet. Any slump in the economic growth may lead to a reduction in advertising budget of businesses which will eventually affect Yahoo. In the emerging markets such as those in Asia an d South America, Yahoo is presented with an excellent opportunity to expand its business.Along with the opportunity, Yahoo may also face stiff competition in emerging markets such as China where local competitors have gained considerable market share i. e. Baidu, Inc. in China has 63% of the market share and is Yahoo’s main competitor in that region (Barboza, 2010). Political and legal forces tend to affect businesses operating in the web portal industry especially in the emerging markets. Regulations on the internet service providers generally vary from country to country i. e. in certain countries local providers enjoy special protection through regulations giving them competitive advantage over Yahoo.Yahoo was successfully sued in France for its failure to keep Nazi memorabilia off its Web pages as it is considered a crime in France (Claburn, 2006) and in 2010 Google pulled out of China after failing to negotiate with Chinese government (Carlson, 2010). Internet is a rapid ly growing industry, and with low barriers to entry and low switching costs, technological forces heavily influence Yahoo. With the advent of new technologies, competition and rivalry between players in web portal industry is likely to be more intense driving down revenues as a result.Development in technology may give rise to newer forms of advertising media which can potentially take away revenue from Yahoo. Yahoo mainly operates in the online world and number of users with access to internet is growing rapidly and user base in the developed countries is very well spread out across all demographics. More and more people in the developing countries are getting access to the internet which is likely an opportunity for Yahoo. INTERNAL ANALYSIS We shall now discuss the internal environment of the company and how can it have any sort of material impact on the performance of the company.The internal Analysis of the company would include the distinctive competencies of the company, the c ompetitive advantage and the profitability of the company. The first and foremost distinctive competency of the company is the ability to enable people relate to their passion. This is as per Yahoo’s mission statement and is also reflective in the product portfolio. The company is probably the leader in the industry in terms of the number of services and products that the company offers. This range of product offering has not been observed to be present with the other competitors i. e. Flickr, a omprehensive imaging database, Yahoo Finance provides accurate financial Data in almost real time, etc. The second distinctive competency of the company is the brand name of the company, which has helped it retain its users despite its consistent problem in bringing new innovative products like its competitors Google and Facebook. The third and most important is the efficiency of Yahoo marketing services and its ability to attract customers and publishers. Since its beginning the busi ness model of Yahoo has been heavily reliant on contextual advertising and offering premium services.And this segment of business of Yahoo has still kept it in business. And not to forget the next competency of the company is its famous search and portal. Though the search algorithm used by the company has gradually been updated to the changing demographics of the business, but still some work needs to be done on it to make it a sheer strength for the company. Yahoo still possesses some competitive advantage as compared to its rivals. Firstly, Yahoo’s directory is very well-structured and authenticated business library and it can be developed and customized to act as a new and good source of revenue.Second is the ability of Yahoo to provide customized and contextual advertising. Another very important competitive advantage of the company is the hold of Yahoo in the mobile segment with its auxiliary products and even partnerships with third party service providers. And probabl y last but not the least is the employees of the company, who proved tremendous support, and technical knowhow, that helps Yahoo shore up with customized solutions for its customers and also help in maintain a virtually glitch/hassle free website quality.As far as profitability is concerned, this is something that has not been going right for the company. Over the past four quarters, the company has not seen any significant growth in its revenue and has in fact witnessed a decline in the operating profitability due to a rise in non-recurring expenses (Yahoo Income Statement, 2012). However since the new CEO took over in the month of July, she has embarked on a new strategy of Brownfield expansion via the M&A route and other critical decisions, that is set â€Å"to revive growth and boost profitability† which is a very positive and ncouraging news for investors (Womack, 2012). Yahoo’s decision to hire executives Michael Barret as a CFO and Marissa Mayer as a CEO seems t o show that Yahoo understands the threat that Google poses as both Barret and Mayer were executive at Google prior to joining Yahoo. From the above analysis, it seems that the company is better poised on its internal environment than external environment. And it needs to improvise on its assets and brand to shore up its market share and performance.Yahoo’s recent layoff of 14% of its work force seems to be beginning of new strategy of refocusing the company towards its core competencies, product innovation and growth. REFERENCES Yahoo FAQs. (2012). Investors FAQs. Retrieved from http://yhoo. client. shareholder. com/faq. cfm Jones, G. R. (2007). Yahoo. In C. W. L. Hill & G. R. Jones (Eds. ), Strategic Management An Integrated Approach (8th ed. , pp. C102-C114). Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company. Yahoo Overview. (2012). Overview. Retrieved from http://pressroom. yahoo. net/pr/ycorp/overview. aspx Perez, J. C. (2012, 07 16).Yahoo picks google's marissa mayer as ceo. Macworld , Retrieved from http://www. macworld. com/article/1167728/yahoo_picks_googles_marissa_mayer_as_ceo. html Liedtke, M. (2012, 04 04). New yahoo CEO Scott Thompson cuts 2,000 jobs The Christian Science Monitor, Retrieved from http://www. csmonitor. com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0404/New-Yahoo-CEO-Scott-Thompson-cuts-2-000-jobs Baker, L. (2010). Yahoo ; google’s mission statements: Do they connect?. Search Engine Journal, Retrieved from http://www. searchenginejournal. com/yahoo-googles-mission-statements-do-they-connect/4924/Yahoo Values. (2004). Yahoo! we value. Retrieved from http://docs. yahoo. com/info/values/ Yahoo 10K. (2011, 12 31). Yahoo 10k Annual Report. Retrieved from http://files. shareholder. com/downloads/YHOO/2120211742x0xS1193125-12-86972/1011006/filing. pdf Barboza, D. (2010, 01 13). Baidu’s gain from departure could be china’s loss. The NewYork Times. Retrieved from http://www. nytimes. com/2010/01/14/technology/companies/14baidu. html? _ r=1 Claburn, T. (2006, 01 13). Yahoo loses lawsuit over nazi memorabilia sale. Information Week, Retrieved from http://www. informationweek. om/yahoo-loses-lawsuit-over-nazi-memorabili/177100347 Carlson, N. (2010, 03 22). Breaking: Google pulls out of china. Business Insider, Retrieved from http://articles. businessinsider. com/2010-03-22/tech/29990556_1_google-com-hk-google-s-china-googlecn Yahoo Income Statement. (2012). Income statement. Retrieved from http://in. finance. yahoo. com/q/is? s=YHOO Womack, B. (2012, 08 10). Yahoo strategy review may result in changes to cash plans. Bloomberg, Retrieved from http://www. bloomberg. com/news/2012-08-09/yahoo-ceo-strategy-review-may-result-in-changes-to-cash-plans. html

The Financial Crisis of 2008 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Financial Crisis of 2008 - Essay Example [Wisman &Barker, 2008]. An interesting and relatively new idea is put forth by James Livingston in his book "Their Great Depression and Ours," Challenge. He argues that the cause of the Great Depression in the 1930s was poor wage performance leading to large profits in search of few investment opportunities. In another article, Saving Private Savings, or, The God That Failed he discusses at length the plausible reasons reasons for the current economic crisis. While not blaming anyone in particular for the present economic crisis, he opines that economic growth is possible only through higher consumer demand and spending. This in turn requires higher savings. In his words, "economic growth has proceeded as a function of declining net investment for the last 90 years."As the sequence of events that should have been tax cuts, savings, investments by the government and higher job growth, higher wages and higher spending got mixed up, higher private savings from households and business firms were parked in the stock market, the speculative bubble had to burst, both in 1920s and now. 2) What are some of the similarities and differences between the current crisis and the one that launched the Great Depression The Great Depression of the 1930s was brought on by the crash of the Wall Street in September and October 1929.Stock prices tumbled by almost 50% in a matter of two months. The market had probably been overbought and had reached a peak before it came crashing down. The unpredictable stock markets that had been steadily rising for some time shed the excess fat and trimmed down considerably. Investors who had made good gains in stock markets the preceding years had borrowed from banks to invest more on the stock markets. When the markets crashed, there was panic all round. Banks were unable to recover debts, news of banks closing down spread and people wanted to withdraw all their savings. Banks were weary and wanted to sit on cash and stopped lending. This led to closure of the manufacturing units dependent on credit which in turn led to large scale unemployment. Finally the government took drastic steps to check the recession and the economy stopped declining. The similarities between the causes leading to the Great Depression and the economic situation seem to be the greed of human beings. Excess of anything is bad, especially greed. Rothschild is of the opinion that "herding" or the tendency to follow the crowd and "leveraging" or borrowing to make financial investments, were also common factors. In both the situations, greed fuelled people into higher borrowings and ultimately, they lost out on the capital too. In the 1930s, it was the greed of the common man that led to the Recession, while in 2008, it was the greed of the investment bankers and other financial wizards that led to the recession. Another similarity has been

Beauty-Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Beauty-Research - Essay Example Secondly, the fact that the findings of the study will be used for course work purposes besides other external uses such as consumers of beauty products and services as well as the manufacturers. Documentation review. This method will be utilized so as to get historical information since this study covers a wide period spanning 150 years ago. Data will be drawn from the much historical information and the researcher will use observation especially in cases when studying ancient works. Such information may include theories of design in ancient times and study of collections of ancient products. Target population. This research targets manufacturers of beauty products and services, Consumers of beauty products and materials, Media houses and the entertainment companies in order to understand the evolution of beauty. Sampling procedures. Sampling is the process of studying a small but representative group of a population with an aim of applying the results to the wider population (Patton, p.123). Simple random sampling shall be used in this study because it is convenient, timesaving and reliable. According to (Patton, p 234) a good sample must be representative of the entire population. Choosing of respondents shall be conducted randomly and therefore participation shall be by chance. However interviews targeting manufactures shall be done in a semi structured manner. The researcher shall draw elements from the population and will aim at using 200 respondents for purpose of questionnaire response, 50 will be drawn from manufacturers of beauty products, 100 will be from consumers such as women and beauty models while the remaining 50 will media houses and entertainment companies. Ethical considerations. The researcher will treat respondents as an important part of the research by according them respect and human dignity necessary for every human being. The researcher will seek to ensure that no instrument for this research is detrimental to the physical, social, emotional and cultural well being of the respondents. The research shall ensure comfort for the respondents by framing the questionnaire in a way in line with acceptable standards. This researcher shall aim at being all inclusive therefore in selecting respondents the researcher shall aim at incorporating respondent from at least all ethnic communities as well all beauty stakeholders. Any benefits arising from the research will be accorded to all subjects equally subject to copyright conditions. Mutual consent in form of formal letter of request shall be sent out to all participants in advance with an option for acceptance or declining participation. Historical as well as socio-cultural and economic back ground of participants shall be borne in mind as this could have a bearing on how different

Assessment Action Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Assessment Action Plan - Assignment Example To ensure the success of the Software Upgradation Project, it is important to partner with the best consultants in the Industry that have successfully implemented projects pertaining to migration from old versions of Windows to Windows Vista and from old versions of Word to Word 2007. It is understood that any software will never be 100% complete from the perspective of the Business Requirement Specifications and also the Word 2007 Application will serve as the lifeline of the business post implementation the way the current versions of Word are critical to business. The selected consultant is expected to have a sound track record, an experienced implementation & customization team, and a sound Project Management methodology. In order to assess if the consultants have genuinely worked upon such migration projects in the past, the following shall be verified: The process of verification shall be called the "Desktop Review". Overall such documents and records would be requested for verifications only and then returned back after the convincing exercise is completed. These documents & records are their intellectual properties and hence shall not be retained. The objective is to carry out an in-depth convincing exercise. ... (d) Does the consultant possess adequate documents & records that can be showcased to verify the in-house R&D efforts to build internal expertise and competencies The process of verification shall be called the "Desktop Review". Overall such documents and records would be requested for verifications only and then returned back after the convincing exercise is completed. These documents & records are their intellectual properties and hence shall not be retained. The objective is to carry out an in-depth convincing exercise. In addition to verifying these documents about the consultants, we plan to speak to the customer references provided by the consultants using a questionnaire. The consultants are expected to present a clear plan on what requirements are already mapped with their current competencies/track record and how the rest would be fulfilled. It is important to clearly identify the areas where a feasibility of implementation doesn't exist. The project management team of the consultant is expected to have adequate experience in bringing to table these finer details to enable the internal project committee to verify the acceptance by going back to the business requirement specifications and analyze the impacts on business of the infeasibility of certain requirements which cannot be met by the consultants. Detailed Assessment Action Plan: Before a contract is awarded to the final selected consultant, a number of parameters pertaining to the consultant and their competencies shall be evaluated. It is hereby proposed that the Project Committee would list down all parameters that can influence the decision, assign a weighting to each

Oscar Pistorius; I Blame Myself for Taking Reevas Life Essay - 87

Oscar Pistorius; I Blame Myself for Taking Reevas Life - Essay Example Second, he has to deal with the prosecution and prison sentence of 25 years to life if he is found guilty of premeditated murder. And lastly, he has to deal with public scrutiny because the trial is publicized around the world. He did not only lose his girlfriend but also his privacy and possibly, earning the wrath of many people around the world. It is like, he against the world for accidentally killing his girlfriend. The news is credible not only because it used law terms such as cross-examination, premeditated, and that the defense, as well as the prosecution’s argument, are presented. In addition, the actual coverage of the trial was shown (but is not record anymore because it is already over) for the viewers to see and hear the actual proceeding of the trial. The news cannot be more credible than that. The news is about the annexation of Crimea, a province of Ukraine by Russia. In this news, it is about the seizure of the Crimea airbase by Russian troops. Putin alleged t hat many of Crimean residents are of Russian root and they are annexing it to protect its citizens. As a backgrounder, this happened after the ouster of former Ukraine President _who ordered the killings of demonstrators after they protested the President’s agreement with Russia. Ukrainians wanted their future with the European Union and not with Russia. At present, United States are threatening for more sanction against Russia with Putin just shrugging off the possibility of harsh sanctions. Putin’s troops, however, remain a threat to Ukraine. My thought here is that Russian President Vladimir Putin is clearly wrong because no matter how he argues it, invading another country’s province is wrong. He is behaving like Second World War Europe where countries will just invade any countries.