Category: Business Strategy

Succession management is fundamentally an exercise in business risk mitigation. If you develop a pipeline of leaders who can take on critical roles in your business, you will mitigate the potential risk of not being able to deliver on your business goals. When evaluating the degree of succession risk in your business, consider these dimensions.

Vacancy Risk Start by evaluating which roles are most critical to your business strategy. Then consider: What is the risk of having these roles vacant? Will there be a negative impact on customers, profits, revenue, or employees? Next, assess the degree of risk for each role. If a role is considered to have a high vacancy risk, focus your succession efforts here first.

Readiness Risk What is the risk that your next level of leaders will not be ready by the time a new leadership vacancy becomes available? For many organizations with pending retirements, there is a high readiness risk. There is a low probability that their next level of leaders will be ready to take on vacant positions as they become available. If you have a high risk score in this area, you need to focus your efforts on accelerating leadership talent and managing the integration of newly promoted leaders.

Recruitment Risk What is the probability that you will find external talent in the marketplace to fill your vacancies? If the market is particularly tight, or you require highly specialized skills, there may a high recruitment risk. In this situation, you need to focus on proactively identifying people in the marketplace, and cultivate relationships with them, and you need to accelerate internal leadership development.

Coaching and Development Risk – Do your managers have the skills to cultivate leadership talent? Many succession programs assume that managers have the skills to coach and cultivate talent. This is often a wrong assumption. If you build your succession program around managers with poorly developed coaching and mentoring skills, the program will derail. Spend time understanding how capable your managers are at having development conversation and focus on skill building in this area.

Transition Risk If you promote someone before they are ready and the hire is unsuccessful, what are the potential risks during the transition? For example, if a leader is in a technical role and responsible for managing critical business processes, there could be a significant risk to the business if the transition goes poorly. Your business processes could fail, or you could lose key client relationships. If key roles have a high transition risk focus on integration plans and job shadowing during this delicate period.

Regulation Risk Some industries are highly regulated, such as engineering or the medical profession. It is not realistic to accelerate talent when there are industry regulations which govern how fast someone can develop their capability. In highly regulated industries, organizations must be very proactive in building their leadership pipeline and take a long term view.

Copyright (c) 2010 Natalie Michael

One of the most powerful advertising tools in marketing are brochures. They can be made very easily, they are efficient and most importantly they are cheap. A lot of companies opt for such print promotional material as it is less expensive than using the services of TV or radio commercials and similar.

When the brochure is made in the best possible way, it can play a very important role in the history of one business. With the help of a good brochure example, anyone will be able to get inspired and to make a successful brochure for the promotion of its company. The truth is that a good brochure example is always of a great importance for any business owner, no matter in what kind of business he is. Some of the brochure examples can be easily downloaded from the internet. This is one of the most convenient ways of getting a great and successful material for your future marketing strategy.

Brochure examples are available in a variety of styles and designs, and like that you will be able to puck the one that will talk the best for the type of the business you are running.

One of the best marketing tools, as many businessmen agree, are brochures. Even though this is a print material, and some might think that it is not as efficient as TV commercials, the truth is that brochures have been voted as one of the most acceptable advertising materials in the last years.

There are many reasons why brochures are so successful as a marketing material but one of the most convincing reasons is that the audiences prefer real contact with the company, even though brochures, than no contact at all (radio or TV commercials).

When you are handling the brochures of your company to the audiences, you are actually showing off your business in a professional manner, and this is why you need to make sure that the brochures are done in the best possible way.

When creating hot business brochures, you need to know that the design comes on the first place. Design is something that the client will notice first, and this is what you need to make it catchy and appealing to the eye. If you are able to do this, you can be sure that you will have a successful marketing campaign.

Creating a brochure online

Creating a brochure online is one of the latest trends nowadays. A lot of businesses are trying to promote themselves, as this is a necessary thing for them to succeed on the market. This is why creating a brochure online is the most convenient way of getting a promotional materials that will actually work.

Creating a brochure online is a very easy and simple process. You just need to have a computer and a internet connection. A lot of online print companies offer very affordable print services where you can make your print promotional material in only a couple of minutes.

Using online print companies is a great thing to save time and money. Since everything can be done from the privacy of your home, you can save not only money but as well time and effort and this is one of the most important things nowadays.

There’re numerous facts in this subject written on -Time Management- that we might take the time to review carefully with attention so that you can acquire the most from it.

Does content creation sometimes make one feel like poor Gertrude? You set an objective. You vowed to create regardless of just how long it took. Time passed while numerous emotions swept over you; what just wouldn’t come!

Avoid meeting the same demise as Gertrude. Become more productive and obtain more from your content creation efforts by considering just how much quality effort you’re putting in to your content creation.

Measuring just how much time you’re putting in to your write-ups on a regular and weekly basis will help you to set reasonable content creation goals to be more efficient. Find what realy works for you personally therefore it fits around your life style as well as your other responsibilities. Consequently, your efficiency can help you feel a much better Expert Author and help amplify your platform.

Here’s how:

First, identify your targets. Every task you perform must be associated with an objective, whether it’s professional or personal. For example, writing and submitting articles may be associated with an objective to become an authority in your niche. Write your targets down.

Next, release the full time hounds. Faithfully track your activities and the full time allocated to those activities for a minumum of one week. Make use of this Content creation Plan Time Sheet (downloadable PDF) by recording key words for tasks, e. g. Draft, Write, Proofread, Email, Facebook, and so on., and indicate the full time you allocated to each task (e. g. 20 minutes). Be as accurate as you are able to by noting the full time spent. Also, if you’re performing yet another task and also you -quickly- squeeze in yet another task, like checking your email, jot an email down in your time sheet.

Finally, stay the course. It’ll appear to be you’re spending considerable time just tracking your time and effort. You might become frustrated as you start to see just how much time spent on particular tasks, much like counting kcalories and discovering how many kcalories have been in your preferred treat. Stay the course.

After at the very least seven days of tracking, review the contents of your energy sheet.

Identify Time Sinks: A period sink is definitely an activity that occupies huge chunks of your energy. Determine which of those time sinks were reactive (putting out fires) and people which were proactive (in the offing). Once you’ve determined your reactive time sinks, consider ways to adjust your schedule to proactively prevent reactive tasks.

Be Distraction Honest: Outside distractions as well as self-induced distractions can break your productive focus. Pinpointing these can help you hone in on a pattern you are able to plan around (e. g. time sinks, family, and so on. )#) to generate distraction-defense strategies.

Inattentive Tasking: Multi-tasking can appear to be probably the most productive amount of your entire day, but it’s similar to driving while texting, talking, monitoring your GPS, and finding your preferred song – something will fail because nothing has your full attention. If you discover you have performed a lot of other little tasks while performing a bigger task, try scheduling these little tasks and become disciplined to limiting your attention throughout those times to prevent inattentive tasking on more essential tasks.

Handy Hint: Take a short break and think about the subject regarding -Learning to manage your time-, most of the ideas and information on this content aims to entertain as well as educate, if you wish to find more info regarding the subject matter, apply a search about “Key to success is time management” on any google and you will find numerous results that are helpful for you.

Assess Your targets: Just how many tasks in your time sheet were goal-oriented tasks? Just how many weren’t? If you discover your time and effort fleeting before you and also you aren’t nearer to achieving your targets, it’s time for you to reassess the problem and strategically plan.

Discover the times of one’s day you’re probably the most productive for particular tasks and experiment together with your schedule. What realy works for just one Expert Author, might not meet your needs as well as your life style. Experiment. Find your prime time for every task by measuring your degree of productivity and just how much closer you are to achieving your targets. Then, when you’re ready, try planning your content creation with this particular Editorial Calendar system.

It is little aspects, such as this, which may aid you in your surf about -Time Management-. So, have a break and decide which aspects would be great for you to take.

Introduction
Woolworths was a company that was started in the year 1879 in the City of New York. Its founder Frank Woolworth was interested in offering a one stop shop for a wide range of commodities at an affordable price. He transferred this same concept to the United Kingdom thirty years after establishing the same stores in the United States. He was well received in Liverpool with enthusiastic shoppers thronging the premises.

However, the retail chain store industry has undergone numerous dynamics and Woolworths seems to be a victim of these circumstances. The report shall highlight some of the internal and external challenges that have affected the company. Additionally, an analysis of the company will be done with reference to the theme of globalisation and recommendations for improvement given as a result.

Description and analysis of the internal and external factor to which Woolworths UK is subject

1)Internal factors
Woolworths is affected by some human resource based issues plaguing the retail industry. For instance, some clients have asserted that before purchasing items in any retail store, they usually consider behaviours of the stores employees. Woolworths has received numerous reviews about this aspect. Consumer surveys have indicated that a half of retail purchasers are happy with Woolworths consumer service while the other halves have asserted that their employees are rude. Consequently, the company has to work on the latter percentage. (Hammer and Champy, 1993)

Marketing strategies are crucial in running any business. For companies to dwell in the retail sector today, they need to portray a clear theme in their advertisement and marketing strategies. Woolworths marketing manager asserts that the companys marketing strategy is largely centred on three major categories and these are;
Family
Entertainment
Home

These three themes are what make Woolworths stand out. However, other critics assert that Woolworths is severely lacking in this area. They claim that while other retail chain stores are distinct and stand out depending on specific themes; Woolworths has nothing special that makes it unique. Consequently, this is a marketing or branding issue that will affect future decisions made by Woolworths.

Demand determinants are also instrumental in determining how Woolworths performs in the UK market. There are a number of things that UK consumers look for when shopping in retail chain stores and some of them include
Convenience
Quality of items
Price
Brand recognition (Chopra and Meindl, 2000)

When one talks about convenience, they are referring to the ease of reach with which one can find commodities in retail stores. This is usually depicted by the manner of arrangement. When commodities are arranged haphazardly, then customers may not be enticed to come back there. Woolworths seems to have failed in this regard because many consumers complain of its haphazard nature. For instance, when one steps into a Woolworth store, they are likely to find childrens costumes placed together with table mats and the table mats may be placed alongside video games or other kinds of things. Consequently, it can be argued that Woolworths sense of appeal in terms of convenience is quite wanting. However, it can also be argued that this haphazard arrangement is what contributes to Woolworths uniqueness. This is because it is kind of a spur of the moment alternative rather than a distinct kind of arrangement. (Price Waterhouse, 1995)

On the other hand, convenience can also be assessed through a stores location, when stores are located in busy streets or in accessible places, then demand for ones items may increase. Woolworths may receive a plus for this aspect because their stores are conveniently located and one does not have to look for parking to get into their stores.

Brand recognition and quality of items are an important demand determinant. Once a company fails to deliver in terms of these parameters then there is fertile ground for failure. Woolworths have been praised by some consumers for their high quality items. However, there are still other buyers who have not been satisfied with their commodities claiming that they are a jack of all trades but a master of none.

Lastly, demand for commodities in this industry is affected by the price of its commodities. In analysing whether Woolworths is doing well, it is essential to look at what other companies in the industry are doing. Most of the commodities offered by Woolworths are sold by other competitors such as Asda and Tesco at cheaper prices. This means that Woolworths decisions need to be changed to respond to these challenges.

2)External factors
One of the major external factors affecting Woolworths is closely associated to its operating aspect. The retail chain industry is quite a huge industry since the numbers of stores located in the UK are numerous and this means increased competition for Woolworths. Additionally, the industry is not export oriented. Most products are sourced from outside and then bought into the region thus making players here to become susceptible to international forces that may sometimes be difficult to predict.

It is also interesting to note the fact that the retail chain industry is slowly being outcompeted by supermarkets. Times have changed over the past few years and the sale of non household items within the retail industry is no longer a reserve for companies such as Woolworths alone. Supermarkets which were once associated with the sale of food alone now offer almost all household items under one room. This increased competition from other categories of business has affected the overall productivity and performance of the company. (Porter, 1985)

Market size is an important factor that affects the any kind of business. This is largely because the rate of growth of the market largely reflects the amount of consumers available to purchase ones time. Statistics indicate that the UK retail chain sector is slowly reaching saturated levels. There are stores for almost every type of product under the sun. For instance, when one is looking for old suits then they may choose the option of going for Argos, when they require music CDs, then they have the option of going to Zavvi. Consequently, Woolworths is placed at a position where they are competing for a stagnating market i.e. one that is growing at very low rates yet the number of industry players is on the rise.

Other external factors affecting Woolworths decision making processes are also linked to the way they go about making their personal decisions. For instance, the issue of taxation is quite important in determining whether Woolworths succeeds or not. Since it depends on exports for most of their commodities, then the company is affected adversely by international tariffs in trade. However, it should be noted that the retail chain store sector is not highly regulated by the UK government and this is a plus on the part of Woolworths.

Globalisation
1)How globalisation influences policies and decision making at Woolworths UK
Enterprises and corporations alike are highly influenced by the concept of globalisation and Woolworths is not an exception. Before critically analysing this issue, it is essential to clarify its meaning; globalisation is defined as the increased level of contact between a certain entity and the rest of the world, through globalisation, mutual understandings, personal friendships and world citizenry is created. However, in terms of business entities, globalisation may not be a positive. This is largely because it causes increased competition which may be difficult to out manoeuvre especially when one lacks the capacity for change.

Woolworths UK was a brainchild of the US based subsidiary. Consequently, it had transferred knowledge and business structures from that part of the world to the United Kingdom. This meant that the company ought to have created a local solution to the local UK environment. Local marketing appeal for international companies such as Woolworths is crucial in succeeding in their market. This can only be done by incorporating all the external and internal factors. The United Kingdom was not the original company base for Woolworths; consequently, they needed to look for ways in which they could adopt to the local culture in the UK.

The UK consumer culture has changed dramatically over the past few years. This is as a result of increased levels of exposure brought on by information technology. Consequently, consumers are well aware of their rights and they also know where to find cheap bargains. This is actually the reason why Woolworths has not been performing very well; most consumers want a retail store with preset themes or one with cheap products.

Since so many other retail stores are available, then Woolworths has been pushed to the periphery in light of this competition. It should be noted that globalisation has played a large role in promoting this information driven consumer culture. Through interaction with other parts of the world, the UKs technological status has dramatically improved. People can get important retail information at the touch of a button and this makes them very choosy. In other words, globalisation has boosted information technology which has heightened consumer awareness and thus diminished demand for Woolworths products which do not represent the best value for money.

Globalisation has highly affected shopping behaviour among a series of consumers owing to the fact that it has promoted more job opportunities. Many UK consumers are constantly moving form country to country while conducting business, getting educated or working for a certain multinational. This therefore means that globalisation has created situations in which the UK consumer has very little time in his or her hands. People are now working for more hours and most of them have very little spare time for themselves. What this means for Woolworths is consumers also have little time to spend in their retail outlets. When going for shopping, buyers may be interested in spending as little time as possible in such outlets so that thy can get back to their busy schedules. Decision making in Woolworths must be such that it centres on meeting this need to save time when purchasing. (Kubeck, 1995)

Globalisation highly affects the productivity levels at Woolworths through its supply section. This is because now Woolworths and other retail chain stores have a wider supply base to choose from. They can source their commodities at a cheaper price from other countries of the world or they can locate high quality goods from suppliers in continents. Depending on how Woolworths reacts to this, global supply sourcing can either be a positive or a negative. It can be positive when good suppliers are chosen. However, it can be negative when Woolworths has been outcompeted by other retails who manage to get cheaper goods at lower prices.

Globalisation has also raised the level of competition among various industry players in the retail chain store sector. This is because globalisation favours growth of multinationals. The UK is plagued with a series of multinationals such as Tesco, Wal-Mart, Asda and many more. These multinationals create greater competition because of their diffused processes and also because of greater network structures, greater flows of information and hence greater productivity.

Lastly, globalisation has created fertile ground for outsourcing of jobs. The new buzz word was largely associated with the manufacturing sector where most businesses chose to outsource their manufacturing function to Asian based countries such as China and Taiwan. The retail sector is also involved in this buzz word because a number of their suppliers come from the Asian continent. They have chosen to outsource this aspect to other parts of the world so as to promote their level of competitiveness.

2)Critical evaluation of the effectiveness of the organisations response
Globalisation has promoted greater adoption of information technology and thus a more informed consumer. This kind of consumer is less loyal to particular brand unless that brand offers good quality or value for money. Woolworths has also been slow in responding to this aspect of globalisation. Since the consumer is more informed, the company should have worked on their prices and it should also have taken the time to check the quality of their commodities so that they can increase their client base. Woolworths still has a long way to go in handling these challenges.

It can be argued that Woolworths has not responded as strongly as it should to forces of globalisation. As it has been asserted earlier, many consumers are now engaging in more work and have less time to shop. Consequently, Woolworths store formats should have been changed to meet this need. Compared to other retail outlets in the United Kingdom, Woolworth is yet to catch up with the rest in terms of in-store organisation. More often than not, consumers may not be able to find what they are looking for in a Woolworths store unless assisted by one of the employees. Consequently, this takes a lot of time and may prompt some of them to choose other stores. (Scheer, 1999)

In terms of sourcing for suppliers from other parts of the world, it is imperative for Woolworths to awaken to the possibility that other retail chain stores in the UK are doing much better than they are. This is largely as a result of the lower prices that some of their commodities are grouping for and also because of a result of greater investment in dependant supplier who offer high quality.

Woolworths may have been overwhelmed by the increased competition facing the retail chain industry from multinationals. Globalisation has created sound operating structures for facilitating better productivity and this has given greater precedence to these large multinationals. Woolworths is supposed to be competing with the multinationals by offering products or services that whether they meet or exceed the offerings in these multinationals. However, Woolworths has not responded as quickly and assertively as it should. The company therefore needs to look for other ways in which they can promote this development through sound service delivery. (Sterman, 2000)

Woolworths has responded to the need to outsource by getting some of their goods from the Asian continent. However, compared to their competitors, this company still has along way to go in terms of being at per with its competitors. Most of the time, the company relies on European based manufacturers for their commodities or their in store brands.

Conclusion – Areas for improvement in the response of the organisation
Globalisation is eminent in almost all spheres of the UK economy. Consequently, companies that fail to react swiftly to this phenomenon are bound to be left behind. Woolworths has debts of three hundred and eighty five million pounds as of mid 2008. This poor performance is further illustrated by the figure below depicts its performance over the past few months. Its shares have been on the decline.

Source; (Eriksson and Penker, 2000)

In order to boost its performance in the global arena, then Woolworths needs to change a number of things. First of all, the company needs to respond to the need to save time this can be done by more orderly arrangements of their commodities in their stores. Secondly, the company needs to take greater care in terms of sourcing better quality items. Consequently, the company will do much better in the retail industry by placing greater precedence on this matter. (Eriksson and Penker, 2000)

On top of the latter, there should be greater emphasis on the adoption of information technology especially with regard to the use online sales. Also, they need to embrace the fact that their brand is barely recognised among future market segments. The company has to work on adding value to their name and making their services easily recognised.

References
Hammer, M. and Champy, P. (1993): Reengineering the Corporation – A Manifesto for Business Revolution; Harper Business Book
Porter, M. (1985): Competitive Advantage – Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance; Free Press
Price Waterhouse (1995): Change Integration Team – Best Practices for Transforming Your Organization; Irwin
Scheer, A. (1999): ARIS – Business Process Frameworks; Springer
Sterman, J. (2000): Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modelling for a Complex World; McGraw-Hill
Kubeck, L. (1995): Techniques for Business Process Redesign – Tying It All Together; Wiley-QED Publication
Chopra, S. and Meindl, P. (2000): Supply Chain Management – Strategy, Planning and Operations; Prentice Hall College Division
Eriksson, H. and Penker. H. (2000): Business Modelling with UML – Business Patterns that Work; Wiley

Having a website of own can be an added advantage to your business. Unlike the traditional print media where it is much more expensive venture for small size ad. Having a website of your own can prove beneficial whereby regular updates and feeds can be made available to people anytime, anywhere.

A website is an online identity of a company or of an individual involved in Internet Marketing. The task associated with the website is to represent a company, sell companys name, attract more visitors, generate more business leads, promote more sale of companys products and services and ultimately, help to gain more return on investment.

In this era of advanced technology, electronic commerce have highly dominated the marketing practice, and due to easy availability and affordability of the Internet, people are running after it and making huge profit at the comfort of their home.

As a serious online business person, what is important for your business is, to prepare a website that is well designed, attractive, easy to navigate, highly usable, good content, full of relevant information, enough functionalities and are capable of retaining visitors for long and make them come back again.

We know, Web is the visual interface and what people look on the Web will be manipulated and interpreted into their mind and perception. So being a website designer and programmer, you must be careful about the use of color effects, lights, visual effects, positioning and size of contents and use of search engine friendly technology, so that people must remember your website name first and search you first on the Web.

To achieve all the above mentioned strategies, your website building needs a professional touch from qualified website designers and developers who can put their best acquired knowledge and experience to make a suitable portal that can turn each visitors into potential buyers.

Customers, audience world wide will be able to witness your range of products and variety of collections. It is cost effective and the reach of website is almost everywhere.

E- Commerce facility offering online ordering can save your customers time and your administration cost. You can offer your customer more personalized experience by creating more tailored area on your site just for the use by the particular customer. Like ladies apparel section or infant clothing section.

Unlike traditional media of advertising the website is interactive, time-saver, has a wider reach and can act as a good one to one marketing tool.

Having a website is synonym of branding yourself, your product and services. You create a name, an image with the launch of a website. The website has its own innumerable advantage. In this todays new world of Internet age when everyone is connected through web. It is much wiser to go online.

Established and well known apparel brand have long realized the effective reach of website. One can also go online and open up an online apparel store. For this you dont even have to rent a show room. You only have to own a website whereby your collection can be displayed so that customers can go through it and place an order online. It is another new form of business where you can have your customer even outside the country.

Internet is the new buzz word and having ones own website can boost your business strategy and objective.