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.pdfcompetitive advantage and recognize the dynamic nature of markets and improve its processes and products continually and adopt strategies to improve its productivity by improving its human resources, innovative potential, cost reduction strategies and the flexibility of the organization in response to the changes in the external environment.. In addition, it can be concluded that the country characteristics certainly have an effect on the competitiveness because the political, social, economic, cultural and technological factors affect and change the industry structure and there fore the competitiveness of that industry and the corporations operating in these industries and the attractiveness of the industry. As well, the country can affect the productivity and cost structure of company and their ability to innovate and there fore affect the international competitiveness.
GAME ‘IN A SPIN’
A. Introduction
This is a game designed to help you develop your understanding about how businesses compete with each other. The rules of the game are there to enable the game to progress smoothly but in terms of how you approach the game there are no rules providing you adhere to the laws of the land!
There are a number of concepts that you should know to partake successfully in the game. The key ones are listed below:
∙You should know how to calculate profit:
oProfit = Total Revenue (TR) - Total Cost (TC)
oTR = Price (P) x Quantity sold (Q)
oTC = Fixed Costs (FC) + Variable Costs (VC)
∙You should know and understand the elements of the marketing mix and how they can be used (You can think of 7Ps not just 4!)
∙You should be aware of the external influences that affect business decisionmaking
∙You should understand the difference between the aims of a business and the objectives of a business
∙You should have a basic understanding of market structure and how this can influence the behaviour of a firm
B. Aim
The aim of the game is simple. You must make decisions to try to achieve the following:
∙Increase sales
∙Increase your market share
∙Make a profit
∙
C. The Scenario
Your team are the managing directors of a company producing washing powders for domestic washing machines. At present you are operating in the UK only. The size of the market in the UK is currently 200 million units a year - a unit being one pack of washing powder/tablets. Assume that each unit is currently 1.1kg. The market is currently growing at 2% each year and a year is represented as the end of the third round.
The European market is worth an estimated €2.75 billion but is currently dominated by 3 very large firms who account for 90% of total sales. The European market is around 550 million units.
D. The Game
You will be given some initial information regarding your current market position. The first thing you will have to do is to calculate your total sales and your profit levels.
You will then be given 7 minutes to consider your next move. You will have to explain your decision to the remainder of the groups at the end of these seven minutes. Your teacher/lecturer will note down the details for each firm. You will have to give a short explanation of the reasoning for your decision and what you hope to achieve from the decision.
Your teacher/lecturer is the referee and the sole arbiter of what happens in the game. He/she will assess your decision and those of the rest of the groups and will explain what has happened to your market position as a result of your decision.
You will then have to assess your situation and develop your next strategy. There will be a total of 9 rounds and the business with the highest points total will be deemed the winner. The points total will be calculated in relation to the amount of profit made, your market share and the level of your sales.
When making your decisions, remember that some of them may take time before you see the benefits, you can if you wish make the decision to do nothing but you will need to be wary of what your rivals are doing!
Cards for participants
Your company research and development team have been analysing the product of company x. They have reported that repeated washes in the product increase the risk of the fabric being damaged. They have found that normal cotton items disintegrated after 20 washes and believe it is due to a synthetic enzyme developed by x. This could be competitive dynamite!
The main trade union representing workers in the company is threatening industrial action following the announcement that the senior directors in the firm had received bonus payments for performance effectively increasing their existing salary by 2.5 times. The last pay deal for workers was just under the current rate of inflation. A one day protest is being organised which will cause disruption to production and increase costs.
You are a highly geared company with a loan to share capital ratio of 65:35. The rise in house prices and strong retail spending figures have given rise to suggestions that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee are likely to begin a series of interest rate rises in the next few months.
Your recent advertising campaign led to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) receiving 24 complaints about the inappropriate nature of the advert suggesting that it suggested that only women were likely to do the washing in the household and that this was inherently sexist and a misrepresentation of the complex role juggling that women have to play in modern society. The ASA has upheld the complaints and have asked you to withdraw the advert immediately. The news has been well publicised by the tabloid press.
Template
Company Name:
Round |
Decision |
Price |
AC |
Sales |
Market |
Profit |
Volume |
Share |
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Project work:
1. Comment the following mind map:
Development |
Evaluation |
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Strategic intents |
Logo |
Mission |
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Futures |
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statement |
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Analysis |
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Image |
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Strategi |
thinking |
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Corporat |
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e culture |
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Goals |
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planning |
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Leadership |
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Team work |
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Vision |
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Business strategy |
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Core competences |
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Global |
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Core |
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PEST |
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strategy |
Competitive, |
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business |
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Cost |
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advantage |
Required input |
SWOT |
Restructuring |
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New product |
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Downsizing |
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development |
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Evaluation |
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Share price
Profit |
Productivity |
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Earnings |
2. Make a report
The aim of this Activity is to investigate one business and to try to analyse its current position, as well as suggest some future strategic direction that the company could take.
In following through the Activity, you should try to utilise the various methods at your disposal for carrying out the analysis - it could, for example, be a SWOT and PEST analysis or you could choose to analyse the company’s current mission statement and corporate culture. Alternatively, you could use Porter’s Five Forces analysis.
Your report should try to identify what the main trends in the market seem to be and the ability of the company to respond to the potential opportunities that may arise in the future.
There are a number of key businesses for which there should be plenty of information to help in your analysis. The following are merely suggestions and you can choose one of your own.
∙British Airways
∙Marks & Spencer
∙Royal Mail
∙Vodafone
∙Shell
∙Boots
∙WH Smith
∙MG Rover
Each of the above has had their recent troubles and challenges and so would be interesting cases to study.
Key issues to think about will be:
1.What is their current market position?
2.Who are their key target markets?
3.Who is their main competition?
4.What are the external factors that have impacted and will continue to impact on the business in the future?
5.What image have they managed to cultivate? (It may not be a good image!)
6.What key trends are going to affect the business in the coming years?
7.Will the business still be in existence in ten years time? If so, in what form?
Related websites:
∙BBC business http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/
∙The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk
∙The Financial Times http://news.ft.com/home/uk
∙The Economist http://www.economist.com
∙Ananova News http://www.ananova.com
∙Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/news/regions/uk.html
Part 9 |
PRODUCT |
Kinds of product and production stages
What kind of products do you prefer to purchase? What are the main criteria for your choice?
VOCABULARY THROUGH THE CONTEXT
Products
A product can be:
∙something natural.
∙something made to be sold.
∙a service.
Produce refers to agricultural products such as crops or fruit. For example, you can buy fresh produce at a farmers’ market
Something that is made is produced or manufactured.
A country or company that produces something is a producer of it.
A company that manufactures something is a maker or manufacturer of manufactured goods.
Mass production
‘I’m Steve and I’m head of car production at a manufacturing plant. ‘Plant’ sounds more modern than factory or works. On the assembly line we massproduce cars. The plant is highly automated: we use a lot of machinery. These machines are expensive to buy but very cost-effective - we don't have to pay them wages! We use industrial robots. These robots are part of the CADCAM system of computer-assisted design and manufacturing.’
‘My name’s Luke. I have a little workshop where I produce furniture ordered by individual customers. We don’t use machinery: the furniture is hand-made. Producing furniture like this is a craft industry. It's very labour-intensive: it takes a lot of work to produce each piece. Many people dislike the furniture that big companies churn out in large numbers on their production lines, so we have a lot of customers.’
Capacity and output
Output is the number or type of things that a plant, company, industry or country produces. Productivity is a measure of how much is produced in relation to the number of employees. High output per employee = high productivity.
The maximum amount that a particular plant, company or industry can produce is its capacity. If it is producing this amount, it is working at full capacity. If it is producing more than what is needed, there is overproduction or:
excess capacity |
overcapacity |
spare capacity |
surplus capacity |
These expressions can also be used in service industries.
If far too many things are produced, there is a glut of these things. If not enough goods are being produced, there is a shortage.
Innovation and Invention
Verb |
Noun |
Noun |
Noun |
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(uncountable) |
(countable) |
(person) |
design: to make plans or |
design |
a design |
a designer |
drawings for how something is |
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to be made |
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develop: to make a new idea |
development |
a development |
a developer |
successful, for example by |
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making or improvinga product |
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innovate: to think of new |
innovation |
an innovation |
an innovator |
ideas, methods, products, etc. |
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invent: to design and make |
invention |
an invention |
an inventor |
something for the first time |
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technology: the |
a technology |
a technologist |
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practical or industrial use |
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of scientific discoveries |
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Research and technology
Hi, I'm Ray and I'm head of product development at Lightning Technologies. Lightning makes semiconductors, the components at the heart of every computer. I'm in charge of research and development (R&D) at our research centre just outside Boston. Our laboratories are some of the most innovative in the computer industry, and we have made many new discoveries and breakthroughs.
I love technology, using scientific knowledge for practical purposes. The technology of semiconductors is fascinating. We are at the cutting edge or leading edge of semiconductor technology: none of our competitors has better products than us. Everything we do is state-of-the-art, using the most advanced techniques available.
Of course, the hi-tech products of today become the low-tech products of tomorrow. Products that are no longer up-to-date because they use old technology are obsolete. It's my job to make sure that Lightning's products never get into that situation.
Patents and intellectual property
Information or knowledge that belongs to an individual or company is proprietary. A product developed using such information may be protected in law by patents so that others cannot copy its design.
Other companies may pay to use the design under licence in their own products. These payments are royalties.
In publishing, if a text, picture, etc. is copyright, it cannot be used by others without permission. Payments to the author from the publisher are royalties.
The area of law relating to patents and copyright is intellectual property.
Development and launch
In software, developers often produce a final test version, the beta version, where users are asked to point out bugs (problems) before the software is finalized. Car designers use CADCAM (computer-assisted design / computer-assisted manufacturing) to help develop and make products and test different prototypes. Researchers in laboratories may take years to develop new drugs, testing or trialling them in trials to show not only that they are effective, but also that they are safe. Drugs need to be made on an industrial scale before they can be sold. Rollout is the process of making a product available, perhaps in particular places, to test reaction.
Product launch is the moment when the product is officially made available for sale. This is the 'big moment'.
If a design defect or design fault is found in a product after it has been launched, the company may have to recall it, asking those who have bought it to return it, perhaps so that the defect can be corrected.
1. Complete this table with appropriate words.
Verb |
Noun |
Noun |
Noun |
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(person/organization) |
(process) |
(thing) |
make |
maker |
X |
X |
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manufacturing |
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produce: non-food |
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production |
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produce: food |
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production |
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2. Rearrange these lines to make a text containing words from Vocabulary above.
1 work. Of course, we still have a lot of assembly
2 plant producing TVs in Singapore. We have two production
3 My name's George Chen, and I'm director of a manufacturing 4 lines working 24 hours a day. We use CAD
5 line workers, so it's still quite labour-
6 intensive. But with the help of computer-
7 CAM, and robots do some assembly
8 assisted design and automation, productivity is increasing.
3. Match the headlines (1-7) to the extracts they relate to (a-g).
1 FOOD SHORTAGES HIT EASTERN AFRICA
2 AIRLINE REPORTS BIG PRODUCTIVITY RISE
3 TOO MUCH BUILDING LEADS TO GLUT OF OFFICE SPACE
4 LOCAL PLANT AT FULL CAPACITY
5 FALL IN STUDENT NUMBERS EADS TO EDUCATION
OVERCAPACITY
6 OIL OVERPRODUCTION LEADS TO PRICE FALL
7 NATIONAL OUTPUT AT ALL-TIME HIGH
a ... Overall production in the country rose by five per cent last year ...
b ... Rainfall has been below average in this part of Africa for the past five years.
Not enough food has been grown ...
с ... Too much oil has been produced recently in relation to world demand ...
d ... There have never been so few people aged between 17 and 21 since 1950. The
result: too many places at private colleges and universities ...
e ... The plant’s capacity is 3,000 computers a week, and it’s producing 3,000 ...
f ... Northern is running more flights with fewer pilots and staff. That was the message
from Northern's CEO Frank Delaney to shareholders yesterday ...
g ... There has been too much building in the city centre, and now there is a lot of
office space standing empty ...
4. Choose the correct forms of the words to complete these sentences.
1 White came up with (a design/design) that combined lightness and warmth.
2 There’s an exhibition on architecture and (the design/design) at the Museum of Modern Art.
3 McGrew is vice president of (a development/development) and product planning.
4 The FDA has approved (a development/development) for treating tooth disease, a new laser machine.
5 Electric light was (an invention/invention) which enabled people to stay up later.
6 Sometimes (an invention/invention) is so obvious that it is hard to believe nobody thought of it before.
7 Channel Four has always encouraged experimentation and (an innovation / innovation) in its films.
8 He discovered (an innovation/innovation) that has enabled him to build guitars more efficiently.
5. Complete this presentation using appropriate words from Vocabulary . Put the words in brackets into their correct form.
Hi, I’m Raj (1) ……… I’m head (2) ……… product (3 develop) ……… at (4)
……… Indian Rice Research Centre. I’m in charge of research (5) ………
development (6) ……… our (7 researching) ……… centre in Delhi.
Our (8 laboratory) ………. are (9) ……… of the most (10) ……… innovation (11) ……… agriculture. We have recently (12)……… some big (13) ………
breakthrough in increasing rice production.