5 Step Value-Chain Analysis for Customers’ Strategic Needs

Value-chain analysis is used for many purposes, but the process of examining customers’ value chains is relatively new. In our five-step process, Step 1 explains how internal and external value chains can be used separately and in related ways. Step 2 shows how to construct a customer’s value chain. Step 3 shows how to identify the customer’s business strategy by examining this value chain and using other kinds of information. Step 4 explains how to use additional information and intelligence to leverage that understanding into strategic needs and priorities. Finally, Step 5 explains how a firm’s marketing function can best use this method of value-chain analysis as a new strategic capability. Step 1: An overview of value-chain analysis Value chains may be defined in two ways: (1) within a company they describe the various value-added stages from purchasing materials to distributing, selling, and servicing the final product (Porter’s 1985 concept),[3] and (2) they also delineate the value-added stages from raw material to end-user as a product is manufactured and distributed, with each stage representing an industry. 4] For convenience, we will refer to these two definitions as ‘‘internal’’ and ‘‘external’’ value chains, respectively. The internal value chain is a key concept in the field of strategic management that has been thoroughly explored. In contrast, the external value chain has not been studied as extensively. The external value chain consists of the important ups tream/supply and downstream/distribution processes. However, even though these processes occur outside the corporation, the strategic opportunities they reveal and areas of risk they highlight warrant careful study. Consider: Outsourcing – involves transferring certain primary or support functions in the internal value chain to the external value chain. B Vertical integration – involves taking control of one or more additional stages of the external value chain and making them internal. B Horizontal expansion – involves new product lines or expanded channels of distribution, including geographic expansion. B Strategic alliances with suppliers – involves more closely managing external suppliers as if they were part of the company’s internal value chain, but without actually owning them (for example, Toyota’s Kaizen ystem, wherein key suppliers are located very near a factory and receive all kinds of help and training from Toyota to ensure smooth and efficient production). One of the most complex value chains today can be found in the oil industry. This chain has nearly 30 significant elements, starting with the search for oil (at the upstream end) and including fie ld production, transportation (pipelines and supertankers), refining and processing and, lastly, consumer gas stations (at the ‘‘downstream’’ end). Internally, the oil-industry value chain processes a broad range of products, including such major categories as oil/lubricants, gasoline, petrochemicals (plastics), fertilizers/pesticides, natural gas, power generation/electricity, and convenience stores. The firms that are considered major integrated oil companies participate in a significant number – sometimes all – of these external (upstream and downstream) and internal value-chain elements. In a 2006 issue of Strategy & Leadership, authors Wayne McPhee and David Wheeler suggested that strategists should use Porter’s concept to consider value-chain operations beyond the boundaries of the firm. Since its introduction, value-chain analysis has proven immensely valuable in three principal ways – cost analysis and reduction, differentiation, and product development – but the standard practice was for firms to analyze only their own value chain. Step 2: How to construct a customer’s value chain First, recognize that you need to construct both internal and external value chains for a particular customer. The internal value chain follows Porter’s original concept, which includes value-added steps from purchasing to distribution as well as support functions such as R&D and human resources. It’s tempting to let this generic diagram serve as the customer’s value chain, but it must be tailored to the particular customer. To produce a useful value-chain analysis, members of your engineering or sales team should ask the customer how its business processes add value and whether any have unique best-practice features. To perform the external value-chain analysis, team members should ask the customer a set of getting-to-know-you questions. What does your supply chain (the upstream value chain) look like? What role does your company play in it? How do your products reach their customers (the downstream value chain)? Your final diagram models only this single customer’s value chain and it represents virtually everything the customer does to add significant value. If your relationship with the customer permits a candid exchange of information, have the customer validate the value chain you have created. As an example of how the diagnostic process works, consider how a supplier to Wal-Mart might learn to enhance its value. [6] The objective of creating both internal and external value chains is to understand Wal-Mart well enough to be able to discern its implicit and explicit strategic concerns. Exhibits 3 and 4 depict preliminary pictures of Wal-Mart’s internal and external value chains. Getting to this initial stage is relatively easy – adding more detail, nuance, and understanding takes more time, involves interviewingWal-Mart executives, and more closely observing how the firm operates. Step 3: Inferring the customer’s business strategy Even long-time suppliers have trouble distinguishing critical customer activities from sometimes urgent but ultimately nonstrategic ones. Understanding your customer’s business strategy is therefore crucial. Value-chain analysis helps a supplier distinguish between the activities of the customer’s firm that directly support its competitive strategies – for its products and for enhancing key capabilities – and ordinary operations. For example, routine operations like billing customers or servicing the fleet of company vehicles must be done, and done well. But there is little if any competitive advantage to be gained from the superior execution of such activities. Nor are they likely to provide an opportunity for gaining new sources of revenue and profit. It is the customers’ strategic activities and projects that offer the potential for future profits and command the attention of your customers’ senior management. So by supporting strategic activities, B2B service providers stand to gain the high-margin work they hunger after, the work that produces the highest returns, and the work that should be their constant priority. The Fluor case Fluor Corporation is a global engineering and construction company providing major capital facilities for a vast range of industrial clients in many vertical markets. With as many as 2,000 projects under construction employing 40,000 workers in more than 50 countries at any time, Fluor operates in all geographic regions of the globe and in all parts of its customers’ supply chains, delivering engineering and construction management services – in sum, a full range of B2B services. The questions of where Fluor should concentrate its resources to meet its customers’ most urgent needs can become enormously complex. To rationalize this process, Fluor must determine which customer projects – the ones that address its customers’ greatest strategic needs and, hence, have potentially the greatest margins – have the highest value. For many years, Fluor has known the critical importance of understanding every one of its B2B customers’ businesses. But that was not enough. The questions for Fluor’s marketing team became, ‘‘How can we learn each customer’s business strategy and strategic needs? ’ Some of the many different sources of information about a customer’s strategy are: B Marketing communications including printed materials (brochures and advertisements), media communications (press releases) and marketing websites reveal new product directions and customer targeting; these provide insights into market positioning and marketing strategy. B Financial-community reports (annual reports, SEC filings, as well as meetings with financial analysts) shed light on internal strategic initiatives in addition to market-positioning moves. Annual reports form the basis of this Fluor case study, but 10Ks and analysts’ reports could prove equally useful. B The academic literature is replete with surgical dissections of strategically successful companies and industries. Business-school cases abound featuring companies like Apple and industries like automobiles. Wal-Mart, for one, has been the focus of many Harvard Business School cases. [8] B Many companies make their published strategic plans available to interested parties. For example, British Petroleum has published its strategy on its corporate website since 2000. B Consultants that specialize in competitive intelligence. B Face-to-face conversations with your customers. Step 4: Discovering the customer’s strategic needs Strategic activities are the activities a firm must implement in order to realize its strategy or strategies. Every strategy has such a set of activities. Insofar as a company finds doing any of these activities difficult, potential suppliers have been trained to see these as ‘‘needs. ’’ But, suppliers need to differentiate between operations that are difficult and ones that are strategic. For example, an innovation strategy requires a system for generating ideas and picking the best ones, cost estimating, engineering, R&D, prototype construction and testing, and market-acceptance testing. The pharmaceutical industry relies on a great many B2B service providers to support its new-drug-development programs in the drug-formulation (R&D) stage and also B2B service providers that develop new systems to expedite regulatory approval. Value-chain analysis identifies both as key strategic functions. Step 5: Making value-chain analysis a strategic capability of the marketing department Engineering/construction companies have developed at least two approaches to break the forces of commoditization in their industry: 1. Project screening and selectivity. Not all projects are created equal or represent equal opportunity. Service providers should select projects on the basis of projected margin, not projected revenue. They must pursue projects that build on their strengths and core competences, projects where they can apply their best talents to serve their customers. This is done by first serving customers’ commodity work to position them to then pursue customers’ strategic opportunities. This is the approach used in the Fluor example. 2. Become selected customers’ strategic business partner. Such practice puts the business-services provider right in the customers’ lap, a decidedly advantageous position to be in when strategic opportunities are brewing. It also leads to many sole-source or noncompetitive-bid opportunities and, potentially, to higher margins. 1. The method described in the article is based on actual experience of one author when he worked for Fluor Corp. . A recent example is Ram Charan, What the CustomerWants You to Know: How Everybody Needs to Think Differently about Sales, Portfolio (Penguin Group), 2007. The application of value-chain analysis to B2B clients of engineering and construction management services was originally suggested by Don F. Coleman of Fluor Corporation in May, 2000. 3. Michael E. Porter, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, Free Press, 1985. 4. Stanley C. Abraham, Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide for Competitive Success, Thomson South-Western, 2006, 214. . Wayne McPhee and David Wheeler, ‘‘Making the case for the added-value chain,’’ Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 34 No. 4, 2006, Exhibit 1, p. 41; exhibit used with permission. 6. The supplier could have many other customers, and could replicate this process with those other customers. Typically, doing such an analysis would be reserved for the supplier’s top 3-5 customers. 7. The authors found little in the literature about B2B marketing practices based on knowledge of the customer’s value chain and business strategy. 8. See, for, example Harvard Business School Case #9-794-024, ‘‘Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ,’’ August 6, 1996, which provides a thorough review of Wal-Mart’s business practices up to its international (horizontal) expansion. 9. Michael E. Porter, ‘‘What is strategy? ’’ Harvard Business Review, November-December 1996. 10. HBS Case #9-794-024, op. cit. 11. Harvard Business School Case #9-302-102, ‘‘Robert Mondavi and the Wine Industry,’’ May 3, 2002. Mondavi’s flagship brand ‘‘Woodbridge’’ is a rare example of a brand name pointing, not to product benefits, but up the value chain to process benefits.

city of god essays

city of god essays In the introductory scene, there is a chicken running through narrow hallways in a Brazilian slum called City of God. Chasing the chicken, there are dozens of thugs waving and shooting guns trying to kill it. At that point, the hero of the movie, Rocket, is presented as what seems to be just another young man that is going to be bullied, or probably killed by the gang members if he doesnt catch the chicken. From there on, director Fernando Meirelles relocates the story a decade before, allowing the public to witness the changes on the slum that conducted to introduction of the movie, and to show that Rocket is a courageous man that is able to face his worst fears. The film is a coming of age story that uses bold cinematography and narrative to powerfully convey its message. The story is a documentary-like film that explains the evolution of violence in that poor city while telling the coming of age story of two kids that moved in opposite directions. On the one hand, there is a kid named Rocket who decided that he didnt want to be a criminal and opposed the violence happening around him. He tries to be a correct man. He falls in love with a pretty girl while working his way to become a photographer. When he sees his first camera, he knows what he wants to do with his life(Oppenheimer). However, after working on dead end jobs and realizing that the girl dumped him for a gang member, Rocket decides to try being a thief, but he finds out that he is not that type of person. Instead, he gradually grows to be a man with aspirations and the will to improve and move out of City of God. On the other hand, there is a boy named Li'l Z who admires his brother and his thug friends that live robbing people in order to buy drugs and to have fun. Li'l Z ends up surpassing the original gang members of the City of God and become ruthless murderer that is not afraid of anything and that craves total contr...

Srs for Bank Management Essays

Srs for Bank Management Essays Srs for Bank Management Essay Srs for Bank Management Essay EXPERIMENT NO: 2 AIM: To document Software Requirement Specification for Dance Academy. THEORY: 1) Introduction: 1. 1) Purpose: This document gives detailed functional and non-functional requirements for Dance Academy. The purpose of this document is that the requirements mentioned in it should be utilized by software developer to implement the system. 1. 2) Scope: This system allows the bank employee to maintain a record of all the customers who have account in the bank. With the help of this system, the employee should be in a position to search the records of a particular customer, provide him detailed account information and delete and update the customer information as and when required. 1. 3) Overview: This system provides an easy solution to the bank employee to maintain customer as well as employee records and maintaining a record of all the transactions that take place. 2) General Description: This Bank Management System replaces the conventional, traditional file and record based system with the help of which a lot of paper work will be reduced. Thus the manual work of maintaining files which are subjected to physical wear and tear can be avoided. The employee must be able to view all the information of customers such as name, account number, date of birth, gender, address, initial balance. Also it must be able to record different transactions such as withdrawal, deposit or transfer of funds from one account to another. The employee can also add new staff members to the system providing them direct access to the database and thus enabling them to provide services to the users. The employee can also change his password to follow security constraints. 3) Functional Requirements: 3. 1) Description: The identity of each customer is verified and only then changes are made to the records each customer. After proper verification, the bank employee can bring proper changes to the database as per the requirements of the user. Also the system maintains an employee database thus keeping a record of all the members of bank as well as keeping the records of the transactions which take place daily. 3. 2) Technical issues: The system should be implemented in . NET. 4) Interface Requirements: 4. 1) GUI: GUI 1: The first form provides login page for the employee. GUI 2: After successful login, there are different actions that can be performed i. e. change password, sign-out, add customer, delete customer, add details, view details etc. GUI 3: For adding customers, all the required information is taken and the submit button is selected for making corresponding changes into the database. GUI 4: Once the changes are made into the database, on clicking the view details icon, the details of the customer can be obtained. GUI 5 and 6: The details of the customer can be updated with the help of form 5. A particular customer can be removed with the help of delete customer option. GUI 7,8 and 9: These forms record the different transactions such as withdrawal, deposit, transfer. 4. 2) Hardware Interface: Hardware Interface 1: The system should be embedded in each PC of the bank and in all of its branches. 4. 3) Software Interface: Software Interface 1: Bank Management System. Software Interface 2: The staff and employee database should maintain necessary records. ) Performance Requirements: The system should work concurrently on multiple computers during the working hours of bank. The system should support 50 users. 6) Design Constraints: The system should be designed in 2 months. 7) Other Non Functional Attributes: a) Security: Each employee is provided with a user ID and password to log into the system. Only then he can manipulate the database. b) Availability: The system should be available during ban k working hours. c) Maintainability: There should be a facility to add or delete customers as and when required. ) Reusability: The same system must be used in every financial year. 8) Operational Scenarios: There will be an employee database and customer database. The employee database contains personal information of all the employees. The customer database contains personal as well as account related information. 9) Preliminary Schedule: The system has to be implemented in 2 months. CONCLUSION: Thus we have documented Software Requirement Specification for Bank Management System (BMS).

Can the war on terror be undertood in terms of realism Essay

Can the war on terror be undertood in terms of realism - Essay Example This shouldn’t be startling as they all have a common origin and considering the complexity of the subject, it deserves this literary stretch. If Marxism and Christianity can have various interpretations, so can realism. John J. Mearsheimer, professor at the University of Chicago was once asked what realism says about terrorism, and his answer was, ‘Not a whole heck of a lot, Realism†¦..is really about relations among states, especially among the great powers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Realism doesn’t have much to say about the causes of terrorism’1. It would be better to take a look at various realism theories before going into the details of the war on terror. Realism is a ‘philosophical disposition’ in the words of Robert Gilpin; many commentators have considered it a general orientation and not a set of explicit rules. According to Ferguson and Mansbach, it is a set of normative emphases that shape the theory and an ‘attitude of mind’ with distinct and perceptible flavours in the words of Edward Garnett. Sandra Rosenthal considers realism a ‘loose framework’ while Colin Elman considers it a ‘big tent’ that has room to accommodate a number of theories and notions2. Realism is a methodology of understanding international relations and many scholars and thinkers have placed themselves in the growth of this method that is why it has been delimited in its projection and analysis. It is a little difficult to enclose terrorism or ‘war on terror’ in one definition of realism. Terrorism is a concept that has reached all corners of the earth. No place on this planet is oblivion of this concept, especially after the sad September 11 attacks on the twin towers of U.S. and the America’s ‘war on terror’. This phrase has redefined domestic conflicts and territorial skirmishes. Prior to 9/11 attacks and the alleged ‘war on terror’, terrorist groups were indigenous of their terrains but now just like international trade and

Hart-Devlin Debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Hart-Devlin Debate - Essay Example However, the law is not against the private lives of people and the activities they undertake in private. Therefore, a law cannot be imposed that interferes with the private lives of people. The report by the committee sparked a reaction from Patrick Devlin. Devlin in his discussion on â€Å"the enforcement of morals† argued that criminal law is not only meant to protect individuals but the entire society. Therefore, if people are engaged in activities that are against the society norms should be criminated. He further argued that criminal law should not only protect criminal activities that directly affect people, but rather should protect society from adverse effects imposed by individuals both in public and in private (Cane 22). Herbert Hart reacted against the argument of Devlin in a radio broadcast. Hart argued with regard to the â€Å"harm principle† by J. S Mills. He argued that the only reason in which power can be correctly exercised over any individual in soci ety against his will is, to ensure no harm imposed to others by the individual (Cane 23). An argumentative debate between the two individuals ensued, both of them believing their side of the argument to be reasonable. Devlin argued that the society supposed to be united by legal and moral conducts. Therefore, any actions that jeopardizes society’s norms should be criminated (Cane 24). The society supposed to impose its morality so that cultural values and believes can be maintained. Hart argued against this argument claiming that Devlin did not provide factual evidence of his arguments. Hart claimed that society norms are widely used; therefore, using them to deny a group of people to conduct their private activities is not respecting the morals of individuals. Some contributions made regarding the subject of law and morals of society (Cane 25). Therefore, in order to establish a valid argument of the case standards ought to be set and difference between harm and moral standa rds should be established. In addition, a relationship between law and morality should also be discussed in details. The debate sparked by the report established by wolfenden committee. The committee was established to put in consideration the law governing prostitution and male homosexual behavior. Nonetheless, the debate that ensued concentrated on the subject of sexual conduct and morals. The committee was discussing the issue of criminal activities with regard to homosexuality. The debate concentrated on criminal law and did not put in consideration other forms of law (Cane 26). The society plays a significant role to play with regard to ensuring the community and the country at large behave accordingly. According to Devlin, the actions of individuals can affect the outlook of the entire society. Therefore, when lawmakers are developing laws they should put into consideration a person’s liberty (Cane 27). In addition, technological advancement is changing overtime; theref ore, it is reasonable enough for the society to come to terms with the changes. Devlin’s view After the committee published its report, Devlin was quick to respond to the report through a public lecture. Devlin argued that morals and laws should go hand in hand. Behavior of an individual does not only affect the individual alone but the entire society (Cane 28). Therefore, legalizing homosexuality is offensive to the society as it goes against the moral standards of the society. the society’s cultural values should be protected by the law. Devlin’s argument meant to protect the society through the

Answer the 4 Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Answer the 4 Questions - Essay Example The best part about the company was also that it had good electrical engineers that paid attention to providing the customers with good quality finished products. However, most of the machines were a little non-user friendly which led to a lot of complaints faced by the dealers. These factors thus represent vital strategic resources for the company in their own ways as mentioned. Answer 2: In the projector market, Sony had secured for itself a firm foothold as well. Sony was the main player in the projector market and had an estimation of about 50% of its units being sold. The main reason by which it was able to generate high levels of revenue was because it had a worldwide network of captive commercial video distributors who in turn worked with about 1,500 dealers worldwide. It had built a reputation for itself in terms of high reliability and cheaper prices with the dealers and that is why the more preferred brand in terms of projector purchases. However, when one looked at its ele ctrical engineers, the ones from Barco were better equipped to handle machines and produced better projectors. Thus the only strategic resource that Sony has in the projector market reverts back to its strong distribution system or line of promotion and physical networking. Answer 3: Barco made a decision of entering a new activity only if it had in depth research of the technology that was required and only if it could hold an estimation of being one of the top three manufacturers of the product in the world. It also put in about 8% - 10% of its annual turnover into research and development for the same. This led to the company facing a vast number of hindrances because due to this, the company only relied on the knowledge that it had gained, and Sony took over the market slowly with the introduction of new and improved technology at lower prices. Had the company changed its vision about not delving into unknown surroundings, it could have done better and provided fierce competitio n for its competitors as well. Answer 4: Sony’s strategic plan was to launch the Superdata projector at the Siggraph show in Boston. This product seized the first place as the industry’s highest performing projector from BPS’ BG400. Sony also planned to price it at a level that was about 20% – 40% below the actual market price that had been established in the projector sector. Thus this lethal combination of having such a low price for a high end and high performance yielding product proved great competition for Barco and threatened not only to lead to a collapse of its traditional market segmentation but also drop the prices of its products to a very low amount. This led to a downturn in the company’s working and functioning. Works Cited 1. Moriarty, Rowland T. â€Å"Barco Projection Systems (A): Worldwide Niche Marketing†

Why People Tell Lies Essay Example for Free

Why People Tell Lies Essay Telling a lie is something that seems to come naturally to people. It is usually a tall story used to hide their shortcomings as individuals or hide actual events that may prove to be detrimental to certain situations a person is involved in. When a person lies because of those reasons, he hopes that the person he is telling it to will believe it and forget the situation that currently exists. The reason people lie vary in reason and depends upon the age of the liar. As children, a lie is sometimes part of an over active imagination. As adults, the lies are told to make their lives seem more interesting than it usually is. Or, among friends, a lie is told to protect feelings or secrets. A lie told by a friend to cover up another friend usually builds the â€Å"I got your back† basis of the friendship. Lies told for any reason is unacceptable. There is no such thing a small lie or a white lie. A lie is a lie and it has severe repercussions once it is discovered. Sometimes, a person becomes a congenital liar because he is afraid that people will not like the real him. So he makes up a totally different personality to make him more popular with people. Unfortunately, once the lie is caught, that usually means the end of that relationship. It is said that a person who says he never lies is a liar himself. I would tend to believe that because some people do not even realize they are lying to people anymore. The people around us who are supposed to be our role models, the celebrities, the politicians, even our own parents, lie at certain points during their lives for one reason or another. So how can they expect us to tell the truth all the time when they themselves cannot be bound to it? Lies are also told in order to assert authority. Leadership by fear it is called. An empty threat that nobody is serious about following through on. Basically, people lie simply because it is easier to deal with a lie and tell people what they want to hear instead of telling a truth that would have to be justified in the end. Why People Tell Lies (Final Version) Some people believe that lying is an act that comes naturally to everyone. The reasons for telling a lie is as varied as the imagination of the people telling lies. The recognized reason that people tell lies is because they need to hide certain information or actions that could have a negative after effect on the liar and the people around him once the truth gets out. It is a way of diverting attention from what really transpired in the hopes that the people concerned will no longer be interested in finding out more details about the events as it actually happened. The fact is that people of all ages, race, and ethnicity lie. Children tell lies as part of their cognitive development processes. A lie is an acceptable product of an over active imagination that the child releases through story telling. Adults on the other hand lie for completely different reasons that are deemed unacceptable by proper society. An adult can lie in order to make himself more interesting as a person or to get ahead in the workplace. When among friends, lies are told to protect feelings, or keep secrets of others in order to reinforce the â€Å"trust† factor between friends. In truth, lies, regardless of the reason they are told, are unacceptable in any society. There is no such thing as a harmless, small, or even white lie. There are no innocent lies because once a lie is told, it immediately poses severe repercussions for the liar who will always be discovered n the end. When a person takes to lying in order become a popular and accepted person in social circles and is caught, the lie effectively ends any relationship that existed and creates an irreparable rift among those concerned. I believe that a person who says that he never lies is a liar himself. The images of people who we trusted to tell the truth and yet lie all the time surround us. From the politicians to the Hollywood celebrities we admire, they all seem to lie to the public on a daily basis and expect us to believe everything they say. They make telling a lie a proper and acceptable thing to do in society. How can we be expected to tell the truth to the people around us when we are surrounded daily by liars? Obviously, one of the major reasons that a person tells a lie, as evidenced by the politicians and celebrities is to assert their authority and influence on the impressionable people. When a lie is told, a wrong magically becomes a right. Even our own parents lie during certain instances and they should therefore never hold their kids to telling them the whole truth all the time. Basically, it is easier to tell a lie and deal with covering it up with more lies than it is to tell a truth with justifiable reasons. People seem to accept and deal with lies more easily, that is why people lie.