Summary
Xerox Corporation's Palo Alto Research Centre is located in the core of Silicon Valley. It has been well-known over the last 50 years within the technology related departments for its many technological breakthroughs. However Xerox hasn't always been able to provide back many far-reaching ideas. During this time Steven Job's left Xerox to co-found Apple Computer Inc, many others also built multi-billion dollar corporations with the foundations first developed by Xerox. Xerox had numerous other dilemmas that didn't only occur within labs. During the 1980s, Xerox lost its marketing leadership position in photocopiers to Canon. It failed to revive the brand and introduce new products which resulted in many of its sales reps quitting to join other firms. They left with valuable product knowledge that took years to acquire which was a disadvantage for Xerox. It's stock price was now practically the same in late 2003 as it was in 1961. Xerox was struggling to unite its human resources in bringing new technologies to the market. People were taught to behave in a different manner at Xerox. In 1999, Rick Thoman was made chief executive officer, successor to Paul Allaire wo was named chairman. Thoman had a goal to fix the problems within Xerox. Barry Romeril, the chief financial officer did a poor job looking after corporate finances. The company was facing a downgrade of its bonds to junk status and numerous shareholder lawsuits. Xerox then exposed its 13 percent loss in net worth in 1999. While Thoman wanted Romeril fired, Allarie wouldn't allow it because they were old friends. Thoman wanted to restructure Xerox's global sales division to better compete with the Japanese firms. He also had a vision of having a sales force that was limited geographically but had a wide spread of product knowledge. The sales force eventually began to get affected by the negative relationships within the company and the lack of direction. With Xerox's stock tumbling, Thoman was fired and Mulcahy was promoted to president and chief operating officer.
Response
Xerox was facing possible bankruptcy for a while and has experienced problems that outweighed its talent and technologies into successful products and services. It is clear to see that Xerox was struggling with efficient operation as well as communication within the company. I think the main reason was that, people who had a higher status were doing poorly with making decisions and cooperating with others. Thoman had his way of thinking which affected Romeril and Allaire. To me it seem more like a problem with personal relationships between these officers and lack of dedication and commitment to benefit and support for the company. Due to these struggles, the company was impact greatly.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Venture Ideas
Personal Shopper
I personally love walking around the mall and shopping, that's why I feel becoming someone's personal shopper would be the best job for me! As a personal shopper it is my responsibility to help run out to supermarkets or grocery stores to buy any necessities and groceries. Other than running errands at the supermarket, I can also be a personal stylist! Since I adore fashion and clothes, this job is suitable for me. Just like a wedding planner but instead an outfit planner I can help my customers choose the perfect outfit to any event or even daily wear. My target customers are most likely mothers because they are the most busiest having to take care of their children, do chores and cook. My target market is mainly leaning towards woman and elderly woman mostly because females always need to shop. I will be a provide convenience and satisfaction. My responsibility to is help my customers do any of their shopping, anything that has to do with shopping, I will do! I will be these ladies personal shoppers for as many as times as they need for
$50 a day. However if it's just a quick stop to the grocery store it will only be $20. Just like a friend, I will be available for them anytime, just one call away. To advertise, I will start by making business cards and handing them out to my friends as well as their mothers and grandmothers! Also advertising my service online, posting it up on websites or maybe even Facebook. This is a great venture idea because not only does it barely cost any operation money, all it takes is my time and effort to get it going. I'll be making a reasonable amount of money while helping out mothers and elderly woman who need a shopping assistant.
Boot Protection
I always find myself walking in the rain and minutes later my boots will be soaking wet for the entire day. That's why I want to create plastic socks! These are plastic bags that are shaped like socks and can be worn inside boots to protect your actual socks from getting wet. To make these handy socks, I will first need to find a large amount of plastic bag like material and then take the time to cut out and sew these pairs of socks. They are long lasting, one size fits all and are made in the best quality plastic and strong threads. They will be packed in cute pouches, 2 pairs for $5 or 5 pairs for $10. Making the product and the packing will take time however won't be that costly because many cheap arts and crafts materials can be found at Michael's or even Diaso! My target market would be more towards girls and women because we always wear boots during the winter and rainy days. To advertise my product I will start by posting it up Facebook as well as introducing it to my friends. Customers may contact me through email or calling and customers will have to do a face trade with me at any location they want to meet up. Face trading means meeting up with my customers at a specific location and then selling my product to and receiving money from my customers. I think this is a good idea because it is convenient and is very useful. I'm sure everyone experiences the wet socks during a rainy day like me, that's why I know for sure my business will be successful!
I personally love walking around the mall and shopping, that's why I feel becoming someone's personal shopper would be the best job for me! As a personal shopper it is my responsibility to help run out to supermarkets or grocery stores to buy any necessities and groceries. Other than running errands at the supermarket, I can also be a personal stylist! Since I adore fashion and clothes, this job is suitable for me. Just like a wedding planner but instead an outfit planner I can help my customers choose the perfect outfit to any event or even daily wear. My target customers are most likely mothers because they are the most busiest having to take care of their children, do chores and cook. My target market is mainly leaning towards woman and elderly woman mostly because females always need to shop. I will be a provide convenience and satisfaction. My responsibility to is help my customers do any of their shopping, anything that has to do with shopping, I will do! I will be these ladies personal shoppers for as many as times as they need for
$50 a day. However if it's just a quick stop to the grocery store it will only be $20. Just like a friend, I will be available for them anytime, just one call away. To advertise, I will start by making business cards and handing them out to my friends as well as their mothers and grandmothers! Also advertising my service online, posting it up on websites or maybe even Facebook. This is a great venture idea because not only does it barely cost any operation money, all it takes is my time and effort to get it going. I'll be making a reasonable amount of money while helping out mothers and elderly woman who need a shopping assistant.
Boot Protection
I always find myself walking in the rain and minutes later my boots will be soaking wet for the entire day. That's why I want to create plastic socks! These are plastic bags that are shaped like socks and can be worn inside boots to protect your actual socks from getting wet. To make these handy socks, I will first need to find a large amount of plastic bag like material and then take the time to cut out and sew these pairs of socks. They are long lasting, one size fits all and are made in the best quality plastic and strong threads. They will be packed in cute pouches, 2 pairs for $5 or 5 pairs for $10. Making the product and the packing will take time however won't be that costly because many cheap arts and crafts materials can be found at Michael's or even Diaso! My target market would be more towards girls and women because we always wear boots during the winter and rainy days. To advertise my product I will start by posting it up Facebook as well as introducing it to my friends. Customers may contact me through email or calling and customers will have to do a face trade with me at any location they want to meet up. Face trading means meeting up with my customers at a specific location and then selling my product to and receiving money from my customers. I think this is a good idea because it is convenient and is very useful. I'm sure everyone experiences the wet socks during a rainy day like me, that's why I know for sure my business will be successful!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
reflection 2
response
From watch the video, the part that caught my attention was when the host said "to get heard by other businesses, you have to talk business language." This goes the same for anything, for example clothing designs. To get people to sponsor your clothes and product it, you have to grab their attention and get to the point. I never knew how confusing and complicated the steps for sustainability could be. To be honest I got lost when they were explaining the steps.
research
The company I chose to research about is a mall-based retailer of casual men and woman clothing for teens called Aeropostale. According to this website (http://www.dosomething.org/teensforjeans/home) Aeropostale hosts an organization called Teens for Jeans drive. This organization is campaigning to get teens involved to help out homeless teens and the jeans will be brought to local homeless shelters or charities. Jeans will also be donated to 600 Canadian and American shelters that Aeropostale is partnered with. This event has been happening annually and this year is the fourth year this drive has taken place. Last year, Aeropostale collected over 200, 000 pairs of jeans and majority of the jeans donated will be heading down to Haiti to help the teens there.
What happens is that, all Aeropostale stores between January 17- February 13 will be accepting gently worn jeans and in return these people get an additional 25% off any Aeropostale jeans. For each Jean donated, a 25% off coupon is given.
It is obvious that Aeropostale gets a lot of customers by hosting this campaign. I was involved in this event last year. Like any teenager, my closet is full of clothes and I have loads of jeans that I don't wear anymore. This organization is a great idea because it gets peoples attention to get rid of old jeans and trade it for a discount for new jeans. This is a benefit to Aeropostale because while boosting up their reputation of being a company that contributing to society, they are also increasing their sales and profit. I personally don't see it as a bad thing because while Aeropostale is helping the homeless they are also gaining more customers which is good for a retail company.
This program affects me in a way that it attracts my attention and makes me want to get involved with it. It makes me want to dig up a pair of old jeans, donate it to get a discount coupon. This makes me feel good as a person because while contributing to help out homeless teens I also get a discount on new jeans.
This program gives a positive effect to possible stakeholders because It gives them a positive impression on the company and attracts them to invest in it. Knowing that the campaign contributes to increasing profit I feel will attract stakeholders to invest in Aeropostale.
From watch the video, the part that caught my attention was when the host said "to get heard by other businesses, you have to talk business language." This goes the same for anything, for example clothing designs. To get people to sponsor your clothes and product it, you have to grab their attention and get to the point. I never knew how confusing and complicated the steps for sustainability could be. To be honest I got lost when they were explaining the steps.
research
The company I chose to research about is a mall-based retailer of casual men and woman clothing for teens called Aeropostale. According to this website (http://www.dosomething.org/teensforjeans/home) Aeropostale hosts an organization called Teens for Jeans drive. This organization is campaigning to get teens involved to help out homeless teens and the jeans will be brought to local homeless shelters or charities. Jeans will also be donated to 600 Canadian and American shelters that Aeropostale is partnered with. This event has been happening annually and this year is the fourth year this drive has taken place. Last year, Aeropostale collected over 200, 000 pairs of jeans and majority of the jeans donated will be heading down to Haiti to help the teens there.
What happens is that, all Aeropostale stores between January 17- February 13 will be accepting gently worn jeans and in return these people get an additional 25% off any Aeropostale jeans. For each Jean donated, a 25% off coupon is given.
It is obvious that Aeropostale gets a lot of customers by hosting this campaign. I was involved in this event last year. Like any teenager, my closet is full of clothes and I have loads of jeans that I don't wear anymore. This organization is a great idea because it gets peoples attention to get rid of old jeans and trade it for a discount for new jeans. This is a benefit to Aeropostale because while boosting up their reputation of being a company that contributing to society, they are also increasing their sales and profit. I personally don't see it as a bad thing because while Aeropostale is helping the homeless they are also gaining more customers which is good for a retail company.
This program affects me in a way that it attracts my attention and makes me want to get involved with it. It makes me want to dig up a pair of old jeans, donate it to get a discount coupon. This makes me feel good as a person because while contributing to help out homeless teens I also get a discount on new jeans.
This program gives a positive effect to possible stakeholders because It gives them a positive impression on the company and attracts them to invest in it. Knowing that the campaign contributes to increasing profit I feel will attract stakeholders to invest in Aeropostale.
Friday, January 7, 2011
reflection
After watching the video, I gained a better understanding of how a variety of corporations and companies treat their employees. The part i felt that was most devastating was when they mentioned people getting paid as little as 10 cents per hour. People are being put through harsh labour because they are willing to take on any job even if the profit is only a couple of dollars. I think its unfair that corporations don't consider how many hours people are working and how important money is for them. I feel that these companies lack business ethics and responsiblitity. They take advantage of these innocent people and put them through hard times. Many of these people join work for these companies because they are desperate for money to feed their family. I believe at least half of the company's profit should be given to their employees. I now realize how lucky i am to have a job with good pay, compared to the people in china and many other countries. I was really suprised to see how corporations treat their employees.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)