Business Recommendations Based on Economic Projections

Assuming that the company’s goal is to maximize profits, the current cost system is not an appropriate tool for strategic planning. The ambiguity of the overhead costs per product makes it difficult to accurately analyze the cause and effect relationships of changes and/or improvements to specific product line.

Owens & Minor is a distributor of surgical and medical supplies to hospitals and other health care facilities. Due to changing demand from customers, the company is facing increased operating costs, which has resulted in lower profit margins and even losses. In 1993, O&M recorded an $18 million profit, which was reduced to a loss of $11 million in 1995. The entire industry is experiencing similar difficulties. In an effort to resume profitability, O&M is evaluating alternatives to “cost-plus pricing”. Cost-plus pricing does not reflect the true cost of the services provided by O&M. Customers are demanding more of O&M while

The company has been functioning well in terms of generating profit and demand so far. However, there will be a 20% increase in demand for the next month of operations as predicted by management, and the production and supply management's problems may come as a problem they can no longer afford.

3. On the topic of capitalizing line costs, critique the rationale included in CEO Scott Sullivan's

Although the company did show an increased gross profit of $8,255,000 with $6,358,000 less Net Sales in 2013 versus 2012, that increase is due to the reduction in product Cost of Goods Sold by $14,613,000. Since increases in product price will negatively affect sales, one of management’s primary goals is to keep prices stable. This objective is achieved through implementation of cost cutting programs, investing in more efficient equipment, and automation of more steps in the production process.

While we are performing our analysis on different aspects of the company, we look at the three main types of cost. When we remain devoted to improving our costs, and the faults related, we show our same devotion to our consumers. This is portrayed by the quality of products we put on the shelves. Prevention costs, appraisal costs and Failure costs are areas

Investopedia defines Budget as an "estimation of the expenses and revenues over a specific future period of time. Budgets can be made for a group of people, family, person, country, business, government, organization or anything else that makes or spend money. The budget is a micro economic concept that shows the trade-offs made when one good is exchange for another." When looking at the year 9 budget for CB first thing that jumped out at me was the sales goal of 3510 is a 5247450. This is my first immediate concern considering that the storyline has clearly stated it is a down market due to the

After setting up the functional units, I had to decide on which product I would purchase and sell. At that point, my strategy was to build a factory to purchase raw materials and to make them products in order to sell them through my department store. Therefore, I decided to make and sell Milk, Tv Dinner, Strawberry, and apple Crisp. When the department store started operating, as a manager I had to plan and act even more carefully than before. As my new firm entered into the market I had to offer my products in lower prices considering of course the short run cost, in order to "push" the demand for these products up and increase sales as well as profits and brand name in the long run. By time, and as the demand and brand were increasing I started to increase the prices respectively. I had to advertise my products heavily because they were new and I was aiming for brand awareness.

After Rayovac company’s successful long term course of rejuvenating its battery business for the purpose of spurring sales growth locally, a newly branded Rayovac brand supported by broad battery lineup via technological innovations, improved packaging, expanded distribution network, refined supply and purchase chain, slash in production cost and an increased plant capacity created Rayovac into a result oriented enterprise.(attachment C) Rayovac Company CEO, Jones with new entrepreneurial culture insights into the company performance, embanked into globalization of the battery business in 1999.

In a desire to increase the company’s working capital for the company’s future financial investment in a plant modernization and expansion program, Beauregard Textile Company increased the price of its Triaxx-30 product to bring its profit margins up to that of their other products. In a sequential-move game theory Calhoun & Pritchard, Beauregard’s primary rival, did not raise its price even though its costs were assumed to be similar. As a result, Beauregard’s unit sales dropped significantly as their customers purchased the cheaper competitor’s product, causing Beauregard’s profit contribution to decrease. A closer examination of Beauregard’s cost analysis revealed that it includes fixed costs, which when

Cartwright is a retail distributor of lumber products. It built its competitive edge based on pricing and having a careful control over its operations. The company reported an operating income of $86,000 and $111,000 in 2003 and 2004, respectively. This is a 29% increase in operating income in one year, which shows the firm’s strong ability to generate cash. The firm’s account receivables and inventory are increasing from year to year which is a good sign of a growing business. Cartwright is not an asset intensive company. It does not have to have huge fixed assets; most of its assets are cash, accounts receivable and inventory which all depend on future sales. Sourcing of materials is managed very well, purchased at discounts most of the time and contribute to having lower prices.

with a number of strategic issues facing a capital-intensive, mature industry. Their product costing system was

After analyzing the results from the previous quarter, it was determined that the prices set for each segment were not sufficient. Product sales priority were also not properly adjusted. With the R&D investments, sales priorities needed to be changed for the main focus to become the most profitable market segments. Prices were not competitive which in turned decreased revenue, market share, and profitability. To become more competitive we altered the prices in each market segment. The Workhorse product was the first to change, the price was lowered to $2500 in an attempt to increase sales; at this price Team 4 was still making a profit on this product, as well as making the price much more competitive. The Workhorse sales priority was also lowered to 3rd in Americas and 4th in APAC and EMEA. This product was not selling as well as we had hoped, and was no longer as profitable as it once was which led to this decision. Next, the Innovator product’s price was adjusted; this involved a price increase to $4100. This price was adjusted to include the new

To make his business successful, Colin must consider an integration of price, promotion, place, and product. He must also try and distance themselves from their competition. To do so the brothers must maintain the quality of their merchandise and customer service, reasonable prices, and improve their promotion strategies. For one thing, the price of his products must be within a

Based on the real world functioning of businesses, every organization that deals with the process of manufacturing of certain products operates in accordance with the main principle of maximizing its profits. During the performance of daily activities, many business managers face a series of questions related to planning, control and decision making. In order to give answers to all these questions, an additional analysis needs to be considered. It is very important for managers to plan carefully how they are going to generate sufficient money to pay down costs and, in this way to result with a profit. As managers are interested in having the adequate information about the influence that certain actions might have on the profitability of the business, "Cost Volume and Profit" analysis plays a significant role by being a potential tool in facilitating the process of making the right decisions regarding planning and control in order to add value to the company. (Trifan and Anton, 2011). To further illustrate the essential impact that CVP analysis has on management authorities in making better decisions, I will refer to and analyze the case of the Hampshire Company which follows as below.