case digital equipmentcorporation case 2-4 Essay

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.

A bill-and-hold transaction is when the seller bills the customers for a product and records it as revenue, but does not ship the product to the customer until a later date. FASB states that revenue can not be recognized until the product is shipped to the final customer. Kelly Electronics will be receiving the products by March 31, 2017, but the final customer, Victor Systems will not, so under FASB, revenue should not be recognized until the goods are shipped to Victor Systems. The SEC also has certain criteria that needs to be met before South City Electronics can recognize this revenue. A few of these criteria’s are: “the risks of ownership must have passed to the buyer”, “the buyer, not the seller, must request the transaction be on

Unit three journals were about the competitive advantage that with strategy creates value for the company and customers. It also talked about non-customers, which are people that have option when making a decision to purchase regardless of their situation. The product life cycle in unit three was about customer and a product. In different stages such as the product introduction, to the industry, growth, maturity, and decline customers and product were introduced of the competitive advantage. The Six Utility Levers learned in unit three that mapping is a great tool for buyers. Buyers can make sure that the purchase, delivery and the supplements of products maintained and disposed

* In what ways do the goals of R&D conflict with those of the brands?

CompuCo is attempting to move from a domestic producer to that of an international producer. In order to achieve this feat, the company must have an international focus in regards to its overall business operations. It is quite apparent from the case, that CompuCo does not have the will or desire to be proactive with its international subsidiaries. In order to achieve greater international success, Dr. Durand must first alter the company culture. First, all international subsidiaries should be treated as a primary business irrespective of their individual performance. It seems, through reading the case, that much more emphasis is placed on French product development and applications that is given to its international counterparts. This is a detriment to business as many of CompuCo's international customers have differing tastes and sentiments in regards to product offerings. The case cites numerous examples of this between both French and American consumers. French consumers, for example, like to read product manuals and prefer complexity over simplicity. Their American counterparts however prefer ease of use, and a simple design. The company was slow to discern these changes in consumer demands and elected instead to emphasize its French product design. This created consumer ill-will and

We at ALMS Consulting Co. have been hired to analyze the way product lines and product managers are being evaluated at the Thomas J. Lipton, Incorporated (“Lipton” or the “Company”) entity. We will review the performance metrics utilized at the corporate level of Lipton, explain the current methodology utilized to evaluate the individual product lines, and then detail the benefits and potential downfalls of the methodology proposed by Don Logan. Finally, we will provide our own recommendations and opinions as to how

In order for Mikes business to grow physically in this technological era they must set the direction with the four A’s

Tait Communications ltd is a global company with some millions of people around the globe depending on tait products to keep their lights on cites flowing and communities safe. The core business operation of tait is to manufacture radio equipment for emergency services departments. Other wing of tait is to provide communication solutions to its clients. The company clients are spread across the globe but its key clients are from North America, United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It has more than 40 years of excellence track record in engineering.

In this scenario Margret Weston, received a letter. In the letter she found out that Yossarian acquired 10% of the company’s stock. This aggressive move by Yossarian was motivated by the company management not doing their job to maximize shareholders wealth. Moreover, the managers were having issues with the hurdle rate, because it is just generally accepted, but not scientifically proven. On the other hand one TV Commentators opinion about Teletech Corp. is that “there is no way to have a hostile takeover in this sector, but for the Teletech Corp. there are many reasons to try.” Teletech Corp. has two major business segments, Telecommunication Services and both Product and System Manufacturing make up the other segment we will analyze.

The image of the company is a lot dependent on how everyone will interpret and implement the message of the Statement of Vison and Values. Clients now view O&M people as “uninvolved, distant, and reserved”. Beers needs a way to reach all employees as effectively as she has done with the few key people: challenging them to be more creative, to toss aside the old rules and really embrace the new Vison.

Kirkham’s strategy was to integrate the different systems of each division into an “all-inclusive” product and also to involve all the divisions together with regards to product development, instead of letting each division be responsible for just products within that division. Mr. Donaldson chose Kathleen Quinn, Vice-President of R&D, to be responsible for coordinating the development of new products. This proved to be quite a challenging task considering that each managing director (of each division) still retained responsibility for the turnover and profitability of their respective decisions and also for the strategies to achieve the goals of their divisions. In addition, regardless of the trend of their customers in purchasing integrated systems, the majority of each division’s turnover came from the sale of stand-alone products.

While some of these differences are the result of legitimate differences in their business strategy, business environment, organization, and the nature of their products, a frequent problem is the lack of a common framework of the best practices of product development. With extensive investment of time, an organization could develop the broad, internal expertise necessary to produce an effective improvement plan for product development. During the entire process from conceptualizing to the launch of new product;the activities of the production and marketing functions are as important as those of product development/design function. Many of these activities are interdependent and the new product design must fit in not only with the production and marketing functions of the company but also with a company’s marketing & operations strategies and the existing systems & policies.If a new design warrants change in these strategies or policies or systems , it needs the wholehearted concurrence of production & marketing functions.

2. What do you think of the way the team set out to find a market for the Kittyhawk? What correct turns and what wrong turns did they make?

After conducted customers’ preferences, clear product lines should be developed as those existing are overlapped in styles. Therefore, similar product lines should be eliminated and combined into one to save cost and meet target customers’ preferences. For example, edc man and edc esprit can be combined as they are undeniably similar to each other.

Product Development – The company markets new products to existing customers. Here the company should be innovative, responsive, and truly in touch with their customer’s ever changing wants and needs.