Business Plan for Record Label

Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par Business Plan for Record Label Business Plan for Record Label Business Planning Introduction to unit eight coursework In this unit, I have the opportunity to structure a business plan for a business proposal, which I will have the opportunity to create. For this segment of the assignment, I will clarify the main activities of the business, in addition to its aims and objectives. The assignment will also be focusing on the marketing and financial planning of my chosen business, notwithstanding, the operations and financial planning of the proposed business proposal. At the end of it all, I will be evaluating my business and its viability. However, to start a business I will need a business plan. A business plan is essentially a plan of a business that is to be set up; this is usually a written piece of statement about the business (think of it as a blueprint). This is a useful document to have because; firstly, it outlines the business itself and outlines what the business is essentially about, and secondly, it allows the owner/manager of the business to work towards the success of the business by spotting and avoiding failures. In general, a business plan will have the following statements; what the business is all about (i.e. the nature of the business), the aims and objectives of the business (What they hope to achieve and expect in the future) and how the individual plans and will o about creating the business. This can be illustrated in a majority of ways however; a financial planning of the first six months or perhaps even a year would be ideal or information about how the investments are to be raised for the business. A business plan is a very indispensable piece of document to have if someone is considering starting their own business, this is because a business plan outlines/predicts what the business will be like after setting up that gives a clear understanding of how the aims and objective are to be obtained as well as defining them. Furthermore, a business plan will also help to plot any pitfall along the way, i.e. a detailed cash flow of a businesss first six months will be able to suggest if the business will have a higher cost when compared with the profit they make, even before the business has started, and this can prevent major loss of profitability. Not only does a business plan outlines and spots major flaws in the business, but many businesses and entrepreneurs use it as a source of motivation; a backdrop to compare their current performance against. Further adding more, a business plan would be beneficial to establish or to re-evaluate the businesss competitive position within the market place by conducting a thorough analysis of the competition. This would involve finding out the strengths and weaknesses of the competition and how the business can be taken advantage of. In conclusion, as mentioned above, a business plan is important for a business because it helps to clarify the vision of the business and decide whether to forge ahead with the idea. Without a business plan, it would be very difficult to convince external investors to invest the business. Not only that, a business plan will also help the business determine their target market that they want to aim their product at, which is always useful to know. The Business Proposal For my chosen business proposal, I have decided to create a music label, and have named it P.K. Media. Generally, the term â€Å"Record label† is something that is associated with the music industry. A Record label is a brand and a trademark, which is associated with the procedure of marketing and distributing musical recordings and music videos of their signed artists. A record label is also the company that manages the artists/bands and coordinates, manufactures, promotes and distributes their productions i.e. music/videos. Record labels are also responsible for the enforcement of copyright protection on the media that they distribute such as CDs and DVDs, so that their content (such as music), cannot be copied and sold as pirated versions of their work to the customers by other individuals. The business I intend to propose will primarily focus on the production and the promotion of the music of its artists/bands in the local area, the Midlands. The reason for this is that there is a much lower cost of setting up a music label for the local area as there are less promotional activities which the label would have to finance and carry out, thus reducing the start up cost of the business compared to if it was a nationwide business. The main services/products that P.K. Media will provide to its consumers and music acts are as follow: * Music sold using online services such as iTunes and the business website. Some music will be available for free download as a promotional activity. * Provide live performances by its artists and bands as a secondary service. o Commissions from artist will be charged on this, depending the amount of tickets sold by the act. * Offer promotional services for unsigned artist and band acts and charge commission depending on their popularity, music sold, the amount of record deal they receive etc. o Free promotional services will also be available for unsigned artists on the businesss website for uploading their work to display to the internet audiences. o Manufacturing CDs and DVDs will also be available for artists wishing to use for promotional use, however it is highly likely that there will be a fixed cost for this service. * Record deals will be available for artists; majority of the aforementioned services will available with this, as the business will undertake the sole responsibility for the promotion, distribution, production and the sales of the artist/bands music signed to P.K. Media. * Recording facilities and personnel will be available to customers who wish to record their own music that will be mixed by a professional studio engineer. Customers will be charged on an hourly basis or perhaps special offers upon depending upon how much music they wish to record. Live performance are a good way of raising additional profit other than selling CDs because with live performances, My business can charge commission from the local pubs/bars to supply the live performances with beverages, as a result the pubs and bars will also get some promotion of their products and services which will benefit their businesses as well. Furthermore, the business will also be able to make profit through selling tickets for the live performances. The location of this business will be varied and may not be based in a single location, the reason being that if my business is organising the performances, then it will have to be located at the performances to manage the bands and other aspects of the performance i.e. selling the tickets. However, P.K. Media will need facilities to record the band/artists music and venues for live performances, for this it will be a necessity to have access to a recording studio and to be able to rent a venue in the local area. Having acce ss to a studio can be done in a number of ways such as renting a recording studio in the local area or purchasing the equipment and setting up the recording studio at home or other location, such as a youth centre or other rented location like flats or houses. The cost of the musical equipment such as; mixing boards, computers, mics, instruments, audio processing hardware and sound proofing the location can add up to a significant amount and as a new business the cost of starting up should be kept at a minimum. Ultimately, a more convenient option would be to rent a recording studio, which is pre-provided with all the equipment needed (as described above). Another issue which may arise would be that if my business had to purchase the musical equipment I would have to purchase the low-end equipment as the high-end (studio quality) equipment can cost thousands and upwards and as a small independent music label there would be limitations for the finance. In addition, the low-end equipm ent could also reduce the quality of the recording, and as a record label that will not be beneficial for the artists because consumers would not want to purchase bad quality products especially if the product is aimed at entertainment purposes. Imagine listening to ones favourite song with hissing noisiest, crackle and static noises, it would not be pleasant to listen to which is why quality of the audio is a substantial element of a record label. Reason for choice of business? The idea of a record label interested me because; with a record label, there is no need to purchase stock; it is a service-based business, which means that a record label does not have to manufacture or purchase anything other than to sign the artist and record CDs. A record label is basically, the intermediate service between audiences/customers and the artist. In essence, while the artist makes the product, the record label simply delivers it to the customers, almost like an intermediary. Another thing which seemed interesting is that the possibility of a sole ownership of the business. Since a record label is a service-based business, it is not necessary to have partners (as with any other businesses). It can be set-up with a moderately low cost, which mean that there is no need to invite external investors to invest in the business and hold a percentage of shares in the business, leaving room for more creative control over the business. Personal interest is another factor that may have influenced my choice to pick a record label for a business proposal. Unqualified amateur musician myself, I find that music is the greatest past time for all ages which is why I liked the idea of providing people with good quality of music to listen to which is easily accessible and is at moderately low price. Overall, I believe that a record label should be a viable business proposal for this assignment because like many businesses it requires marketing strategies, target consumers and a product. A further consideration is that almost everyone listens to music (to some extent) whether it is purchased from store or downloaded from the web and it is because of this that music is considered as one of the major immersed art form, which hints of a profitable market sector. What are Aims and Objectives? It is imperative for a business to have a basic requirement and have clear aims and objectives in order to prosper and move forward in their field. Aims and objectives are frequently used together to set/represent a certain achievement which is why they can often be mistaken to having similar meaning, however, they have a significant different to each other. Aims, to summarise, are essentially a brief statement, which majority of the time are short sentences; for instance, ‘maximise profit or ‘increase customer growth. Aims are most commonly use to identify the overall target of a business, states their intentions, and what they hope to achieve in the future of the business. On a different note, objectives are more complex and ‘to the point than aims. Objectives, unlike aims, are more detailed and can be longer depending on the objective itself. For example, if a company wanted to increase their market, they could set themselves and objective of ‘increase employee productivity by 20%, within in the next six months. As you can see, an objective is more complex, and more detailed. Furthermore, the detail in objectives tends to be numerical details such as specific dates, time frame, percentages etc. This is because objectives are a follow-up of aims. An objective is set merely set to accomplish or to achieve an aim. To illustrate, if a businesss aim is to ‘maximise profit, then they may decide to set themselves the objective of ‘increase sales from 15.7% to 20%, within six months period. By increasing the sales of the business from 15.7% to 20%, a business can ensure that they are retaining their customers and increasing their profi t within six months. However, some businesses may decide to have a sub-objective to this which could be something like ‘increase employee productivity by 2% in 30 days, to ensure that the business is getting the most out of their employees. This also proves the fact that individuals who either own the business or are in charge of the business are the ones who normally make aims. They may decide that their business should be making more profit so they pass it down to the managers who would look at it and perhaps add more detail to it, and as aims are passed down from person to person they become more detailed and complex, thus being objectives. There are a numerous reason as to why a business should set itself aims and objective;, the most obvious one would be that aims and objectives sets a goal for the business and gives some a target to work for, for many businesses this is a good source of motivation. Aims and objectives can also help a business realise their progress because aims and objective provide a backdrop for achievement in which a business can compare their current or previous progress with their aims or objective and calculate what is required to be done in order to meet those targets they have set for themselves. A controversial use of aims and objectives is to use them as a publicity device, in unit one, I had to investigate Tesco as a business and what I found was that Tesco had use their objectives as a publicity device by having economical objectives such as ‘reduce carbon footprints to gain good publicity from the media and their customers. Nevertheless, businesses have to be careful how they use or establish their aims and objectives because if they set objectives for their employees which are not applicable or achievable for the business then the business could face some pitfalls. The employees may feel under-pressure/ stressful and could de-motivate them which would evidently lead to a low productivity rate and could in some circumstances affect the businesss income. S.M.A.R.T Targets SMART targets or sometimes called SMART Objectives, are considered to be a sub-division of objectives, SMART targets are a method to ensure that the objectives which are set by a company are actually achievable by the business and the employees; it is a method of measuring the credibility of an objective which has been set. SMART is an acronym that stands for: Specific objectives, which are set, need to be specific and state exactly what the business wants to achieve. The reason an objective needs to be specific is because the manager/supervisor and the employee need to know what is expected of them and perhaps the time frame if that is applicable. Measurable most often, when objectives are set they need to be able to measure how much an individuals or a business have progressed towards those targets. Measuring a target is often very crucial towards the success of achieving that target because by measuring a target, businesses can estimate how much work is underway and how much additional effort needs to be exerted in order to achieve certain objectives. Achievable when objectives are set, one of the major issues, which a business must realise is that the target is achievable for the business. The business needs to think about; whether they have the required skills, recourses, investments, tools, human recourses etc. If the objectives are unrealistic or not achievable by the business then (as mentioned above) it can affect the productivity of employee and de-motivate them, and low productivity would surely affect the businesses activities and profits. Realistic or relevant objectives should also be relevant to the businesses aims. For example, if a business wants to increase market share, it would be irrelevant for them to set the target eliminate competitors products from the market; it would be very unrealistic. An objective needs to be relevant, they need to be something, which the business can take an action upon or have access to. Timely normally, when objectives are set, they have a timescale such as ‘increase the growth and the market share of the business by 2010. Setting timescale within an objective is beneficial as it gives a business a deadline as t when the objective needs to be achieved by, so the business can move onto their other objectives, which needs to be completed towards their aims. Aims for my business Just like any other modern businesses, my business needs to have aims and objectives, which it should be able to accomplish. Setting aims and objectives will help determine investors as well as myself the main goals of my business, and along the way, it could also help my business spot the potential target market hic hi should aim my business at in order to achieve some of businesss targets. ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. One of the major aims of my business would be to minimise the costs of the business, which goes into the production of the products (i.e. music albums and singles) and therefore must be kept at a minimum range. The reason behind this is that, if I were to start the business as a sole trader, there would be a limited amount of investments, which I could have access to and since my business is a record label there arent any need of purchasing any kind of stock or manufacturing materials in the sense of hard labour. As a newly set up business, it would be most advantageous to reduce the cost of the business to reduce the chances of getting into a cash flow problem such as over-budgeting or not having enough sales of the product where the costs would out-weigh the profit. It is because of this issue that leads to many businesses failing within the first year because they run into cash flow problem such as these; however, a good cash f low analysis should be able to determine any issue such as these that may arise. As well as reducing costs, my business also needs to be considering maximising its profits because without profit there will be no business to operate. Maximising profit is a necessity for any business, because it is what influences/motivates their day-to-day operations and their employees, without profit a business would not have the funding to employ employees or rent premises or other necessities. Furthermore, another crucial reason for a good profit for a business is that if a business is backed-up by inventors then the business (Owner) needs to prove to the investors that the business is worthwhile investing in because if the business starts to show a decline in profits then the investors are going to be the first ones who will back-out from the investments because they will not to make a loss themselves. As a summary, if there is no profit, there is no business. In my businesss quest to maximise profit; there could be a number of challenges/issues that could affect my business achieving the aim of ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit, and the following explains; One of the most significant issues that my record label business would have to deal with is the recession, which was caused by the financial crisis during the year 2007 and the year 2009. The financial crisis was the reduction in the availability of loans (credit) and to some extent; tightening of the condition required to obtain a loan from the banks, this evolved into the interest rates being incredibly high. The definite caused behind the credit crisis is highly doubtable, however, one reason might be that UK bought many mortgage debts from the U.S. (this might have been directly or indirectly) therefore when U.S. mortgage default rose, preponderance of the UK banks lost money. Because interest rates rose dramatically, many individuals in the population had to pay more for their loans and mortgages, which meant that individuals and many businesses had less disposable cash to spare and consequently, many businesses found themselves being either bankrupt or making employees redundan t to prevent bankruptcy. The reason why I believe that the recession may affect my business is because many individuals are un-employed, which means that they may be on some sort of limited income (either through council or jobseekers allowance). Ultimately, this would mean that many individuals would have less disposable income to spend on CDs and DVDs for personal entertainment and if my business is not selling many products, it will be in a high risk of having very high costs that could out-number the total sales of the business. This could put my business in a potential risk of being bankrupt, as you can see from fig.1, it is estimated that the recession will only get worse. In contrast, the recession may not be disastrously bad for my business. The reason behind this would be that because of the recession more people would be un-employed and have a whole lot of spare time on their hands as less people would be working nine to five shifts, this would mean that individuals would be looking for activities to pass their time. This could mean that people will be more reliant upon entrainment such as the cinemas, movies, theatre, music etc. This could potentially excel my business because more individuals would be interested and looking to escape from reality through the financial crisis, similarly to people who went through the Great Depression in the United States during 1929, which saw the rise of movie sales. To conclude, the recession is something that is known as an external factor, which no business has a control over. The recession could have a big impact on my business; however this factor could prove to be advantageous for my business as mentioned earlier, there are a lot more people with more spare time on their hands, and as a result they will be looking for something to entertain themselves and if marketing is done correctly for the business, it will prove to be beneficial. As one can see above, regardless of the recession and the credit crisis that started in 2007, the sales of digital music increased dramatically through the years and the digital music industry is more profitable than ever in the US with industry profit of 2.9 Billion dollars, a 15% from 2004 which was only 0.4 billion profit being made. One of the major issues that my business will have to confront other than the recent financial crisis is the piracy of music through the internet. In essence, music piracy the violation of copyright infringement (copyright), this means the unauthorised use of materials that is covered by the copyright law. For electronic and audio-visual media, this is normally referred to as piracy. Piracy is a factor that could have the biggest impact at my businesss aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. As one can see in the article opposite, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has predicted that music piracy has risen by thirty-six percent, which has cost the UK music industry twenty-six million pounds, which is a tremendous amount of load-sum. Music piracy is a factor which could directly affect my business because if my business released a single which was popular (Music hit) then the probability is that a lot of customers will be reluctant to purchase the single or the album in order to save money and they would perhaps download the product through an illegal download website or through the use of torrents (which is a peer-to-peer download service provided free from the internet). This is the most likely event to occur because as mentioned previously, the recession has left a lot of people un-employed which means that they may have a very low inco me and have limited amount of disposable cash to spend on entertainment. Because a lot of my businesss target consumers will be getting my product (music) through the internet without pay for it, this could result in my business have a major decline in profit because although the products my business offer may be very popular amongst the target consumers but because they are not paying for the goods my business will have no way in which they can financially benefit from. Many of the bi names in the record label business like ‘Universal Music or the ‘Sony BMG group do tend to copyright the CDs and DVDs that they manufacture and distribute, however, recent technological development has given an regular computer user to copy content from these copyrighted disks (using free software from the internet) from a single click of a button, and if that individual uploads the content of the disk to the internet then the content of that disk will be exposed to thousands if not millio ns of users on the internet which is why the modern music industry is suffering from million of pounds and dollars of damage from piracy and it is very unfortunate for my business as there is no method to battle the rising issue of music piracy because if my businesss products were copyrighted, many consumers or users will be able to find a way to copy content. In addition, copyrighting thousands of disks would prove to be a very costly task and evidently, this will prevent my business in achieving my aim to ‘Minimise costs and increase potential profit. However, not all is tenebrous, my business could still prevail if it turned to a more digitals means to provide the products to the customers, such means could be; having free web player on the businesss website to play the hit singles; free selected music downloads of popular songs; and most importantly selling products through the internet. Most of these solutions would eliminate the cost of producing CDs because a lot of teenagers nowadays are using things like their mobile phones, mp3 players and devices such as the iPod for playback of their music. If the popular products of my business (songs) are being provided free from the companys own website, then the business will have more exposure from the public, which, in the end, could work out to be beneficial. As the businesss website generates more viewers, the chances are internet companies like Google; YouTube; Amazon etc. who will want to advertise their services on my businesss website, which the business could generate some i ncome from as well as gaining public interest and recognition as business. Music piracy most definitely will affect my business and the corporate aim to ‘Minimise costs and maximise potential profit. Internet nowadays is available to almost every house, office and schools/college in the country that millions of people have access too, and the internet is too big to have control over. Nevertheless, good marketing and internet advertisement may fill in the lacunae of profit that may be lost due to music piracy. ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers. In my opinion, good public relations with customers should be an imperative aim for abounding businesses. After all, businesses depend on their customers satisfaction and support by which if they did not have good relationship with customers then it will be highly likely that the business will not be able to retain their customers. This issue could lead to a decline in their profit margins or worse gain an incredible amount of bad publicity or a bad reputation as a whole. A record label is not a publicly noticeable business because a record labels product is what gains notoriety as publicity rather than a business as coherent whole. This is because customers are mainly attracted to the stars and the music they make rather than the service that provides them the service. This can be beneficial or a drawback, consider which way one looks at it. From my personal perspective, it is a benefit because it means that my business will not be in the public eye and will not attract major interest if my business were have an issue, this could be a number of things like mistakes (which a lot of businesses make) or redundancy of a major band or artist etc. So in order to gain good public relations with the local community and customers will be a very laborious task to conduct. Nevertheless, with dubious tasks, there are always strategies, and my main strategy to in achieve this aim to ‘Increase/attain good public relations with the local community and customers, will be to organise youth activities and perhaps cultural events, the next page will explain this. As one can see in 4 (Next page), an extract from BBC news website, the level of youth crime has increased dramatically over the past decade in the United Kingdom. Teenage knife crime has increased so much that law enforcements had to enforce harsh laws upon teenage delinquents in order to keep crime at a minimum. The articles below states that boys from the age of eleven to eighteen are likely the ones to be carrying knifes, and are the most likely culprits in the rise of such crimes. The article also states that most of these young offenders have been; excluded, dropped out of school or have already had been given time to serve under law custody. So ultimately, these are the age groups which are been targeted by the law to tackle such crimes. How does this issue help my business to achieve good customer relationship one may wonder? Well to start with, teens that have been expelled, excluded, dropped out etc. from school have nothing to do other than wonder around with friends on the streets and cause trouble to the society and the individuals in the local community. This leads me to believe that, organising local youth music activities and providing creative services such as recording facilities and musical guidance for youths free of charge may be a very beneficial factor not only for my business but also to the local community. Having to organise such events for young people will be very beneficial to a majority of people youths, local community and my business. This is because firstly, by providing youths will free services and activities will encourage them to stay off the streets and be passionate and involved in something creative for their time, and secondly, by having lees teens on the streets in the local community will prevent crime and hopefully reduce the crime rate locally, so older generation who may be intimidated by teens will feel much more safer. Personally, I believe that teens only resort to crime as a recreational activity as well as to gain attention to themselves; this is only an opinion of course. However, by giving teens, facilities to be in and express themselves artistically through music may help to make a productive use of their time; also, it could be a place where teens can get attention that they desire from other like friends, other social groups or even the community. Knife sentencing not effective A selection of knives found by police The study found young people were living in constant fear of attack Longer jail terms are not an effective way of persuading teenagers to stop carrying knives, research suggests. Pentonville Prison governor Nicola Marfleet interviewed 14 to 17-year-olds who had either been excluded from school or were serving time in custody. She found most believed tough sentences were only meant to scare them, and they were more likely to be tagged. The Home Office said the government was using a combination of deterrence and education to tackle the problem. Rival gangs The study found that some boys were carrying knives from the age of 11. Ms Marfleet concluded that knife-crime prevention work must be targeted at this age group in order to be effective. She interviewed about 24 boys in focus groups at pupil referral units in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and four boys one-to-one at Feltham Young Offender Institution in west London Possession of a knife carries a maximum jail term of four years, but most of the teenagers did not believe they would receive such a harsh punishment. Two of those interviewed said that regardless of the possible penalty, they would not stop carrying a knife because they needed one for protection. Almost all of the teenagers said they could not rely on par

Diversity: Key Attributes

Bus 520 Week 1 Case: Diversity Competency 1. Which key attributes of the diversity competency are illustrated in this case? Give a specific example of each attributes identified. The key attributes of the diversity competency that were illustrated in this case are embracing and developing personal team or organizational tendencies and learning from individuals, teams, or organizations with different characteristics, experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. Accenture incorporated these attributes by introducing Back-up Dependent Care, Lifework, and Future Leave programs. . Which key attributes of the self-competency are illustrated by Chris Tserng in this case? Give a specific example of each attribute identified. The key attributes of the self competency that were illustrated by Chris Tserng are taking responsibility for managing oneself and career over time and through stressful circumstances; assessing and establishing one’s own developmental personal, and work-related go als. In the case, Chris had been at Accenture for ten years before she started a family. Once the baby was born, she planned to take her scheduled maternity leave and vacation time. During the time she was off, Chris hired a caregiver however; the caregiver could not start when Chris was ready to work. Chris took advantage of the Future Leave program. This program allows employees to address personal and family issues while preserving their careers. 3. Which key attributes of the change competency are illustrated in this case? Give a specific example of each attribute identified. Accenture illustrated the following key attributes of change competency: Seeking gaining, sharing, and applying new knowledge in the pursuit of constant improvement, creativity, and entirely new approaches or goals, applying processes to introduces and achieve organizational change. Accenture conducted internal surveys through out the company. The company collected the data from the surveys and found out what was important to their employees. With this information, Accenture introduce several programs that allowed employees to balance their personal and professional lives.

Krispy Kreme Swot Analysis

I. INTRODUCTION Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (KKD) is an international retailer of high-quality sweet treats, including its signature hot Original Glazed ® doughnut. It began as a small bakery in Winston Salem, NC on July 13, 1937. Since then, the company has built a global reputation for serving the highest-quality doughnuts and great tasting coffee. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is part of the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Industry, which includes almost all companies in the â€Å"fast food† industry. Our goal in this report is to use various tools to analyze KKD and recommend strategies for them to gain more competitive advantage in the market.First, we will observe the operational characteristics of KKD. These factors will show positive indications of growth in Krispy Kreme. We will look at how many stores they have currently, how many they are planning to add (in the U. S and internationally), and the training and technology that differentiates them from others in the QSR ind ustry. We then will evaluate the performance metrics, such as inventory turnover and days of inventory ratios, to compare how KKD compares to their competition. In order to find out how efficient Krispy Kreme is operating, our group intends to dentify where the QSR is positioned according to the industry life cycle. We will observe the SWOT analysis, then we will analyze their competitors to see where KKD stands in relation. This will give us the basis to develop recommendations about their current strategies. We begin the â€Å"SWOT† analysis by assessing KKD’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. II. SWOT ANALYSIS The following SWOT analysis is intended to examine KKD’s internal strengths and weaknesses so we can link them to external opportunities and threats with the aim of developing a strategy they should pursue. STRENGTHSStrengths are characteristics of the business or project that give it an advantage over other competitors. As a global org anization, KKD has become a household name as they’ve branched into grocery and convenience stores and made doughnuts readily accessible. KKD offers a product that cannot be matched by any competitors when referring to taste, freshness, and the finest ingredients. Their affordable, high-quality doughnuts create a strong visual appeal and â€Å"one-of-a-kind† taste. Some of the key strengths offered by KKD are: * You are able to get a fresh out of the oven doughnut in the store.Consumers are allowed to watch the process of the doughnuts being made and can buy doughnuts immediately after they are made so they are as hot and fresh as possible. * KKD is a vertically integrated company. They use specialized doughnut making equipment and specific doughnut mixes in each store. Vertical integration ensures a very high-quality product. * Market research shows appeal extends to all major demographic groups including age and income. * Consistent expansion: Krispy Kreme is now in 21 countries. * Product sold at thousands of supermarkets, convenience stores, and retail outlets through U.S. This raises product awareness to the maximum number of target consumers. * Fundraising: Organizations are able to use Krispy Kreme for fundraising. They allow consumers to use their donuts to help raise money for different philanthropies. (Ex: Krispy Kreme run) * Offers free doughnut day once a year to increase sales. This day allows people who have been reluctant to spend money on the donuts to get a free taste and therefore increases their amount of consumers. WEAKNESSES Weaknesses are characteristics that place the firm at a disadvantage relative to others.Some apparent weaknesses Krispy Kreme might have are: * Limited amount of â€Å"healthy† selections. * Limited menu: Lack Breakfast items. * Limited amount of non-snack food items. * Not innovative. * No major advertising: 100% reliance on reputation. * Opening additional locations but no focus on increasing cur rent store performance. * International differences/preferences. * Lack of knowledge of what the customer wants (demographics, psychographics, behavioral segmentation). OPPORTUNITIES Opportunities are elements that the company can exploit to its advantage.Most internationally located stores purchase their ingredients from local merchants rather than the Krispy Kreme Supply Chain. If KKD can find a cost effective way to provide these ingredients, they can capitalize on supply chain efficiencies to make a profit. Some opportunities for Krispy Kreme to leverage for growth would include: * Emerging markets and expansion abroad: International expansion has proven to bring better returns than expanding domestically. Asia and the Middle East both offer KKD a good market because of high levels of consumer sweet goods consumption and the popularity of Western brands in these International markets. Partnerships with sports teams and convenience stores. * Development of new menu items. * Add b reakfast/healthier options to compete more directly with Dunkin Doughnuts, etc. * Innovation. * Product and services expansion. * Local open kiosks and in-store locations in airports, bookstores, and other retail outlets. * Product Diversification. New Markets. * Significant co-branding opportunities with local sports teams and movie theaters. * Increased snack consumption: During the past 20 years, more Americans are going out to eat. In today’s busy world, there is less time to prepare meals anymore.KKD believes there’s an opportunity in this trend that will increase the growth of doughnut sales. THREATS Threats to an organization are described as elements in the environment that could cause trouble for the business or project. Some threats facing Krispy Kreme are: * Competition: Only 694 KKD stores compared to 10,000 Dunkin' Donuts and 20,000 Starbucks Increasing competition from large and small doughnut chains, Krispy Kreme market share erodes slightly in highly co mpetitive markets. * Price Wars: In the doughnut and pastry shop ndustry, price wars are generated in attempts to take away revenue from other restaurants and sustain growth. * Economic slowdown: External changes (government, politics, taxes, etc. ) * Ordering through the Internet: More and customers are ordering online, but Krispy Kreme does not offer online ordering of their donuts. They offer accessories online, such as coffee mugs and t-shirts. Dunkin Donuts offers more accessories including coffee, but no donuts. * Healthy food trends: Krispy Kreme must constantly be aware of substitute products from many different areas of the market place.Such substitutes demanded today include healthier menu items include zero trans fats in all products. Going organic or using 100% natural ingredient items. III. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS Operational Characteristics Today, Krispy Kreme and its one-of-a-kind â€Å"Hot Light† which is a light that hangs inside the store window for people to know when the doughnuts have just come out of the oven. This â€Å"Hot Light† can be found in approximately 694 locations around the world and is in 234 locations in the United States.In 2002, KKD shipped their first international load of doughnut mix to Australia, and since then have added locations in over 20 countries. All KKD ingredients and store supplies are shipped from the company’s distribution warehouses in NC, IL, and CA. The KKD distribution center supplies all of the products needed to operate retail stores, from doughnut ingredients (mix, filling, glaze, sprinkles, etc. ) to cleaning supplies and uniforms. Production is done in the factory stores and completely automated, which cuts overhead costs and provides consistency in the products.KKD shops generally operate seven days a week, excluding some major holidays. Traditionally, domestic sales have been slower during the winter holiday season and the summer months. KKD opened five new company operated small r etail shops in fiscal 2012 and three new company-operated shops in fiscal 2011, all of which were hot shops. They plan to open five to ten small retail shops in fiscal 2013, consisting mainly of small factory stores, all in the Southeastern United States. In the past three years, they have opened 92 stores (See Figure II).The ability to accommodate a drive-thru window is an important characteristic in most new shop locations, including both factory stores and satellite shops. Of the 85 shops, which serve on-premises customers, 79 have a drive-thru. Traditional factory stores generally are located in freestanding suburban locations generally ranging in size from approximately 2,400 to 8,000 square feet. The average size is 3,000 square feet. The stores typically have the capacity to produce between 2,800 and 16,000 dozen doughnuts daily. KKD is also investing in more technology to support the business.In 2012, KKD purchased new point-of-sale hardware for all of the company stores and implemented a new computer hardware system for all company and franchisee locations. KKD encourages team members to be courteous, helpful, knowledgeable and attentive, focusing intently on employee training. High levels of customer service and the maintenance of quality standards are enforced by frequently monitoring stores through a variety of methods, including random quality audits, known as â€Å"mystery shoppers† and a toll-free consumer telephone number.KKD offers a comprehensive manager training program for every position in the store, covering the critical skills required to operate a Krispy Kreme store and a training program. The manager-training program includes classroom instruction, computer-based training modules and in-shop training. The main competitors for Krispy Kreme are other quick service restaurants, such as Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Panera Bread, and Einstein Noah Bagels. Performance Metrics A company can measure its minimum inventory investment by its inventory turnover.This is the level of customer demand satisfied by the supply on hand. The inventory turnover tells an organization how many times they sell through the entire inventory in one year. The average day’s supply of inventory that is on hand tells you how many days your current inventory will last based on your sales levels. If a company is short on inventory, the warehousing costs will be lower, but there’s a risk of running out. In order to figure these values you need to figure your average inventory and know your costs of goods sold for the year.For the past three years (since 2010) Krispy Kreme has an inventory turnover ratio of 21. 26. They have average days where inventory is 16. 89 (see figures III and IV). Industry Life Cycle Most businesses evolve from the introduction stage, to the growth stage, maturity, and decline. It is important to understand the evolution of the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Industry that KKD competes in to accurately ass ess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats speeding or slowing the firm’s growth. The introduction stage is dominated by the marketing of an innovation for the first time.Competition is minimal and returns are negative, as most companies must catch up on their investments in R;D, marketing, and manufacturing. The growth stage is characterized by high profits and competition. During this stage organizations begin to differentiate their products based on value and quality. The maturity stage shows high sales accompanied by very strong price pressures. Profit margins often shrink as the customers begin to see the product as homogenous (always the same). The decline stage is shown by reduced profits and many companies have to decide whether to stay in the industry or cut their losses.Based on these key factors, we believe the QSR industry is in the maturity stage of the industry life cycle. This is due to a low level of innovation, fluctuating profit margins, and g lobal expansion. IV. RECOMMENDED STRATEGY Krispy Kreme must remain competitive in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) Industry. To be effective at this we believe the first thing they should focus on cost leadership. Cost leadership is based on high volume sales of low margin products/services (i. e. Wal-Mart). To achieve this, KKD must focus on increasing their sales.This can be done by analyzing their target market’s key buying habits at the lowest cost to Krispy Kreme. Next, KKD should decrease their prices and adjust R;D, marketing and manufacturing to create a cost gap so they can save some money. KKD can leverage their economies of scale (complete automation of the doughnut making process, added capacity, and TQM) to create a long-term sustainable cost gap. We believe if KKD executives focus on cost leadership in the QSR industry, the company will benefit from increased revenues, retail operations, and increased interest in the brand name of Krispy Kreme.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy s Politics And World Affairs

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, nicknamed Jack, was born on May 29, 1917. He was the second of 9 to be born to Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Joseph Kennedy Jr. While Jack was at Harvard in 1937, his father became the United States Ambassador to England. That sparked Jack’s interest in politics and world affairs. From then on, he strived to learn more about government and current events. When Jack was a senior at Harvard, WWII began. He wrote a thesis about why Great Britain was not ready for the war with Germany, which went on to be published as a book called Why England Slept. Jack’s career in politics, though, began after college in 1946 when he was elected to the eleventh congressional district in Massachusetts. As a Democrat, he then served six†¦show more content†¦One of Kennedy’s accomplishments was the creation of the Peace Corps on March 1, 1961. During his presidential campaign, Kennedy gave a speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to a crowd of 10,000. In his speech, he asked how many of the aspiring doctors, technicians, and/or engineers would be willing to work in the Foreign Service and travel the world. After the speech, 1,000 students wanting to live and work abroad signed a petition saying such. This event was the inspiration for the Peace Corps. Kennedy spoke of a peace corps of talented men and women who would dedicate themselves to the progress and peace of developing countries† two weeks later in a speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. A response of more than 25,000 letters encouraged Kennedy to make the Peace Corps a reality. When Kennedy became president, he decided he wanted to put his brother-in-law, R. Sargent Shriver, as the director of a Peace Corps Task Force to organize it and get everything together. Shriver did so by creating seven steps to follow in forming the Peace Corps in February of 1961. During the first trip after the Peace Corps was established, leaders from India, Ghana, and Bur ma were asking for Peace Corps volunteers to be placed

An Analysis of Hazing in the Military Essay - 1816 Words

Thesis This paper aims to provide a brief history of the ethical issues of hazing in the military. The impact on various stakeholders is also provided before an analysis of the causes of hazing in the military and recommendations on how military leaders can promote tradition and a sense of belonging in a hazing-free military. The Issue Hazing is an issue that has attracted much attention over the last few decades. College fraternities, high school programs, professional sports, and the military have all had their fair share of attention. The military is frequently held to a higher standard than these other organizations and has developed a bit of a black eye since the 1991 â€Å"Tailhook† scandal. Motion picture portrayals like that†¦show more content†¦history, refused to submit the names of cadets accused of hazing him during a West Point hazing scandal (Pershing, 2006). Other military customs with hazing aspects date back even further. The â€Å"Crossing the Line† ceremony, which celebrates a Sailor’s crossing of the equator, dates back to the Vikings and 800 A.D. Crossing the Line ceremonies of the past have included activities such as; being forced to crawl through trash, being dunked in a mixture of fuel oil and sea water, being forced to kiss or lick the belly of a Sailor that has been covered in egg shells and mineral oil, and being forced to crawl across a tarp while being sprayed with a fire-hose (Leppo, 2003). Other than the â€Å"Blood Pinning† story covered by Dateline, the sexual harassment and hazing story that came out of the 1991 Tailhook Association Convention in Las Vegas is one of the largest military hazing stories of the last several decades. Tailhook is an association of military aviators who gather annually to discuss issues relevant to carrier based aviation. In 1991 the convention was abnormally crowded, due in part to the success of the Gulf War. Lieutenant Paula Coughlin reported that while trying to navigate the third floor of the Hilton hotel she was forced to walk a â€Å"gauntlet† with men on each side. As she walked down the hall she was groped, belittled, and was the victim of sexual assault and sexual battery. When she reported theShow MoreRelatedA Few Good Men Summary938 Words   |  4 Pag eslegal teams growing curiosity helps them uncover further details that point to the guilt of not only the marines, but also Jessup. Jessup ordered the marines to give a code red, which is an illegal form of disciplinary hazing. Santiago had a medical condition that caused the hazing to turn deadly. The accused marine’s guilt comes into question since they were following the orders of their commanding officer. 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The portions affected by this RAR are listed in the summary of change. Summary. This regulation implements DODI 1332.14 and DODI 1332.30. It prescribes the policy and responsibility of command, which includes well-being of the force, military and personal discipline and conduct, the Army Equal Opportunity Program, Prevention of Sexual Harassment, and the Army Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program. Applicability. This regulation applies to the Active Army, the Army National

Essay about person centred - 834 Words

Person-centred 2.1 A physical disability is any disability that affects the physical function of one or more limbs. Physical disabilities can be either congenital or acquired after birth due to an accident or disease. 2.2 Describe the following terminology used in relation to physical disability: Congenital Acquired Neurological A congenital disability is a medical condition which you are born with, congenital disorders are caused by development problems with the fetus before birth, congenital disorders are also genetic and can be passed down from one or both parents. Examples of congenital disabilities: †¢ Cerebral palsy †¢ Cystic fibrosis †¢ Spina bifida †¢ Congenital heart conditions †¢ Muscular dystrophy †¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦show more content†¦Depression is a very low mood that lasts up to two weeks sometimes longer, depression is most common when an individual is diagnosis and when a change occurs in their condition. Being depressed can have an effect on your sleeping (sleeping to little or too much) loss of appetite, less energy and no motivation. Maintaining independence can be difficult as their condition continues to get worse they may require adaptive equipment such as a walking stick or wheelchair help with day to day tasks such as getting dressed and needing assistance getting in and out of the bath. 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System Analysis and Design for Schedules - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theSystem Analysis and Design for Schedules. Answer: Introduction In todays software development projects, project teams constantly face a combination of old and new types of risks, which includes shortfalls in real-time performance of project tasks, unrealistic budgets and schedules, project scope creeps ,wrong analysis of requirements of the intended system, changing system or customer requirements which needs to be implemented with speed to ensure projects complete successfully. Organizations therefore have to carefully select approaches in developing their core information systems. For most organizations, an ideal approach to the development of a critical system is one which adapts to the changing technological and systems requirements. A methodology that is responsive to business changes. Among the numerous existing development methodologies, Adaptive or Agile software development methodologies stands out for such organizations, as they enable them to rapidly change they IS during development. With most organizations facing unpredictability and dynamism in emergent business-process requirements, agile methodologies play a critical role in the development of information systems for such organizations (Alliance, 2016). Adaptive software development methodologies are highly iterative, and are characterized by constant evolution of the requirements and solutions through development collaborations between self-organization cross-functional teams (Alliance, 2016). Adaptive approaches promote constant and continuous inspection, teamwork, rapid adaptation, accountability and self-organization (Alliance, 2016). These set of engineering best practices facilitates aligning development with business goals and requirement, while facilitating rapid delivery of high-quality software (Alliance, 2016). The principles adopted by various adaptive methodologies are outlined in the Agile Manifesto. There are a number of adaptive methodologies that can be used in various projects, and in particular the development of the envisioned system at Comfort Quilts Limited. Key among them includes Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), Adaptive Software Development (ASD), and Feature Driven Development (FDD) among others (Satzinger, Jackson and Burd, 2011). The nature of business processes at Comfort Quilts Limited necessitates that an adaptive methodology be used in the development of the system. This is partly because requirements are likely to change especially with the planned move to change suppliers; changing suppliers may put new demands to the system at the company, necessitating the system to be aligned to the new business processes. Also the intended expansion of product offerings may result in changes to the systems requirements, which have to be implemented on the system being developed. Although all the aforementioned agile methodologies can be applied to the development at Comfort Quilts, the selection of the particular method is pegged on the finer details of each of the main approaches. Since all agile methodologies subscribe to the philosophies outlined in the Agile Manifesto, they all facilitate rapid adaptation to changing customer requirements. For this project the ideal method is Scrum agile methodology. Scrum Scrum is one of the agile approaches; a framework for managing projects with an emphasis on iterative progress, accountability, incremental development of the system and teamwork (Schwaber, 2004). The methodology enhances the capability of the project team to respond to changing requirements, and maximizes cooperation through improved communication (Schwaber, 2004). The approach can be scaled from a small project to an entire organization. This approach is the best suited for the development of the system at Comfort Quilts Limited since the organization already has a clear goal for the project, but uncertainties exists as to whether the requirements would change, within the project without changing the goal. Such a situation is ideal for scrum development since it ideally require development to start with what is known, and track progress, tweaking the requirements as need arises to achieve the desired goal. The methodology is founded on three pillars; adaptation, inspection and tran sparency (Schwaber and Beedle, 2002). A traditional software development approach would not be ideal for the system development at Comfort Quilts. Convectional methodologies do not factor in changing requirements in the phase of project execution. On the contrary, agile approaches such as scrum understand todays complex business processes and volatility of the operating environment, which may require changes before the final solution is delivered (Kniberg, 2015). The guiding principles outlined in the Agile Manifesto puts particular emphasis on collaboration, flexibility to adapt emerging business realities , collaboration and autonomy of teams (Schwaber and Beedle, 2002). Where Scrum is taken as the methodology of choice, roles have to be indentified for the main project stakeholders. Scrum specifies three main roles in a project, The Product Owner, Scrum Master and Team. Scrum Roles Product Owner:The stakeholder with the role of Product Owner has the ultimate authority over the project. Product Owner holds the projects vision and should therefore constantly communicate the vision and priorities to the team in charge of developments (Schwaber and Beedle, 2002). Although Scrum teams are autonomous, the Product Owner has the responsibility of ensuring the vision of the project is being achieved without micro managing the team (Kniberg, 2015). Product Owner should be available to clarify queries that the project team may have. Scrum Master:although the Product Owner ensures the team is on the right track to achieving the vision of the project, the Scrum Master is obliged to facilitate smooth working of the team and the Product Owner (Kniberg, 2015). The main task of the Scrum Master is to create conducive environment for the team to achieve the goals of the project, while advising the Product Owner on ways of maximizing the teams ROI (Kniberg, 2015). Team:a Scrum team is completely self-organizing and is responsible for producing a projects deliverables. For a software development project, such a team would include a mix of system analysts, software developers, analysts and testers. A scrum team has between 3 to 9 members who determine among themselves how to carry out tasks, and accomplish requirements for a given sprint within scrum development approach (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2016). The Scrum process Development process with Scrum starts with whatever is presented as initial system requirements, and then processed through constant evaluation, to ascertain what works and what needs to be discarded (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2016). One pillar of the Scrum process is communication, which is done through a series of meetings or events. The Scrum process has four main events, which include; daily Scrum, Sprint Planning Meeting, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2016). Daily Scrum: this is a short stand-up meeting, which is held daily at the same time and place (Kniberg, 2015). The meeting is used to review the teams work, completed the previous day and planning of what is to be accomplished in the next 24 hours. The team members also get an opportunity to air out any challenges encountered in the project. Sprint Planning Meeting: A sprint is a period of time which work must be completed, mostly a period of 30days. Each sprint results in delivery of a given usable module of software (Kniberg, 2015). Sprint Review: This is where the team and other stakeholders meet to review a sprint and showcase the increment achieved in the just concluded sprint (Kniberg, 2015). Sprint Retrospective: A meeting at the end of a Sprint which allows team members to reflect on the Sprint process. The main goal of Sprint Retrospect is continuous improvement (Schwaber and Sutherland, 2016). References Alliance, S., 2016. What is Scrum? An Agile Framework for Completing Complex Projects-Scrum Alliance.Scrum Alliance. Available at: https://www. scrumalliance. org. Schwaber, K. and Beedle, M., 2002.Agile software development with Scrum(Vol. 1). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. Schwaber, K., 2004.Agile project management with Scrum. Microsoft press. Kniberg, H., 2015.Scrum and XP from the Trenches. Lulu. com. Schwaber, K. and Sutherland, J., 2016. The scrum guide-the definitive guide to scrum: The rules of the game, July 2011.Available on-line at: https://www. scrum. org/storage/scrumguides/Scrum% 20Guide. Satzinger, J.W., Jackson, R.B. and Burd, S.D., 2011.Systems analysis and design in a changing world. Cengage learning.