A Sporting Goods Store Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

A Sporting Goods Store - Research Paper Example Entrepreneur’s role 21 Business plan 21 License potential 21 Corporate partners 21 Proprietary rights 21 Infrastructure members 21 Bibliography 22 FEASIBILITY STUDY OF A SPORTING GOODS STORE Introduction Our proposed company is a sporting goods store that will manufacture a line of clothing for sports enthusiasts, carry known brands of sporting equipments, and accessories for fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping, aside from being a service center for these equipments. It is a combination of a retail, manufacturing and service business. At this point, we are still on the concept stage. Methodology/Analysis Our shirts will be customized, carrying our own brand and logo, but the designs will be done according to the theme of the sports events and idea of customers. Each design is unique as it will represent the theme of each event. As a shirt manufacturer, it will be a specialty store because we will use high materials. As a retail outlet, our store will carry known brands of hi king, fishing, and camping materials, as we plan to work for distributorship and licensed agreements with named brand owners. We will also set up a service and maintenance department that will repair sporting equipments that people bought from our store. As these items are costly, our maintenance will add value to them. Our Products will be sourced from sporting goods manufacturers and wholesalers and then sold to the general public via our retail store. Target markets are people of ages 18 and above, residents of Des Moines, and with average income of $35,000 and above. Study showed these people have the capacity to spend, and enjoy active sports life. Hiking, fishing, and camping are simple outdoor activities that people enjoy. Since our company is in the locality, it will be ready to serve their needs as a one stop shop for outdoor sports. In order to penetrate our target market, we will consider a tie up with schools, sports organizers and clubs for a city wide sports campaign l ike a city hiking day, hunting and fishing competition once every 6 months. We will also encourage sponsorship and media coverage. Our start-up costs and capital needed is estimated at $250,000. Start - capital will be provided by four partners at $25,000 each and the balance of $150,000 will be borrowed from the bank. Bulk of this fund will be used for capital expenditures, inventory, and maintenance and operating expenses for the first months of operations. It is expected that sales in the following months will provide the needed cash flows for operations. Our financing will be both debt and equity. Conclusion We plan to pursue this business since based on our projection; it is not a losing proposition. The first months of operations will be difficult for the start-up of our business, but we will keep our expenditures to a minimum so that our cash flows will not suffer and we do not have to borrow some more. Initially, sports organizations in the area that we have approached are e xcited with the idea and many of our friends have encouraged us to continue with the proposal.

WK5-Critque Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

WK5-Critque - Essay Example Most of these articrafts were collected and donated by the curator and founder, Dr. David Pilgrim. The Jim Crow museum also owns a website link that serves as a valuable educational resource for research scholars at national as well as international levels. The website is very simple in layout and design. With a bold title description at the top, the format of the articles presents a clear and readable font size with a number of pictorial illustrations. There is no link, advertisement or content pasted on both sides of the article to avoid reader’s distraction. However, one has to move back to the main menu page for navigating to another article or resource. The information is well structured with bullets, numbering and headings for clarity. One of the most notable merits of the presented information is the acknowledgement of the sources in-text as well as at the end of the articles. The sources used are mostly from the scholarly journals and accredited books supporting the au thenticity of the information. Apart from several merits, the update information is not mentioned anywhere for the website or individual resources. The sources for the incorporated images are also not mentioned that makes it difficult for research scholars to track unbiased opinion. However, undoubtedly, the website is serving as a good learning and teaching resource.

Bureaucratic and Normative Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Bureaucratic and Normative Control - Essay Example Actually hierarchy in general (in the sense of levels of authority) is to be found in any administration which has a certain degree of magnitude and complexity. The feudal type of administration had a complicated hierarchical system. (Davis, 1994, p73) 'There is hierarchy of a social rank corresponding to the hierarchy of fiefs through the process of sub-infatuation...' 6 But the difference between the two kinds of hierarchies, according to Weber, is to be found in the type of authority relations. In the feudal case the relationship between inferior and superior is personal and the legitimating of authority is based on a belief in the sacredness of tradition. In a bureaucracy, authority is legitimised by a belief in the correctness of the rules and the loyalty of the bureaucrat is oriented to an impersonal order, to a superior position, not to the person who holds it. So what makes an administration more or less bureaucratic from the hierarchical point of view is not the number of le vels of authority, or the size of the span of control; the decisive criterion is whether or not the authority relations have a precise and impersonal character, as a result of the elaboration of rational rules. Concerning first the criterion of meaningful adequacy, it does not necessarily make sense to someone that a type of organisation having the Weberian characteristics to an extreme degree should yield maximum efficiency. One could equally well imagine such an organisation as being extremely inefficient. For example, some of these characteristics, even from a common sense point of view, seem to promote administrative inefficiency rather than efficiency (e.g. promotion by seniority). As to the criterion of objective possibility, in the light of the empirical research done since Weber, one can argue that a perfectly rational-efficient organisation having Weber's ideal characteristics is not objectively possible, in the sense that it runs against the known laws of nature -- in this case, against recent empirical findings. Such findings rather indicate that the more accentuated some characteristics of the ideal type are, the more inefficient the organisation becomes. In one sense, a great part of the literature on bureaucracy since Weber

Case Study 10.1 - Project Scheduling at Blanque Cheque Construction - 1

10.1 - Project Scheduling at Blanque Cheque Construction - Case Study Example A project manager may make use of the below approaches to estimate how long a project will last, rather than basing it on how long he is pressured to make it last. The expert opinion uses the consensus method to arrive at an estimate. The project manager will engage the services of at least three experts who have an understanding of the type of project to be undertaken or have managed similar projects before (Kerzner 6). After a briefing by the project manager on the project requirements, the experts discuss it among themselves and each submits their own separate estimates according to their understanding. Each produces a task list containing effort estimates for each task. The project manager then hands back a list of the estimates to the experts without revealing to which one of them each belongs. He asks the experts to consider the risks and estimates of the others’ results and recalculate their work. The experts then discuss the project to determine if any assumptions or issues have changed after the last discussion. After studying the combined estimates, the experts revise their estimates and submit the results independently again. If the discrepancies are still not practical, the project manager hands the results back again, or invites more experts. The aim is to make the difference between the lowest and the highest estimates as low as possible. The cycle may be repeated severally until most of the results are in or close to agreement. Once in agreement, an average of the experts’ estimates is used as the project duration. However, rather than spending much time on the estimation procedure, the project manager may use the results of several experts in the early stages. For example, if three experts determined the estimate as 2000 hours and one estimated at 4000 hours, he may need to ignore the overestimated duration but with the knowledge that he bears the risk of the duration accepted actually doubling. Past history is one of

Hurling alone critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Hurling alone critique - Essay Example Demographic analysis shows that famines has led to the changes in lifestyles and behavior of those of Irish ancestry and, when mixed with stressful environment, this lifestyle is likely to lead to cardiovascular disease. In addition, the article points to the racial approach to various diseases, as some ethnic groups have more obvious predisposition to a certain disease (ibid). As for me, the main controversy underlies in two aforementioned statements: on the one hand, socioeconomic status contributes to the development of cardiovascular disease, but racial and ethnic factors are also included, so the real reason for posing Irish people as a risk group is quite vague. Another problem is in comparison itself is the narrowness of analysis: the scholars in fact, attempted to match socioeconomic and health factors, but spoke very little about lifestyle factors and the other important characteristics of each group. Furthermore, socioeconomic factors were reduced to employment and or the presence of another source of income, whereas they have forgotten about the huge Irish heritage, extrapolated to the United States by immigrants: job patterns and perceptions, the overall 'careerism' and the ability to spend leisure time effectively and usefully.

The Storm of 1928 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Storm of 1928 - Essay Example The overwhelming number of dead bodies were just too much for the rescue team. With just a number of days the wetness and the sun that set the place made the bodies decay beyond recognition. Some of the bodies were burnt in the fire as there was nowhere the bodies could be taken for burial. This points to a lack of the preparation measures of such a disaster.  The evacuation measures that could be used to save people in case flood struck were largely lacking. Apart from those who instantly died from the overflowing water, others died as they tried to find their way to a safe place. They would travel long distance where the flood had thrown them without finding any help. Frail and weak, many of them died while in search for food and shelter. If there were a good rescue measure, some of these people could have been saved. For instance, use of state resources such as military helicopters that could have been sent to rescue the survivors.  The technological advancement perhaps has ma naged to enable things that were impossible do back then in 1928. For instance, the detectors that can be used to warn of any changing cyclone movement in oceans that would be alert of any impending danger. Despite the limit of the technology back then, there were alerts made through the Radio. The government should have made efforts to relocate those people close to the coastline. The fact some people went around telling others of the impending hurricane cannot be used as a justification that proper information was given to the victims.

Organization and Environmental Analysis Essay Example for Free

Organization and Environmental Analysis Essay Huawei Technologies technical diversification of its portfolio and value addition to its existing products is highlighted by Huawei being ranked amongst the top 5 in the world in terms of essential UMTS patents. By June 2008, Huawei had filed 30,569 patent applications. (Huawei Corporate Information-Huawei Media release). The big inclination towards RD and strong cost differentiation has enabled Huawei Technologies to achieve what the other dominant players in the telecom industry have been struggling to achieve- customization! .This strong customer focus is also the face of Huawei Technologies projected through its brand logo. The Huawei Technologies brand logo reflects its core principles of â€Å"customer-focus, innovation, steady and sustainable growth, and harmony, conveying Huawei Technologies sincere commitment to helping its customers realizing their potential to launch a variety of competitive services through continuous innovation and an enterprising spirit. † (Huawei Corporate Information-Huawei Media release). The Huawei Technologies logo was recently changed and modified to reflect harmony as also one of its key elements, so as to convey its social responsibility. Huawei Corporate Information-Huawei Media release). This has brought in the much needed image change required by Huawei Technologies primarily being seen as a Chinese vendor. Figure1: Huawei Contract Sales (Source Huawei Corporate Information-Huawei Media release) Opex Capex leverage which Huawei Technologies has been able to offer its customers has enabled it to demonstrate cost leadership which is evident as 72% of its contr act sales were from overseas market in 2007. Let alone in 2007, it had 45% increases in its contract sales revenue. See figure 1. Huawei Corporate Information-Huawei Media release). The strong hold which Huawei Technologies is being able to maintain also comes from the socio-political environment it works in as the labour cost in China is one sixth of that of United States or Europe. Thus it has become a key external environmental factor . Internally Huawei Technologies has capitalized on human resource and RD. But has the cost differentiation been enough, will it still promise growth and more market share? These are the biggest questions which need to be addressed for a guaranteed continuous growth. This question has made Huawei Technologies rethink its marketing strategy towards value proposition, and to value chain analysis (Porter 1985) for a bigger market share. Before that however lies another hurdle of poor quality perception a question mark on the quality of Chinese branding. Issue 2- The dragon brand wagon. With the FMCG market taking blows after blows because of adulterated Chinese raw materials, the general consumer perception on Chinese quality is struggling to establish a stand. Though it specifically affects as said the FMCG market or the business dealing in B2C but the general perception affects all including B2B. And this has been one of the prime challenges. From 1998 to 2001 Huawei was looked at with distrust doubt . With the Cisco lawsuit the market penetration in the developed economies had become more difficult and required 1000 times more effort as compared to its American or European counterparts. (The Economist, Nov 2007). I believe that the focus needs to be shifted towards creating a strong brand if Huawei Technologies needs to keep its foothold in the global telecom market. Thus strengthening of the Huawei brand has become even more important. Remodeling to establish Huawei as a brand has been now the new focus to develop a better perceived quality create brand equity. The need of brand recognition has also become very vital to be seen as a valued collaborator for its customers. Brand development has never been big in China; with large volume market brand recognition never existed in the Chinese market. Hence it becomes more essential as well as difficult for Huawei to develop its brand image to compete in the global economy. The strong need for branding and change for the marketing orientation to move towards the service sector becomes more vital when we look into the 5C’s of Huawei Technologies. Issue 4- The 5C’s. Exploring the 5 C’s of Huawei Technologies highlights the core competencies of Huawei and helps us in understanding why a new orientation approach is required . As discussed earlier Huawei Technologies dominates in cost differentiation and is armed with a strong RD to achieve customization in a high barrier industry and it has been a key strength of Huawei Technologies. But a quick SWOT analysis brings out the lack of perceived quality in the market as one of the greatest threats Huawei Technologies faces. Its major competitor Ericsson currently leading the market share comes with a very strong branding and high perceived quality. The dilemma is not just the market perception but also the perception of the employees themselves despite the fact that human capital is a key resource strength of Huawei Technologies which also drives to low labor costs.