Business game modified assignmen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Business game modified assignmen - Essay Example This company has gained great praise due to its ability to maintain its name in Europe as a car-manufacturing corporation. The corporation has endeavoured to produce high quality cars by using high technology. The company has also managed to remain stable in the competitive European market. In order to fit in the market, the company created an initiative of assessing its target customers, with the aim of acquiring maximum profits from their business initiative. Effective marketing ensures competitive advantage by appealing to consumer values and preferences (Porter 1985; Porter, 1987). At the commencement of the project, our team embarked on a mission to maximise the company’s profits by weighing the shareholders’ investment. At the end of Round 4, our group had managed to acquire about four percent of the market share inclusive of the City and Large car. Our company is keen to check the profit and losses incurred by VICA. Focus on the workers’ demands is among t he company’s major concerns, which it does in order to develop a rapport between the management and the workers, as well as to keep the company on its toes. The target group of the company’s City car falls below 25 years of age while the Large car is aimed at persons between the ages of 41-55 years. In terms of the City car the vehicle is suitable for short distances and is affordable for young people. On the other hand, the Large car is suitable for older people who need to carry luggage of varying sizes and move over longer distances. The forecast for Round 1 can be summarised in the table on the following page. The table is inclusive of sales, profits and balance. The forecast for the City car stood at 53300b while that of the large car was 40950b. CASH FLOW FORECAST Cash In Cash Out Opening Bank Balance ?500,000,000.00 Sales Income ?1,628,805,750.00 Total Material Cost ?1,211,774,167.50 Total Labour Cost ?47,000,000.00 Total Overheads ?242,508,062.56 Factory Cost ? 650,000,000.00 Automation Expenditure ?17,500,000.00 Tax Payment ?38,392,055.98 Net Interest Payment ?0.00 Bank Balance before Loan -?77,918,536.04 Loan Requested ?200,000,000.001 Closing Bank Balance ?122,081,463.96 Company Performance Round 1 Forecast Model based on production, sales and bank balances pre- and post-loan Production 94,250 Sales ?1,630 m Post-Tax Profit ?86.9 m Bank Balance Before Loan ?- 77 m Bank Balance After Loan ?123 m The process of launching the cars into the European market was a complex task that needed to consider elements of establishing an appropriate pricing model, determining manufacturing capacity, the volume of labourers required, and profit/loss projections based on cost recognition. Strategies for launch included first identifying key market characteristics associated with lifestyle and preferences for small/large cars along with environmental attitudes. Market Share Analysis, Gross Margin and Post-tax Profit Round 1 Overheads Overheads Income Cost Fixed Overheads ?128,958,062.56 Market Promotion ?55,000,000.00 Research & Development ?48,700,000.00 Training Cost ?940,000.00 Total Overheads ?233,598,062.56 Budget capabilities, which maintained oversight related to loan procurement as a failure to include loan capital in the figures, dictated limited production capabilities due to overhead and other associated factors related to economies of scale and capital availability. The first production run for Citzen cars was 53,300 whilst larger cars were to be produced

Culture and Organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Culture and Organization - Essay Example Additionally, organizational culture extents its manifestation in ways which an entity allows for autonomy and freedom of making decisions, personal expression, and development of new ideas. Organizational culture gives a clear outline on how information and power flows through its set channels and influences strengths of employees by encouraging commitment towards the organization’s collective goals (Stallman, 2010:4). The culture of an organization is crucial since it affects its productivity and performance mechanism and provides guidelines suitable for establishing an appropriate customer service channel, product quality, and safety. Introduction Southwest Airlines Company is a low cost, American airline that has its base in Dallas, Texas. According to articles published the company’s public relations office, the company came into being in 1967. It adopted its company name in 1971 and by the fifth day of June 2011, documented evidence revealed that the airline is th e largest in the United States basing the data on number of domestic passengers that it carried (Kelly, 2009:22). Despite the fact that the airline operated Boeing 727 aircraft for a very time in the years between 1970s and 1980s, between this stated period and 2012 the scooped identity of the sole airline that operates Boeing 737. In addition to that, by the last day of September 2011, this airline became the world’s largest operator of 737 recording over 550 of these aircrafts already in operation whereby, each operated an average of six flights in a single day. Following its performance and uniqueness, this paper warranted it an intense research based on its organizational culture (Khastar, 2011:2). As such, this paper will seek to analyze the culture of the Southwest Airlines using and applying theoretical frameworks used in the study of organizational culture such as those developed by Schein and Harrison. The concept of organizational culture With reference to Schein th eoretical framework, the processes whereby the Southwest Airlines became the largest Boeing 737 operator in America and globally as well, led it reproduce its systems and practices of management in order to gain competitive advantages over other airlines eyeing the same uniqueness. Nevertheless, despite the fact that it sough to reproduce its management practices as closely as possible, the results were rarely compatible. Generally, the managers encountered issues they did not have to face in the operating environment (Achtmeyer, 2002:2). This is the reason as to why the first notions of culture used by the managing team were so similar to those deployed by the company with the view of defining the national culture. At this point, the development of the concept of organizational culture was ultimately polemic as opposed to what took place with other theoretical constructs such as organizational climate. Scholarly research reveals that, the concept of an organizational culture is a t hing borrowed from basic social sciences, mainly sociology and anthropology (Flamholtz and Randle, 2011:83). As opposed to organizational climate, which is a product of a conducted research, the concept of an organization is a construct embedded in the theoretical framework that employs the use of organizational environment and academics to listen to management theory (Bundgaard, Bejjani, and Helmer, 2006:16). Given the power of the Southwest