Strategic Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic Management - Assignment ExampleStarbucks purchases Fair Trade coffee. This arrangement helps local farmers by guaranteeing a minimal price of $1.26 per pound of wholesale coffee. It also provides them with technology transfers and access to financial assistance such as short verge loans to finance the crops of Coffee. Starbucks believes in the value of implementing wellness programs to help out different stakeholder groups including clients, suppliers, and employees. Starbucks purchased 269 million pounds of coffee in 2010 84% of its purchases came from C.A.F.E. Practices approved suppliers (Starbucks, 2011). The Starbucks stores are designed to continue as much energy as possible through the acquisition of superior technology and innovative processes. Water conservation is another practice that Starbucks coffee shop practices. The average American uses more than 6 times more water per year than the average African. The company supports social causes such as world hung riness and the AIDS/HIV epidemic. The company refers to its employees as baristas. The baristas are supposed to help the company create the Starbucks Experience. The wastage that Starbucks stores produce is minimized through the performance of its recycling program. The implementation of the firms recycling program is customized per store since it is dependent on the availability of existing recycling programs in the community. 2--Week 3 Discussion Question 2 A company is constantly in the news due to its dominance of the retail marketplace is Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is the most successful retail store in the chronicle of the United States. The company creates value by offering products at lower prices than the competition. The firm has a superb supply chain that allows the company to source products at lower costs. The company also uses bulk purchasing to achieve savings. Wal-Mart is the worlds largest employer with over 2.1 million employees worldwide (Walmart, 2011). The competitiv e advantage the company enjoys is compose of a variety of factors which include better customer service, lower prices, superb marketing, size of product offering, and superior locations. The firm offers over one million products to its customers. Wal-Mart is a multinational corporation that is publicly traded in the NYSE that operates in 28 countries. My employer does business in the United States solely. The core strategy used by Wal-Mart of slaughter the competition in terms of price is not aligned with the strategy the company I work for uses. My employer uses a differentiation strategy to attract customers. The products and operate offered by my employer are unique, which is contrary to Wal-Marts strategy of offering common household products. An attribute or characteristics that both Wal-Mart and my employer share is a commitment towards customer service. A second characteristic that both companies share is the existence of an e-commerce operation. Wal-Mart has an online sto re that sell is products to the entire orbicular customer base. The e-commerce operation my employer uses differs in that the company focuses solitary(prenominal) on the domestic marketplace. 3-- Week 3 Discussion Question 3 People eat outside their homes more often when the economy is doing well and their spendable income is higher. During bad economic times upper level restaurants are hurt more than cheap products. The industry leader in the fast food industry, McDonalds, achieved global sales of $24 billion and $4.94 billion in net income