Strategic Management-Case study Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Strategic Management-Case study - Research Paper Example They have been quite successful in providing a great experience to the consumers through their stores. The stores are planned at locations meant for social interaction among people between work and office. This particular strategy has helped Starbucks to attract a large number of consumers. Starbucks provided its consumers with a place where they could get together or meet people on a periodical basis when they were not working. This strategy followed with the idea of a leading brand of specialty coffee which is professed to be a reasonably priced luxury helped the company to fit in and promote the coffee culture among the consumers (Gambardella, 2009; Kachra, 1997). Starbucks has effectively recognized and projected itself to be a place apart from work and home where the consumers can indulge in some superior quality coffee and relax themselves. This image was developed by the company through proper planning of the stores and making them comfortable with the help of furniture and soothing music. Starbucks should adeptly leverage its capabilities as well as resources by offering an array of services along with the rich ambience. It should entail services like handicapped access, common spaces for the purpose of teamwork and alliance, wireless internet and also complimentary books (Gambardella, 2009; Kachra, 1997). They should also expand their menus in order to lead in the competition and to cater to the altering requirements of the consumers. Starbucks should keep bringing in fresh products. It should focus on expanding its stores at places where a high traffic is observed for the stores. Their stores need to be located at convenient places that would be easily accessible for people who are quite busy with their work schedule. Starbucks should also plan international advertising programs and venture into various distribution channels as well. Leveraging its resources and objectives through the suggested ways

Financial Trends Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Financial Trends Paper - Essay Example The trend was a fall before the rise. The same could be observed in the behavior of net income of the company for the same three-year period, that there was a fall and an improvement after the fall. Net profit margin measures the company’s profitability performance (Bernstein, 1993) and is computed by dividing net income over the total revenues. In case of general motors a consistent 0.01 net profit margins were observed for the three year period. This indicates a rather lack of improvement in the company’s performance for the past three years despite the seeming increase in revenues from total sales for 2005 of US$192.6 billion to US $207.3 billion for 2006. This means the cost of the company was very high for the company which needs a deeper analysis as shown below: It would appear the company was still having some mark-ups from revenues, hence it may deduced that it is selling at above is production cost as evidenced by the positive gross profit rate from 2004 through 2006. The loss was felt only in 2005 when operating loss showed a rate of negative 0.01 value. This means that the company has higher operating expenses for 2005 compared with 2006 and 2004. Further analysis revealed that 2005 has high selling and administrative expenses in addition to the decline in revues from 2004 to 2005. Over all 2005 operation was a losing year by the company. When the three year ratios above are analyzed in relation to the trends established earlier in the behavior of the revenues and net income, it may be observed that there was big improvement in the return on equity (Meigs and Meigs, 1995) of the company from 2004 to 2006 although there was a deterioration in the return on assets from 0% in 2004 to -1% in 2006. This means that changes made were beneficial to the stockholder and that having too many assets are not necessarily better for the company if it will result to a better return to equity.