Reflecting on Managerial Accounting - Assignment Example

MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week Insight: Marketing Exchange between General Motors and Delphi was there Satisfaction and Loyalty? Elaboration of the Insight: As GM spun Delphi off from their operations in 1999 one may have thought this was a good deal for both parties. Yes, there was a contractual agreement between the General Motors and Delphi that was designed to make the legal separation between the two companies. This was a benefit to General Motors and not designed for the longevity of the new company Delphi. Application of this Insight: As I look at the exchange requirements, there was an exchange between two parties, there was a desire for the two parties to deal with each other, each of the two parties had something of value to offer, but the freedom to accept or reject the exchange was compromised. There was loyalty from the Delphi divested employees who did everything they could to meet General Motors requirements to retain their business. These requirements were the leverage GM held over Delphi to retain the portfolio of GM business which was over 50% of their Sales. General Motors expected on the average 20% price downs on the Delphi book of business year over year to retain the business. Delphi was required to give these price downs in January of each year with no idea of how they would be achieved or recouped. An example of the Value = Benefits/Costs is represented with U.S. Payroll and Time Keeping contract. This appeared as a benefit to Delphi initially for Day 1 start up so that the employees could continue to get paid without interruption. As the years progressed and the people count decreased the need for a replacement for the legacy system and related outsourced processes needed to be replaced. The GM/Delphi contractual agreement took the total cost for GM’s IT, Overhead etc. on an annual budgeted basis as the basis for the amount that was to be prorated over the GM & Delphi headcount to calculate the bi-monthly charges. So the cost of a “paycheck” skyrocketed from two to four figure costs per paycheck as the headcount in the U.S. and company decreased. As well, there was not a desire for GM to work with Delphi in a joint legacy system replacement. Many of these situations existed which prevented Delphi from recouping the price downs granted to GM. While GM and Delphi did some joint activities to try and reduce costs, the loyalty to be a team player did not exist ---- satisfaction was a major disappointment. So for me this concept of ‘value’ needs allot of analysis and needs to meet short and long term objectives of both parties. Proper due-diligence for the life of the contractual obligations in the mist of time constraints and achievements of MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 1 Insight: Organizational Dashboard Board Big ‘M’- Little ‘m’ Visibility and tie to the Corporate Business Plan Objectives Elaboration of the Insight: I often wondered why a company a large as Delphi never had a business plan that each organization could tie into. Each staff area had a business plan but it was predicated on meeting their budget and forecast silos. At times, there were Executive key challenges to march to but these were in a memo from “executive X” that you hung onto for communication leverage. Clearly each organization had a plan but these were never shared or visible from one organization to another at an operational level. Application of this Insight: When Delphi spun off from GM in 1999, their business plan practices were carried over with the transition of management. As the year progressed with Delphi, it became apparent that staff areas had conflicting objectives. This awareness peaked as the financials of the company was challenged, yet staff areas were celebrating their annual accomplishments. As part of the company’s restructuring, the business units largest compliant was that the supporting staff areas success and failures was not visibility tied to their profit and loss. There was this large “allocation” that was charged to each business units for the support staffs that was not directly tied to the product. The team put in place to remedy this situation developed big and little m metrics and attempted to make the data more visible to throughout the organization. Even with all of the efforts to put a meaningful metric process in place, the Cost Profit Planning metric was not achieved across the business lines which are what would have tied the organizations together. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 2 Insight: Toyota is a great leader in Holistic Marketing Elaboration of the Insight: Toyota’s lean manufacturing system that supports their time based operations has five groups called the five zeros. These five zeros are; zero paper, zero inventories, zero downtime, zero defects and zero delay. This supports the Holistic Marketing principles; internal marketing, integrated marketing, social responsibility and relationship marketing. Application of this Insight: Toyota has improved their processes by using skilled operators to reduce breakdowns in their automation processes, they utilized these skilled operators in teams to achieve operator involvement in planning the production processes and improvement schedules thinking two heads are better than one when solving problems. The wide scale use of this method by Toyota is a good example of internal marketing. The use of skilled operations and related teams has also led to better communications, simplicity and flexibility within the workforce improving production. It has provided a family workforce of belonging among the workforce as sales; profits and production outputs are produced for the entire workforce to see. This represents a good use of internal marketing. Toyota’s use of project management processes for the overall operations links into their Business Process Reengineering with involvement from their organization and top management. This human approach also applies to the communications network between suppliers and vendors leading to trust and loyalty and a better think tank. This all is demonstrating relationship marketing. The five zeros; zero paper, zero inventories, zero downtime, zero defects and zero delay contribute to Toyota social responsibility minimizing waste and improving customer service over the long run.1 MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 2 Insight: Incorporation of Ethical Issues in Planning Elaboration of the Insight: The topic of Ethics reminds me of the ‘Benetton’ case which is referenced under Business ethics from Wikipedia where there was an attempted use of RFID tracking chips on clothes to monitor inventory. I found this example to be quite interesting and related to the ethical issues that can impact a company. The industries currently use of inventory tracking devices as a way to control inventory in the retail market today has evolved beyond the consumer privacy matters. According to Wikipedia; Cases: Benetton Application of this Insight: Benetton had aroused suspicion when they considered using RFID (Radio Frequency ID Chips) tracking chips on clothes to monitor inventory. A boycott site alleged the “tracking chips can be read from a distance and used to monitor the people wearing them." issues of consumer privacy were raised and the plan was shelved.”2 According to the Benetton Group, they have never used RFID technology nor have microchips (smart labels) ever been present in their garments produced and sold throughout the world under its brand names. They completed RFID studies, but Benetton Group decided not to take this technology any further since it provided no significant benefits to the productive and commercial organization. This example ties into the being fair and transparent about the environmental and ethical risks and related issues of product/service transparency. It also speaks to the ethics of declaration of the risks in using the product/service (health risks, financial risks, security risks, etc.). While Benetton Group did not pursue this RFID technology, in contrast, companies such as Checkpoint Systems Inc. a leader in retail security RFID, EAS, Loss Prevention, and Retail Security has found a way to make this technology successful and safe to use.3 MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 3 Insight: Economic Classification Systems Elaboration of the Insight: There are different purposes for economic classification systems such as; facilitating the use of economic data, to ensure comparability for usefulness, provide a framework for collapsing product and industry detail for sampling, and portraying a structure of the economy. Application of this Insight: Economic Classification Systems should conform to a consistent conceptual framework such that a single economic concept which can be applied consistently throughout the economic classification system. An example where I used automotive/manufacturing standard classifications from the industry was with the Human Resource department to perform an analysis on compensation. We used companies that specialize in tabulating industry data on employee salaries and benefits. The companies that had the best benchmark for our industry job classification data by each country were identified. It was critical that the way the data was classified facilitated from the different third part providers was usable within our company data structure. Even though different providers were used to ensure data integrity, there was a way to correlate the data so conclusions of the analysis could be reached. This was critical since it affected future compensation pay and benefit structures for salary employees. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 3 Insight: Marketing Strategy Process Elaboration of the Insight: The marketing strategy process is an important factor for an organization. The process provides the focus on where a company should concentrate and where they have the greatest opportunity to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Application of this Insight: One of my product Suppliers used when I was a Rubber Product Buyer at General Motors, Holmco Industries was an excellent example of a company with a vision and a competitive advantage. Their Sales force would spend time with the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Customers. This provided them with valuable insight into the products and services they were providing and competing on. One of their competitive advantages was their R&D which at times I found them to be more knowledgeable about the Tier 1 Vehicle Assembly Customers needs than their Component Supplier Tier 2. This company could design and produce parts. At times this was their competitive advantage while other times they could not compete with the shoot and ship shops due to their R&D overhead. This company was held in high esteem since they were involved with their Customer and very professional at doing so. Holmco Industries prided themselves in being able to influence the design of the products thus giving them an upfront edge over the competition-sometimes to the extent they got their design specified into the drawings. They only reason they could do this was because them put themselves in front, directly involved with the Tier 1 customer Engineers, with the Tier 2 Purchasing to follow. The company took prided in their professional relationship and struggled when they did not land a job due to competitivenss. They had a niche and professionally fought for it! MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 4 Insight: Developing the Value Offering – Value Proposition Elaboration of the Insight: Developing a value offering is something that cannot be underestimated. One of the best ways to maintain a value proposition is to ensure the satisfaction of the customer. Application of this Insight: One time I was helping a customer and they wanted me to find a product for them, so I accommodated their request. It was a difficult product to find, but I made sure that I took my time and acquired the desired product for the customer. Customer satisfaction is of the utmost importance to me, so I wanted to demonstrate my ability to be a team player and find the customer this product which he was searching for, and, finally I found it. In business, “the customer is always right.” No matter how much I may want to disagree with a customer at times, I always remember that old adage when I am feeling antagonistic in the least. The customer has the right to complain and make sure that he is getting what he wants. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 4 Insight: Developing the Value Offering – Value Proposition Elaboration of the Insight: Value equals benefit minus cost. This makes the value offering of a product something that a customer takes into mind before he or she purchases a product. Application of this Insight: “Value items” on the menu at McDonald’s are not called that for nothing. The reason there are value items on their menu is because McDonald’s customers get the sense that they are getting a deal. A lot of people want to get a product without having to pay what it is truly worth. Probably, a McChicken sandwich is really worth more like $3 dollars, but on the Value Menu it is only one dollar. So, it makes sense that the value in this sandwich is probably about $2 dollars, or three minus one. When people feel like they are getting value for their money, they are more willing to be repeat customers and this builds the McDonald’s brand. People want to feel like they are saving money, especially in a tough economy. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 5 Insight: Value Offerings and Use of Vectors Elaboration of the Insight: Value offering, which is mainly what needs to be spoken about here, has a lot to do with making sure that customers get excellent service above and beyond what they were hoping to receive. Application of this Insight: Once when I was working for a food service company at a catered party, a customer asked if there were any olives available. He gave me a $20-dollar tip and asked me if I would go try to find some. I obliged the customer, going to the back room where all the food service workers were headquartered. I asked if there were any olives available. Unfortunately, none of the workers could help me and I could not find any olives. I had to go back to the customer and let him know that I had not been able to find any olives. He let me keep the 20 dollars for having gone to the trouble to find him olives. Although this was awkward for me, I keep the 20 dollars and kept this approach in my “excellence” tool box. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 5 Insight: Value Offerings and Use of Vectors Elaboration of the Insight: Value offerings include the idea that the customer’s needs should be placed first above all else. This is demonstrated through the following scenario. Application of this Insight: For awhile I had a job at a local Starbucks. One time I had a customer come up to me and ask for an Iced Venti Double Nonfat 3-Pump Vanilla 5-Pump Chai Latte. I didn’t know what that was, so I asked a fellow co-worker (a Starbucks “partner team member”) if she could make the drink instead. She took me over to the coffeemaker and showed me how to make the drink. She said to me, “Look, you know what? When a customer asks you for something, you never say ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I can’t.’ That is a good way to lose our company business. Instead, say, ‘Of course, right away.’” Then she taught me how to make the drink. The point is, this interaction served for a good teaching moment. My colleague taught me that value offerings to potential clients include giving them not only what they want, but adding a little extra effort. As an added bonus for this particular customer, she gave him a voucher for a free drink at Starbucks. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 7 Insight: Pricing Elaboration of the Insight: Pricing is an important part of operating a business, because with good prices customers will continually come back to one’s place of business. High prices can lower a company’s chances of success in a particular community. Application of this Insight: I went to the local convenience store recently, as is my custom, and I noticed that the bottle of Coca-Cola I usually bought was now $2.60. Usually it had always been $2.09. I thought about buying from another store until I walked up to the register and the Coca-Cola rang up on the cash register as $2.09. I guess I was suffering from a case of sticker shock. If the price of the bottle of soda had indeed gone up, this store would have probably lost a customer. I wasn’t going to pay almost three dollars for two liters of Coca-Cola. Luckily, the store kept the price low at just over two dollars—much closer to my budget. As one can see, price makes a definite difference in how a customer reacts to a company’s products. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 7 Insight: Pricing Elaboration of the Insight: Offering deals to customers with regard to pricing can significantly enhance the chances for the seller that they might unload some of their products. Application of this Insight: I wanted to give my father a nice birthday gift. There happens to be an online retailer that offers deals for various items and products. This one particular website which promotes coupons on its site was giving away a boat ride for two on the lake for a decent price of $199. Normally the total for such a trip would cost $487 dollars, which was way more than I planned to spend. At the reduced price, one is saving $288. I thought it was a good deal, so I decided to purchase the boat ride. The price was what really drew me in. For $199, that boat ride was reduced by 53% of its original purchase price. I knew this was a gift that my Dad would love, and that he would enjoy the boat ride with my Mom. Plus, the fact that the boat had a microwave on board meant that they could bring their own microwaveable food. Obviously, price was a factor in making sure that I got the deal that I wanted. Thanks to the low price, it made it more affordable for me to give my Dad a great gift, since he is getting older. I knew this would mean a lot to him. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 8 Insight: Place Elaboration of the Insight: Place can have an impact upon marketing potential for a business. Of course, it is all about location, location, location when it comes to where a business is situated. Application of this Insight: I used to work at a tax office as well. It was a small franchise store in a large chain of tax preparation professionals. I got a job as a tax preparer, and it was a seasonal job. I really enjoyed the job. Mainly we got a lot of business because of the fact that the actual office of ours was located on a major street, on a corner, in a strip mall. Since a lot of people came to the strip mall to order Chinese take-out, go to a Greek restaurant, and do their laundry—we had a lot of potential customers who came through the door daily wondering about how much tax preparation fees would be—basically, how much it would cost them in order to get their taxes done. As can be seen, location matters a lot when one is considering where to place one’s business. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 8 Insight: Place Elaboration of the Insight: Location is one of the most important keys to running and operating a business. Without a good location, a business might as well stop before it starts. Application of this Insight: Someone I know really well works as a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. He works so hard, mainly because he is always busy. This is due to the fact that the Chinese restaurant, the China Palace, is always busy itself. The fact that the China Palace is located in the heart of the downtown area really boosts its daily business. Of course, China Palace’s owner is a very savvy businessman. He decided to open up one other restaurant with a different name—but which everyone associated with the restaurant knows is his restaurant as well. Since the restaurants were well-placed in town, he garnered a good business. Once word of mouth spread that this Chinese restaurant made really good food and was rather affordable, both his restaurants do land-office business successfully. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 9 Insight: Personal Selling Elaboration of the Insight: Personal selling can have a huge effect on the way a customer sees a business. If that customer feels like they are being taken care of, they will return to that organization for repeat business almost undeniably. Application of this Insight: My friend’s sister really likes to get her nails done and have her eyebrows waxed about once a month. She could choose many places where she would get these services done, but there is one place called the Lily Moon Salon where she frequents because the people who are at the Lily Moon are very good at personal selling. They recommend hand creams and lotions which the clients can buy if they like the one which is being used in their complimentary massage after their nails are painted. The Lily Moon Salon also sells a wide variety of nail polish, as well as waxes which can be done at home. One of the women in the salon, Ming, is a very nice woman who is very adept at selling products because she always adds a personal touch. She makes sure she treats the clients with respect and dignity and it keeps them coming back for repeat business. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 9 Insight: Personal Selling Elaboration of the Insight: Treating one’s client(s) nicely can go a long way in sealing the deal. Read the below example to find out how that can help a person sell a car. Application of this Insight: Someone I know really well just sold his SUV. Someone came all the way from a different state in order to buy this SUV. My friend took this person out to a business dinner where they discussed the SUV. My friend let the potential buyer drive the SUV around, so he could take a test drive. It only made sense that the buyer trusted him. My friend basically made back almost all the money that he had spent on the car, plus what he had paid for it. Obviously, there were certain things that the selling price didn’t pay for, such as new tires that had just been installed. But due to my friend’s personable nature, he was able to sell his SUV for a decent price. That is what personal selling is all about—making one’s client feel like he (or she) can trust you in order so that you can effectively sell your products and/or services. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 10 Insight: Communicating the Value Offering Through Social Media Elaboration of the Insight: In order to communicate value offerings through social media, there are several outlets that can be used. The value of Twitter should not be underestimated. Application of this Insight: Twitter is a great social media marketing tool. By building followers, one can make value offerings to one’s followers via Twitter. Twitter is great for micro-blogging. Using 140 characters, someone can effectively communicate in one tweet what an entire community marketing campaign could not accomplish in weeks’ worth of handing out flyers and promoting some type of ad campaign that included knocking on doors and telling people about one’s business. That is why tweeting on Twitter has become so integral to various businesses’ livelihoods. They realize that staying in touch with one’s clientele builds value and drives companies to continue making value offerings. It only makes sense that one should build one’s business while keeping in touch with the community that it serves. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 10 Insight: Communicating the Value Offering Through Social Media Elaboration of the Insight: The availability of value offerings that can be created through social media is endless. Facebook is another avenue in which the seller can connect with his or her customers. Application of this Insight: Usually, one good idea that people have in order to promote their business is to create a Facebook Fan Page. This is ideal because, Facebook is one of the most well-known social media outlets worldwide. Having a fan page for one’s business allows one to have unlimited connectivity for one’s business—whereas if one just has a Facebook page alone, one is limited to a friends list totaling 3,000 people. Of course, Facebook is the highest-used social media outlet throughout the entire world and on the Internet. It is worth billions of dollars. Reaching out to potential customers through social media is an integral part of marketing oneself and one’s business in today’s market. Facebook can help one’s business grow tremendously and offers free publicity. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: One Week: 11 Insight: Communicating the Value Offering Through Traditional Media Elaboration of the Insight: Television is one form of traditional media that is very commonplace as well as effective. Here it will be described why TV ads are one effective way of communicating value offerings. Application of this Insight: Almost everyone owns a television. TV is a common form of accessing the general public’s awareness in a visual way. Humans are increasingly being shaped into being visual creatures, which prefer to have their information presented to them in a visual manner. Print ads are not as popular, because people don’t like to read as much if they don’t have to—and—why should they? If you can tell a story in a TV ad with pictures, why does someone need to read an ad? This is why TV is so effective—because it communicates immediately the value offering of your product to the viewer with proven evidence. This is why TV should be one of your top choices as a traditional media outlet to be considered for your ad campaign. MRKT 679 B2B Marketing Journal Journal Entry Number: Two Week: 11 Insight: Communicating the Value Offering Through Traditional Media Elaboration of the Insight: One form of traditional media that might also be considered effective is radio. Radio has been around longer than TV has, and its staying power has proven that it is a great way to communicate value offerings as a traditional form of media. Application of this Insight: Even if a family does not have a TV, it is almost certain that they might have a radio. In more rural parts of a country, a radio is the lifeline to the outside world. People have access to music programs as well as national public radio programs through the radio. The radio also has commercials, or time slots on the air where ads can be heard. It is important as a business owner to know how to utilize the radio ad commercial time slot and be able to effectively communicate his or her product, brand, or service. Radio, since it relies on hearing, is almost as favorable as TV for a human to access information. As long as a client’s hearing is intact, the radio is an excellent way for a business to promote its value offerings. WORKS CITED Operations Management at Toyota. Retrieved 18 Mar 2011. Online. Available: . Benetton Group. Retrieved 18 Mar 2011. Online. Available: < http://tiny.cc/miikj>. RFID Journal. Retrieved 18 Mar 2011. Online. Available: . Read More