All Business to Business Relationships Contain Elements of Co-Operation and Competition - Essay Example

All business to business relationships contain elements of co-operation and competition.' Discuss. Instructions: INTRODUCTION All business relationships are complicated. Most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. In addition, business relationships include competition. Further, business relationships include Internal Demand Management, Also, business relationships include Relationship and Supplier Selection. Plus, business relationships include Customer Relationship Strategy. And, buyer-Supplier Negotiation. The following paragraphs will explain business relationships in terms of cooperation and competition in detail. BODY All business relationships are complicated. Most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. In addition, business relationships include competition. Further, business relationships include Internal Demand Management, Also, business relationships include Relationship and Supplier Selection. Plus, business relationships include Customer Relationship Strategy. And, buyer-Supplier Negotiation. Further, most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. Often, the cooperation being companies in the same market segment starts before any formal agreement has been perfected. one company even developed the political power to try to solve some of its own business problems by searching and forging an alliance with other business organizations. It had to address some of the issues in terms of reversing its sales slowdown. Many companies will present their best assets and income generating plans to its prospective partner organisation in order to win its nod to the merger. Many companies enter into mergers and consolidations by contributing money industry and business secrets with the end in mind of distributing any profits among themselves after each accounting period ends (Child, and Faulkner 1998, 84). And, this means that many companies join mergers and consolidations by taking into consideration the structure and system that are to form the basic framework for bringing their strong business alliances to life. Many companies consider their prospective partners' complementary part in their business union by taking into consideration the assets, skills and the possible synergies that could crop up as result of the business union. Many companies take into consideration the culture of the other company interested to join a merger or consolidation. Many organisations enter into informal merger or combination with other companies in the same line of business. For, many partners want to have a fair and reliable business agreement with other companies. Many of these partnerships agree to have fair and reliable agreement. These business agreements generally include the division of profits, segregation customer base, and other related concerns that would result to a fruitful relationship. In short, one of the most important topics that businesses combining with other businesses discuss is the appropriate value given to assets, liabilities, capital, revenues and expenses (Child, and Faulkner 1998, 84). In addition, business relationships include competition. Many companies have launched their products in the market with the hope that they will be able to swallow a large portion of the competitors' market share in terms of products. The political economy approach often brings a health competition among the different companies engaged in the same kind of business. international business have joined together in order to increase their market share over their competitors in the business wold. Today, the business environment has been renovated and innovated in terms of urban setting. Many competitors have bonded together to improve the lives of the employees as a member of its fold as well as their families (Clark 1999, 133). Cooperation crosses many boundaries. The beneficiaries of the public goods come from many countries, age, sex, beliefs and other diversities. The cooperation between two companies include companies located in both the developing countries as well as the highly industrialised nations like the United Kingdom and the member countries of the European Union. Many of the companies that cooperate with each other come from different cultures, wealth and poverty. Many of the orgnisations that cooperate with each other come from different ecosystems and different historical backgrounds. Here, the cooperation between some companies or organisations may vary in terms of organisations priorities and other preferences. This disparity between the main goals of different organizations would create an uneasy harmony between the cooperating business organisations. The misunderstanding here could be eliminated or reduced a great extent if there is a serious move to eliminate or decrease the misunderstanding or lack of information as well as mutual understanding and trust among it member organisations. In many instances, people do not negotiate with each other. The country of origin usually does the business cooperation meeting with foreign country. In the government scene, governments that deal with each other usually confer with their constituents back home before giving their decisions (Kaul, Grunberg, and Stern 1999, 15). Also, many competitions are held between organizations who are members of one fold. For example, grocery chains join one group that is the umbrella organisation with members in the same line of business. Yes, grocery stores form themselves into one group in order to voice or lobby their sentiments on pertinent laws, statutes, ordinances and other matters. Another group of airline companies can join together in order to lobby their disgust or approval of government's new statutes and laws relating to the setting up of a uniform airline passenger ticket price list. Many business organisations join a non -profit and non -stock group. This group could then devote most of their time to competing in the field of pricing, Customers often prefer companies that offer before sales, after sales profits (Lloyd, and Vautier 1999, 5). I addition, transnational joint ventures in the European Union often prefer to partner with European Union member state organisations. Also, there is little evidence to prove that they coming together of two or more companies in friendly competitive environment has reduced the level of competition between and among the different competitors in the businesses located in the United Kingdom and the other members countries located in the European Union. In fact, many business organisations located in the European Union have perceived the European Union as a single market or as a set of discrete national markets. In the first case large firms often join joint ventures to reap the prospective clients in terms of economies of scales. Many business competitors feel that they had to merge or combine in order to create a bigger picture of the company in terms of size, resources, and facilities. And, many organisations have joined the joint ventures in order to penetrate the impregnable walls of the competition in the European Union market. Likewise, many competitors must keep up the quality of their products Millington, and Bayliss 1995). Business relationships between companies in the same line of business would create a healthy business environment. When this happens, the companies must continue to upgrade the quality of their products. The improvement of the quality of the groups' products would definitely increase the company revenues. For, customers would prefer to patronise companies that have them. This means that some companies go the extra mile to offer fringe benefits to their current and prospective customers. In the same manner, current and prospectve customers would shy away from companies in the same line of business if their products are of lesser quality and price as the competitors. Further, business relationships include Internal Demand Management, A Merthyr company had drawn up plans for a major factory extension as a strong demand for its bespoke steels door products has been continuing to drive a major development programme. The company's supply and demand data shows that the company has been increasing its output of customized doors from its former production of six hundred fifty units a month to a very high one thousand units a month. The company has even started its hiring campaign to attract and hold on to additional factory machine operators and welders. Here, it is very evident that production will only increase if there is a strong demand for the products. An increase in the customers' demands for the company products would trigger a chain of business events to happen. Also, an increase in demand for the products during the current period as well as many years in the future would create a strong internal demand for raw materials. The company must now coordinate and communicate with its suppliers so that there will a continues flow of raw materials into the business. Here, the company could use the economic order quantity or EOQ quantitative mathematics formula to arrive at optimum number of raw materials that the company will order from its suppliers. The timing of ordering the raw materials as well as the number of raw materials purchased must be well coordinated so that there will no stock outs or lack of raw materials either in the current period or in the foreseeable future. At the same time, the company will have to estimate with extreme caution the number of persons that will be hired to convert the raw materials into finished goods ("Demand for Steel Doors" 2006, 7). Also, business relationships include Relationship and Supplier Selection. the business organisation must create a harmonious and profitable relationship with its suppliers in order to maintain a steady supply of raw materials. The company will definitely not be able to produce the minimum number of orders that its clients will but if there is no raw materials to buy. The suppliers have the right to refuse to sell the much -needed raw materials if it feels that their current customers do not have a courteous relationship with the suppliers. In the same manner, the company must have a harmonious and fruitful relationship with two or more suppliers. The main reason for this is that the company could choose to buy its raw materials from three possible alternative sources (Boyer, Frohlich, Tomas, and Hult 2005, 93). Plus, business relationships include Customer Relationship Strategy. The company must also have a pleasing kind of a personality. This simple means that the company would go that extra mile to spoil its current and prospective customers with products that they need. Likewise, the company could find ways to fill the wants and caprices of many of its current and prospective clients. For, it is stated that the most important part of the supply chain is the customer itself. It is the customer that buys the company's products. Thus, all company ears must be eager to listen to whatever whims and caprices the customer dictates to the company. The company must also keep a database of its current, past and prospective customers. The purpose of this marketing strategy is for the company's sales executive to be on their toes waiting for the customers' next orders. The new trend in marketing is to understand that the company must understand what it is providing the current and prospective customers i terms of customer value. The company should not focus on the product itself and how to sell it but rather making a product that will fill the needs, wants, whims and caprices of its current and prospective customers. The company must now focus on the customer and not the product being sold(John 2003, 19). And, buyer-Supplier Negotiation. The company must act in such as way that its supplier and buyer negotiation would be profitably good for the company in the long run. For, a supplier that supplies low quality raw materials when they are most needed would surely break the company because the customers will soon buy from the competitors. In the same manner, the company must pamper its clients i profitable manner so that they will feel happy. A happy customer would often return back to the company to buy more products. One way making the customers happy would be to focus on reasonably pricing the products, locating the products where the customers can easily buy them, produce high quality products, and to advertise the benefits and quality of the products(John 2003, 19). For example "customers of a new breed, with one distinguishing quality: they want to buy the way they want to buy. Yet most companies have not caught up with this newly empowered customer, and the customer experience has suffered(Griffin 2002, 2)." To stimulate increase in sales " At one of the companies, a decision was made to implement an aggressive promotional plan to stimulate trial purchase among drinkers of competitive brands. The plan included heavy use of coupons to stimulate switching. The strategy worked so well that the other brands initiated similar programs. As a result, a massive war over market share began and heavy promotional activity became the industry standard. The results were disastrous for coffee manufacturers(Griffin 2002, 7). " Also, the company must "A market orientation establishes the norms and beliefs that shape an integrated organizational effort to respond efficiently and effectively to customers and competitors. Thus market orientation is believed to have a positive effect on firm performance (Zhou, Brown, Dev, and Agarwal 2007)" In addition, "Construction Group president Robert (Bob) Isaman, Terex is moving forward by focusing on three key initiatives: ensuring that Terex never leaves a customer with a problem; driving down the total cost of ownership; and only building products that increase jobsite productivity. This was a significant shift in emphasis from the theme of "Building on Technology" adopted for the 2006 event(Casteel 2007, 65)." Lastly, "Understand the relationship-building step of the global selling process and how the salesperson can make the best impression when meeting the prospective buyer and ultimately gain their trust and cooperation.Honeycutt, Ford, and Simintiras 2003, 73)" CONCLUSION: All business relationships are complicated. Clearly, most business relationships contain elements of cooperation. Truly, business relationships include competition. Surely, business relationships include Internal Demand Management, Evidently, business relationships include Relationship and Supplier Selection. Correctly, business relationships include customer Relationship Strategy. Undoubtedly, buyer-Supplier Negotiation. Unquestionably, the most important part of the supply chain is the customer itself. It is the customer that buys the company's products Conclusively, The above paragraphs proves that business relationships in terms of cooperation and competition in detail are complicated. Works Cited Boyer, Kenneth Karel, Markham T. Frohlich, G. Tomas, and M. Hult. 2005. Extending the Supply Chain: How Cutting-Edge Companies Bridge the Critical Last Mile into Customers' Homes. New York: American Management Association. Child, John, and David Faulkner. 1998. Strategies of Cooperation: Managing Alliances, Networks, and Joint Ventures. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Clark, Peter. 1999. Organisations in Action: Competition between Contexts. London: Routledge. Demand for Steel Doors Drives Design & Supply Expansion. 2006. Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales), August 9, 7. Griffin, Jill. 2002. Customer Loyalty: How to Earn It, How to Keep It. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Honeycutt, D., John B. Ford, and Antonis C. Simintiras. 2003. Sales Management: A Global Perspective. London: Routledge. John, Joby. 2003. Fundamentals of Customer-Focused Management: Competing through Service. Westport, CT: Praeger. Kaul, Inge, Isabelle Grunberg, and Marc A. Stern, eds. 1999. Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century. New York: Oxford University Press. Lloyd, P. J., and Kerrin A Vautier. 1999. Promoting Competition in Global Markets: A Multi-National Approach. Cheltenham, England: Edward Elgar. Millington, Andrew I., and Brian T. Bayliss. 1995. Transnational Joint Ventures between UK and EU Manufacturing Companies and the Structure of Competition. Journal of International Business Studies 26, no. 2: 239+. Zhou, Kevin Zheng, James R. Brown, Chekitan S. Dev, and Sanjeev Agarwal. 2007. The Effects of Customer and Competitor Orientations on Performance in Global Markets: A Contingency Analysis. Journal of International Business Studies 38, no. 2: 303+. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Besides those ideas that the writer may have, it should also cover following aspects whenever appropriate: Word length should be about 2500. Please include as many useful sources as possible and also use Harvard referencing. Order#: 217388 Total Price: $50 Messages: 1 new / 1 total Topic: ' I am from UK, and I understand that I could have discount, please follow up. Thank you very much. Created: 2008-04-04 20:23 Deadline: 2008-04-18 18:30 Time Left: -3 hours Style: Harvard Language Style: English (U.K.) Grade: n/a Pages: 10 Sources: 12 Read More