Business Examples Flashcards

1
Q

Bosch environmental / R&D investment:

A

Bosch invests 50% of its R&D budget in technologies supporting environmental protection

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2
Q

Bosch eXchange program:

A

Bosch eXchange program remanufactures used car components, generating 23,000 metric tons less carbon dioxide annually compared to new production

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3
Q

Starbucks Sustainable Coffe Challenge:

A

Starbucks has committed to providing one million coffee trees to farmers as a partner in Conservation International’s ‘Sustainable Coffee Challenge’
- Plan to hire 10,000 refugees across 75 countries in the next five years

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4
Q

Iceland palm oil campaign:

A

Iceland announced they would stop manufacturing product containing palm oil to draw attention to tropical deforestation

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5
Q

Virgin employee motivation:

A

Richard Branson puts his employees over customers - he collects feedback from employees by walking around the cabin and talking directly to staff during flights
- “In the end shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy”

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6
Q

Huawei market growth:

A

Huawei’s market share reached 15% (Samsung is market leader with 17%)
- Consumers in China are turning to cheaper brands for smartphones

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7
Q

Tesla customer service:

A

Tesla goes to the customer’s home to fix car issues rather than making the customer go to the repair shop in their time

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8
Q

Harley Davison after-sales service:

A

When a customer purchases a Harley Davidson, they are encouraged to join the Harley Owners Group which connects riders and the brand and also helps with maintenance and bike issues

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9
Q

Aldi sales growth:

A

Aldi now have a market share of around 7.5% as opposed to 3% in 2012.

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10
Q

Amazon hard HRM:

A

Amazon accused of treating staff like robots as it emerged that ambulances had been called out 600 times to the UK warehouses in the past three years.

  • Employees told “it’s not what you want, it is what we decide”
  • Pregnant woman made to stand 10 hours without a chair
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11
Q

Amazon R&D:

A

Amazon topped the list of US company spending on R&D in 2017 with $22.6 billion to produce products such as Alexa

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12
Q

Primark only selling in store:

A

Primark does not sell online - their low prices means low profit margins and going online would mean absorbing shipping costs or passing them to the consumer

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13
Q

Sea World reputation:

A

Sea World’s public image was damaged after a documentary brought to light the conditions that they keep their Orca whales in - their stock fell 33% as a result

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14
Q

Tesco quality control:

A

Tesco burgers found to contain horse meat leading to their value falling by nearly £300 million

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15
Q

Nike advertisement:

A

Nike ‘Just Do It’ campaign resulted in their sales going from $800 million in 1988 to $2 billion within a decade
- Nike got support from athletes including Michael Jordan and turned the brand into a fashion statement rather than just sportswear

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16
Q

Debenhams retrenchment:

A

Debenhams plan to cut 50 stores after £492 million annual loss with up to 5,000 jobs at risk

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17
Q

Unilever shareholder influence:

A

Unilever cancels plans to move headquarters from London to Rotterdam due to pressure of shareholders

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18
Q

Kleenex pressure groups:

A

Kleenex ‘mansize’ tissue boxes renamed ‘extra large’ in response to criticism from customers and feminist campaigners

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19
Q

Walmart innovation:

A

Walmart applied for a patent for smart shopping carts to give store feedback about shopping habits
- Shopping carts are equipped with sensors that can read pulse, palm temperature and walking speed in order to understand how customers feel in the store

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20
Q

Thomas Cook primary research:

A

Thomas Cook considers introducing pre-bookable sun-beds after survey finds 1 in 10 are in favour of the idea

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21
Q

Premier Inn product development:

A

Premier Inn new Zip rooms that are 8.5 square metres starting from £19

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22
Q

New look failed international expansion:

A

New Look abandons Chinese operation as they try to find new tenants for their 130 stores in China

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23
Q

Hoversurf technological change:

A

Dubai Police started training on Hoversurf hover bikes, costing £114,000, to help attent emergencies quicker

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24
Q

Apple product life cycle:

A

Apple are no longer supporting the iPhone 5 as it is now considered vintage

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25
Q

John Lewis product life cycle / technological change:

A

John Lewis will not longer be selling DVD players as sales of product plunged by 40% over the last year following increasing popularity of streaming services such as Netflix

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26
Q

Honda JIT:

A

Honda Swindon assembly plant retains just an hours worth of parts at the production line - it requires 350 trucks’ worth of components delivered everyday

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27
Q

NHS cyber-crime:

A

NHS hit with a £92 million bill following fallout of the WannaCry cyber attack which disrupted services and left thousands of appointments cancelled
- Health department agreed £150 million of investment in cyber security over next three years

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28
Q

Dominoes market penetration:

A

Dominoes use notifications through e-commerce to encourage existing customers to buy more pizza

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29
Q

Amazon technology creating jobs:

A

Amazon creates 600 research and development jobs in Manchester for workers to focus on software development

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30
Q

Facebook data protection:

A

Facebook fined £500,000 over Cambridge Analytica scandal for breaches of data protection law
- Data belonging to 87 million users were improperly accessed

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31
Q

Lidl quality control:

A

Lidl shopper finds dead mouse in rice packet leaving house smelling of cooked mouse

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32
Q

Apple soft HRM:

A

Apple voted best private sector firm to work for in the UK according to new survey
- They employ around 6,500 people in the UK

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33
Q

Amazon Herzberg hygiene factors:

A

Amazon warehouse workers have sent emails directly to boss Jeff Bezos urging him to restore their employee share schemes, which were cut to fund a promised pay rise.
- Share scheme entitles them to one share - worth around £1,500 - for every year they work at Amazon

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34
Q

WHSmith retrenchment:

A

WHSmith closing six stores after reporting a fall in yearly profits by £2 million
- Moving staff at closing stores to other stores to prevent losses

35
Q

M&S retrenchment:

A

M&S total revenue for clothing and home department down 2.7%
- Planning to shut 100 sites by 2022

36
Q

Ryanair ethics:

A

Man filmed being racist on a Ryanair flight - Ryanair should have removed him from the flight but moved the victim instead

37
Q

BBC ethics:

A

BBC female editor found out she was being paid two thirds less than male co-worker doing same job

38
Q

Primark environment / contingency planning:

A

Fashion industry is a major source of greenhouse gases and discarded clothes are piling up in landfill sites
- Clothes are now being made to last and customers are encouraged to return unwanted clothes for reuse

39
Q

Healthcare Environmental Services environment / regulation:

A

Healthcare Environmental Services site held excess waste five times its capacity, equalling 350 tonnes including infectious fluids
- HES has been served with termination notices by 15 NHS trusts

40
Q

McDonalds legislation / environment:

A

EU proposal to cut down on single-use plastics so McDonalds tests paper straws in Britain

41
Q

Starbucks innovation:

A

Starbucks opened a store in Taiwan built from 29 recycled shipping containers

42
Q

Edinburgh tax:

A

Edinburgh plans to introduce a tourist tax

  • Transient visitor levy with draft proposals suggesting visitors pay £2 a night, capped at seven nights
  • Could bring £11 million annually to the city
43
Q

Independent Can Co tariffs:

A

Trump announced steep tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium

  • Independent Can Co relies on tin-plated steel from Europe to make products such as biscuit tines
  • Tariffs expected to add about $1.5 million in expense this year
44
Q

Argos technological change:

A

In 2012 Argos closed 75 stores.

  • It changed its corporate objective in late 2012 to reinvest itself as ‘a digital retail leader’
  • Over 2012-2013 winter season the firms ‘check and reserve’ ordering service grew its share of total sales from 28% to 31%, orders placed online via mobiles doubled, and 42% of Argos’s business was now done online
45
Q

Scottish Power environment / USP:

A

Scottish Power becoming the first major UK energy company to generate its electricity from wind power instead of coal and gas
- Plans to invest £5.2 billion over four years to double its renewables capacity

46
Q

Pret A Manger quality control / supply chain:

A

Pret A Manger accused of supplying a contaminated yoghurt suspected to have caused a death

  • CoYo yoghurt brand mis-sold to Pret a guaranteed dairy-free yoghurt found to contain dairy protein
  • Pret terminated its relationship with CoYO
47
Q

McDonalds ethics:

A

McDonalds refused firefighters free drinks after they were tackling a fire as they had no cash on them

48
Q

Cadbury market penetration:

A

Cadbury repackage their standard chocolates into Christmas selection box

49
Q

Lego market development:

A

Lego produce new colours of Lego to sell into female market

50
Q

HMV diversification / failed venture:

A

HMV diversified into the live entertainment market with £40m purchase of live music venues but exited market soon after

51
Q

Bic diversification:

A

Bic sell razors, pens, lighters and surfboards

52
Q

Zavvi management buy-out:

A

The managers of Richard Branson’s Virgin Megastores bought him out to create Zavvi

53
Q

Kraft conglomerate integration:

A

Kraft took over Cadbury for £11.5 billion

54
Q

Facebook horizontal integration:

A

Facebook took over instagram for $1 billion

55
Q

Daimler and Chrysler failed merger:

A

$36 billion Daimler and Chrysler merger failed due to cultural differences and overestimating synergies

56
Q

Unilever corporate ventures:

A

Unilever invested in Brainjuicer when they had one employee

  • They helped them expand into new markets
  • When they left the company it operated in 11 countries with approximately 140 employees
  • Unilever achieved a 17 x growth on its initial investment
57
Q

VW cost reduction:

A

VW demand discounts from their component suppliers to reduce average unit cost per car

58
Q

Sainsbury’s synergies:

A

Sainsbury’s £1.3 billion takeover of Home Retail Group (parent company of Argos)

  • Announced the potential for an estimate of £120 million of annual synergies
  • £60 million from Argos concessions
  • £40 million from cost synergies (removing duplicate functions
  • £20 million from revenue synergies (selling Sainsbury’s clothing through existing Argos network)
59
Q

Santander synergies:

A

Santander delivered £300 million of cost synergies from Abbey National which it bought for £9.6 billion

60
Q

Dyson R&D / innovation:

A

Dyson announced in 2014 that it would be investing £1.5 billion in long term innovation

  • £1 billion spent on R&D, with a further £250 million to be spent on a technology campus
  • Hope to launch 100 new products over the next four years
  • Aim to invest a third of its profits on research into new products
61
Q

GB Cycling team Kaizen:

A

GB cycling team used Kaizen to improve each element that goes into cycling by 1% to achieve larger gains
- They won 6 gold medals in 2016 olympics

62
Q

Google patents / takeover:

A

In 2011, Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion, and secured around 17,000 patents with it which it needed for the Android system
- In 2014, it sold Motorola to Lenovo for $2.91 billion without the patents

63
Q

BMW counterfeits:

A

Chinese car manufacturer Shuanghuan launched the CEO, which is an almost identical copy of the BMW X5
- BMW brought them to court and lost the case

64
Q

Lego patent / innovation:

A

Lego lost the patent on the design of the bricks, allowing other companies to produce similar items. It innovated in three ways as a response:

  • Lego with friends range (new demographic segment)
  • Collaborations with brands like The Simpson’s (licensing agreements)
  • New products such as Ninjago (original IP)
65
Q

B&Q failed international expansion:

A

B&Q failed in China as the tradition in China is that the business you buy the paint from then does the decorating for you - there is no concept of DIY

66
Q

Pampers failed international expansion:

A

Pampers disposable nappies failed in China because Chinese families have no tradition of using disposable nappies

67
Q

Tesco failed international expansion:

A

Tesco failed in the USA as supermarkets in the US sell a wide variety of products rather than just food

68
Q

Dyson international production / labour costs:

A

Dyson moved its manufacturing to the Far East with the loss of about 800 UK jobs
- James Dyson said it was due to lower manufacturing costs as well as being closer to the suppliers

69
Q

Golden Wonder international production / speed to market:

A

Golden Wonder announced that its Pot Noodles would no longer be made in China and shipped 10,000 miles back to the UK

  • It moved manufacturing to Leeds creating 50 jobs
  • It cost £3,000 to send a container of noodles to the UK from China
70
Q

Tesco and Samsung alliance:

A

In 1999 Tesco created an alliance with Samsung to open ‘Home Plus’ - a series of supermarkets in South Korea
- Tesco brought knowledge of the industry, Samsung brought local knowledge

71
Q

Aviva delayering:

A

Aviva removed the regional management layer from its structure
- Expected to result in annual cost savings of around £100m

72
Q

Play Doh marketing / myth:

A

Play Doh was accidentally invented whilst trying to make a wallpaper cleaner

73
Q

Nordstrom customer service:

A

Nordstrom shoe store does not have a customer service department, rather it is embedded in all aspects of their culture

74
Q

Morrison changing market:

A

Morrison sparked talk of industry price war after it posted its lowest profit for five years and said it would invest £1 billion in price cuts over three years in a bid to recover market share lost to discount stores such as Aldi

75
Q

Nokia rate of technological change:

A

Nokia used to be a market leader but is battling for survival in a crisis caused by a range of factors:

  • Missed the smartphone revolution
  • Continued to focus on mobile devises rather than mobile phone applications
  • Intense competition
76
Q

M&S e-commerce / R&D:

A

M&S spent £150m improving its website in 2014

77
Q

Uber dynamic pricing:

A

Uber use ‘surge pricing’ - when demand for cars is greater than supply, prices rise to encourage more drivers to offer services

78
Q

NyQuil emergent strategy / repositioning:

A

When testing NyQuil, they realised the regular cold medicine kept putting people to sleep so they repositioned the product as a night-time cold remedy

79
Q

McDonalds CSR / environment:

A

McDonald’s Planet Champion Programme trains employees to find ways of reducing the environmental impact of the company as well as daily litter picking controls.

80
Q

Subway franchising:

A

Subway increased the number of its fast-food restaurants in UK and Ireland from 100 in 2002 to over 2000 by 2015 through franchising

81
Q

Amazon process innovation:

A

Amazon introduced Amazon Prime which provides one-day delivery for an annual fee

82
Q

Uber market share strategy:

A

Uber are valued at $90 billion but are yet to make a profit as they prioritise increasing market share

83
Q

WeWork flexible working / capacity utilisation:

A

WeWork offers shared office space allowing clients to shrink or grow their number of desks

84
Q

Beyond Meat innovation / environment / CSR pyramid:

A

Beyond Meat is an ethical plant-based burger business with investments from Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio - they have admitted they may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability so shows that achieving ethical level on CSR pyramid is not always worth it