Thursday, July 17, 2008

Chiou Kim research on affect of PEST factor

PEST analysis stands for "Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis" and describes a framework of macroenvironmental factors used in environmental scanning. It is a useful strategic tool for understanding market growth or decline, business position, potential and direction for operations. The use of it can be seen effective for business and strategic planning, marketing planning, business and product development and research reports and gives a certain overview of the different macroenvironmental factors that Dyson has to take into consideration.

Political factors include government regulations and legal issues. Legal factors which Dyson must operate include the overall general legal framework which will determine the basic ways of doing business, ownership issues, right and responsibilities, company law, employment law, health and safety, data protection, environmental considerations like pollution control and waste disposal, tax law, competition law dealing with cartels and price fixing and laws to protect consumers. The government is the nation’s largest supplier, employer, customer and investor and is responsible for creating and maintaining a stable framework in which business can be done. Government policy affects the whole economy and any change of it can have a significant impact on Dyson. Hence, Dyson must react to the attitude of the political party that is in power at the time to make sure that the political environment in any countries in which it may wish to operate is satisfactory. The addition or removal of legislative regulatory constraints can pose major strategic threats and opportunities.

The economic environment is an important influence at local and national level. It affects the purchasing power of potential customers and the firm's cost of capital. The overall growth or fall in gross domestic product (GDP) affects the demand for Dyson’s products. An understanding of local trends (e.g. type of industry in the area, office/factory rents and labour rate) is important for Dyson to invest and relocate its business. Exchange rates affect the price of Dyson’s products overseas and of any supplies being purchased from international sources. Interest rates determine how much it costs to borrow funds to undertake an investment. Inflation has an impact on business decisions such as wage inflation compensates for price inflation.

Social factors affecting Dyson often look at the demographic and culture aspects and also the implications of technology on working patterns. These factors affect customer needs and the size of potential markets. There is now a greater emphasis on work-life balance issues and this can impact on employment policies and approaches to managing work. The rate of growth or decline in population will affect the demand for Dyson’s products. Rising standards of living lead increase demand for its products. Other social factors include income distribution and consumerism. Observing social factors helps Dyson maintain its reputation among stakeholders.

Technology enables new products and processes to be developed in order to keep up with competitors. It increases manufacturing productivity and reduced costs through transportation technology, labour-saving and time- saving. It helps Dyson communicate more effectively with its customers via the internet (e.g. e-mail and the use of websites) and provides greater integration with the suppliers via computer link-ups. Database systems make it much easier to analyse the market place.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Joanne research on affect of PEST factor

A PEST analysis is a business measurement tool. PEST is an acronym for political, economic, social and technological factors, which are used to assess the market for Success.

Political factors include tax policy and environment issue. Success need to satisfy that the political environment in the countries which they wish to explore is satisfactory. Political environment include legal issues. Legal factors which Success operates include company law, employment law, health and safety, data protection and environmental consideration.

The economic factors are an important influence at local and national level. It will cover the overall growth or fall in gross domestic product (GDP) which will affects the demand for products. An understanding of local trends also important to explore a new market. Interest rates determine how much to borrow in order to invest new products. Factors of exchange rates will affect the price of Success product overseas.

The social environment for Success would highlighted factors of geography and household. The concentration of population into certain geographical areas and size of household will affect the demand for products. Move to a casual flexible workforce can impact on employment policies and approaches to managing work.

Technology enables new products to be develop in order to serve the marketing demand. It increases manufacturing productivity and reduced productivity costs. Technology also help Success communicate more effectively with their clients either local or overseas.

Monday, July 7, 2008

Xuan Hao research

Nike, Inc. sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon, near Beaverton. It is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment with revenue in excess of $16 billion USD in 2007. As of 2008, it employed over 30,000 people world-wide. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state of Oregon. The company was founded in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman and Philip Knight, and officially became Nike, Inc. in 1978. The company takes its name from Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Nike markets its products under its own brand as well as Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike+, Air Jordan, Nike Skateboarding, Team Starter, and subsidiaries including Cole Haan, Hurley International, Umbro and Converse. Nike also owned Bauer Hockey (later renamed Nike Bauer) between 1995 and 2008. In addition to manufacturing sportswear and equipment, the company operates retail stores under the Niketown name. Nike sponsors many high profile athletes and sports teams around the world, with the highly recognized trademarks of "Just do it" and the Swoosh logo. Nike produces a wide range of sports equipment. Their first products were track running shoes. They currently also make shoes, jerseys, shorts, baselayers etc. for a wide range of sports including track & field, American football, baseball, tennis, Association football, lacrosse, basketball and cricket. The most recent additions to their line are the Nike 6.0 and Nike SB shoes, designed for skateboarding. Nike has recently introduced cricket shoes, called Air Zoom Yorker, designed to be 30% lighter than their competitors'. In 2008, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, a high performance basketball shoe designed with the environment in mind.

Nike's world headquarters are surrounded by the city of Beaverton, Oregon but are technically within unincorporated Washington County. From Nike's perspective, the company, one of only two Fortune 500 employers still headquartered in the state of Oregon (Precision Castparts is the other), has such a large payroll in the area that it should not be forced to be annexed into Beaverton without its consent. Nike prefers to work with county government as it develops and expands its headquarters. Annexation would cost the company $700,000 per year in increased taxes for services it already receives from the county and various special-purpose districts. Intel, another large employer in the state, routinely receives special tax breaks on various capital investments it makes in the county.


Jess research

My dad is the owner of Kedai Cermin & Bingkai HUIJIN at Ampang. He is a sole trader.

Kedai Cermin & Bingkai HUIJIN is a retailer shop since 1988. Initially, its main products are all kind of mirror and framework. After few years, it started manufactures the product of Buddhist pray use, and also glassbox.

My dad works himself and my mum helps him in the shop. There are 2 workers in the shop. My cousin is the accountant of my dad’s shop to solve the financial problem.

Boundary separate Kedai Cermin & Bingkai HUIJIN from its environment, which includes economy, competitors, suppliers and customers.

In order to maintain the business, my dad keep improving their product’s quality and services. They also having a control on the prices to satisfy marketing demand.

Chiou Kim research

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My sister is one of Electronic Development Engineers in Dyson.

Dyson is a British appliances manufacturer. Its main products are vacuum cleaners. It also manufactures Contrarotator™ washing machines and Airblade™ hand dryers. Initially manufactured in England, the production has since moved to Malaysia. Today, Dyson vacuum cleaners are sold in 45 countries, including the UK and USA – where it’s market-leader.

Dyson has its own structure to enable people to work together for their goals.

Below is the organisation structure of Dyson showed by my sister.


At Dyson costs and quality of products are reviewed and controlled. The engineers and scientists investigate ways of making everyday technology work better at the Dyson research, design and development centre in the UK. Also, they constantly re-examine products of all types to redesign them and create new products. They test and analyze their machines rigorously and do various development testing and reliability testing like cleaning head testing, head speed visualization, microbiological testing and so on. The results from development testing are used to improve the design of the next generation of Dyson machines. So, standards are constantly improved. Besides, it has proved a better product can be made at a price people can afford. As a result the Dyson Dual Cyclone™ became the fastest selling vacuum cleaner ever to be made in the UK.

For Dyson, within the boundary is the subsystems of the system, for instance, the employees and procedures contained within departments such as production, purchasing, sales and finance. It has 1679 employees in 2005. Outside the boundary is the enviroment, which includes customers, suppliers, shareholders, the labour market, lenders, competitors, the law and the economy. Rival manufacturers attacked James and his vacuum cleaner but failed to persuade consumers to return to their outdated technology.


Dyson Limited

Type

Private company

Founded

1993

Founder

Sir James Dyson

Headquarters

Malmesbury, Wiltshire, UK

No. of locations

manufactured: Malaysia

Key people

Sir James Dyson(Managing director)
Deirdre Dyson(
Deputy managing director)

Industry

Domestic appliances

Products

Vacuum cleaners,
washing machines,
hand dryers


Joanne research

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Success Electronics & Transformer Manufacturer Sdn Bhd (SETM) is a manufacturing company since 1980. It is one of the largest low-voltage transformer and industrial lighting manufacturers in Malaysia. It is wholly owned by Success Transformer Corporation Berhad.

Success has its own structure to enable people to work together towards their goals. The organisation chart has shows the relationships in an organisation. Below is the organisation structure of Success.

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Boundary separate Success from its environment. Within the boundary is the employees contained within the company. Success having a total workforce of close to 300 employees. Outside the boundary is the environment, which includes store market (Bursa Malaysia), economy, competitors, shareholders, suppliers and customers both in Malaysia and overseas such as Japan, Korea, Singapore and so on.

The strategic key for Success to maintain itself as a player in the global as well as local markets is the continuous improvement of its product and quality system. Success also keep continue improving their services in order to maintain its reputation. In addition, there is also price and quantity control to be able to serve the increasing of market demand.


Saturday, July 5, 2008

Andrew research on parents organisation

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My father work in Maybank the largest bank and financial group in Malaysia, with 361 domestic branches and 88 international branches, assets worth USD$66.7 billion, placing it among the top 120 banks worldwide. Maybank is the second largest listed company on the Malaysian Stock Exchange, Bursa Malaysia, with a market capitalisation of over RM46.3 billion as of mid-December 2007. On May 5th, 2008 Maybank bought 15% of Muslim Commercial Bank of Pakistan. Maybank operates a full range of commercials as a number of local banks around the world, corporate, and private banking services, with a network of more than 450 branch offices and more than 2,000 ATM machines in Malaysia. My father work in a brunch which located in Kuantan Pahang. His position in the brunch is a assistance manager are typically given management authority to make key decisions quickly, are heavily involved in training of other staff and perform many paperwork related duties. My father have to developed strong supervisory skills and are showing clear leadership ability with the staff and also be directly responsible for ensuring that health and safety policies are adhered to.