Business Environment

27 Jun

CASE STUDY

Due to Germany’s rigid labour laws, high taxes and diminished local demand, many companies are considering moving their operations out of Germany. The industry is now demanding that unions should limit their demands for higher wages, and be prepared to work for longer hours if they want to retain their jobs. Companies like Siemens AG and DaimlerChrysler AG have successfully negotiated agreements that will allow employees to work for more than the previously sacrosanct 35 hours per week. In order to encourage companies to invest and hire in Germany, which is faced with a falling GDP (gross domestic product) and rising unemployment, the government is attempting to decrease the nonwage costs of labour and make dismissal laws more flexible.

Answer the following question.

Q1. Explain how inflexible labour laws lead to a vicious cycle of increasing unemployment, a decrease in business investment and consumer spending.

 

CASE STUDY

Tesco’s move into Korea offers a classic case study of building market share internationally. The company made some smart moves in their Korean expansion, most notably partnering with Samsung, the leading Korean conglomerate, and embracing the Korean way of life by operating stores as local businesses and community centers. Tesco also made a smart move by employing nearly 100% Koreans on staff, with only 4 British employees out of 23,000. Reports indicate that Tesco’s intelligent strategy has won over shoppers in Seoul, with 25% of Koreans signed up for loyalty cards and sales in the billions, finding success in “cracking” the Asian tiger,” where competitors such as Carrefour and WalMart have failed.

Answer the following question.

Q1. Give an overview of the case.

 

CASE STUDY

America has increased outsourcing exponentially over the last six months. The corporate top brass and experts however, have staunchly defended their decision to outsource, stating that the job shifting to developing nations with well-qualified human resources is necessary for the American companies to retain their competitiveness. While the pain is real for the people who have been rendered jobless, some politicians have chosen the issue to play on the minds of the populace, accusing outsourcing as a potential source for recession and jobless growth.

Answer the following question.

Q1. Explain the relationship between comparative advantage and outsourcing

Q2. Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing in the context of US

Q3. Debate whether outsourcing is the real cause of unemployment in US and whether adopting a protectionist approach will be beneficial for the economy or not.

Q4. Give an overview of the case.

 

CASE STUDY

SEMA achieved increased productivity, competitiveness and profitability by embracing the use of eLearning to provide tailored educational sessions in the fields of business, IT and business transformation skills. By offering greater flexibility for the delivery of educational material, the disruption to business operations was minimized and staff members had the opportunity to progress at their own pace. From a sustainability perspective, the delivery of eLearning modules on-demand through the internet has provided SEMA with a number of opportunities to reduce the carbon emissions associated with: • Travel to training courses. • Hiring of training facilities. • The provision of paper related course material. • IT related book resources. The use of eLearning practices can be implemented within any organization, regardless of size, language or location. Though the environmental benefits associated with less travel and paper consumption are becoming increasingly important, it is the increase in staff retention and productivity that provides the strong business case for organizations to make the change to eLearning practices. Featured Organizations SEMA is a leading Direct Marketing, Consulting and IT Business Solutions group with the largest 100 percent privately owned direct mail operation in Australasia. Skill Soft is a leading provider of on-demand eLearning and performance support solutions for global enterprises, government, education and small to medium size businesses A high level of staff turnover was leading to significant costs associated with maintaining staffing levels and associated training. This was in-turn impacting quality, job knowledge, turnaround times, system knowledge and placing a significant strain on management staff. Due to the costs involved, investment in training was low across the board and was only provided to key staff members. Those staff that did receive training were offsite for up to five days in order to participate in training, which in turn impacted the operational departments and was not flexible enough to meet SEMA’s client needs. The Proposed Solution SEMA embraced the eLearning programs that are offered by Skill Soft in order to provide tailored educational sessions across the fields of business, IT and business transformation skills. All courseware is provided to SEMA staff online via the internet and has enabled SEMA to offer a wider range of educational information to a larger number of staff. 2 SEMA Page 7 What Were the End Benefits? (Efficiencies, Productivity, Financial, Cultural or Other) The key benefits achieved were: • 822 percent Return on Investment (ROI). • Average staff tenure increasing to 2.8 years and growing. This has allowed SEMA to keep key skills and knowledge in-house and has provided a stable platform to both increase competitiveness and profitability.

Answer the following question.

Q1. How did SEMA achieve increased productivity, competitiveness and profitability in business? Discuss.

Q2. Give your views on the case.

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