Introduction to buisness free essay sample

As far as marketing is concerned Bremont , have already cut out into the with the brand itself has already reaching international luxury markets in Hong Kong. It will be also attracting most of their UK-based customers, with the made in Britain stamp. Bremont will opening a new workshop opening in Hanley-on-Thames , which will increase production and improve the operations. Since the parts will be assembled and manufactured in the UK, this will cut down on costs from the parts that are usually being imported from Switzerland to be assembled in the UK. As far as human resources is concerned, 35 new workers will be employed on the new sites. The watches at the moment, are reasonably priced. Since a watch takes two years to build, it can be said that the companys finances, should be more focus on the manufacturing section. Most of this will be accomplished, from the development of the new workshop. Weaknesses There aren’t many weaknesses that can be seen as of yet with the marketing, Bremont seems to be doing all the right things at the moment. Such as breaking into international markets and building up their own name brand in the UK. Their main weakness at the moment, is trying to compete with the big luxury name brands in Switzerland. The weaknesses in operations are as such, they are not able to produce enough to keep up with demand. As it was mentioned, the demand far outweighs the supply. This has much to do with, the fact that building a watch takes two years. Most of the weaknesses stemmed from this issue, that there is not enough manpower and supply at the current moment. This overtime will change, through the production of the new workshop and personnel. Not many weaknesses can be shown from human resources at the moment, as the workers have not yet been hired, nor have the brothers had enough any personnel over a certain time period to highlight this issue. The investing, as per the article showed, was a financial weakness. That may change in the future as the company have taken on investors that have experience in the luxury field. Opportunities If the company would build up their name, more in the UK, this would be a great opportunity to accomplish what they want to start, which was to have their customers buying first from home. Once they could efficiently, break into the market in the UK, this would give them more of an edge and stronger whole to their name brands internationally. Finances play a big part of difference operation opportunities. If the development of this new workshop proves to be successful, financially and with production, they could possibly expand and build more workshops does hiring more personnel and producing more watches to balance out supply and demand. Threats The biggest threats at the moment lie in the marketing, operations and finances. Most of the big Swiss companies dont need to spend as much money or time marketing as such, since they have built up the name brand over years, most of them are well-known internationally. Swiss companies also have a much greater budget for marketing than Bremont. They are also able to produce luxury watches more and possibly faster due to the fact that they have a lot more experience, money and have sorted out their investment issues already. Swiss watch companies can be said simply, to be the biggest threat of Bremont. If Bremont, is not careful with their investments in things such as operations and marketing, this could be very consequential and they could end up broke, but since they are their own shareholders the only consequence they will have is on themselves. Since they are starting out small with the marketing, this may be an opportunity for the other watch companies to figure out how squeeze them out of the competition. Part (b) The organizational culture of Bremont, is influenced by the communications. Communications in this case, influence Bremont, through the events that have happened in both of the brothers lives, and a love for aviation to inspire the interest of making luxury wrist watches. The brothers since had a career, in restoring vintage aircraft. They were inspired, by their father’s passion of engineering and watches. These things all tied together, and the fact that the wristwatch was invented for pilots, influence the culture and background for Bremont, making wristwatches, also with airplane parts. What could be taken from this is that, aviation had influence the behavior of this business to start making wristwatches, particularly those watches made with certain airplane parts. Question 2 Part (a) Based on the Hackman and Oldham’s (Schaefer, 2006) model the main thing that needs to be established is how to make the workers enthusiastic and willing to come to work. This is achieved by designing the job the best way possible that comfortably allows the employee to use their abilities. As well as properly fitting jobs to the employees through a selection process. An employee should be selected for the job based on their skill level and background. This is a means to show that this job cannot be done by everyone and is significant to the individual. The benefits of the work done from the employee and a progress chart to show the significance It is important to make the task as fulfilling as possible. As the Hackman and Oldham’s model describes. This would include showing the significance of the job task and what the outcome will be when the specific job is completed. Feedback is very important. Things like flexible work times, unions, more than the minimum vacation days, and payment benefit schemes, would make working in the workshop more desirable. Employees could come in a certain time of the day and choose what time of the day to come in as long as they complete their task. Most employees favor a workers protection organization such as a Union. This keeps a general neutral background for the employer and employee to have dialogue without consequences. With only a staff of 35 people that may not be necessary. Proper integration and induction (Marriot, 2007)is important for the new employee, they must be trained properly and not simply thrown in and expected to function with zero experience. Induction allows for this as it is somewhat of an introduction. This could be for example a tour of the Bremont workshop as well as showing the new employee who is responsible for them and how to work certain machinery etc. All things that is necessary for starting a new job. Part (b) Bremont has many different possibilities to recruit and select employees. The best way to go about this is finding the most efficient and cost effective method. A method in which filters out a percentage of applicable and non-applicable selectees before an interview. The internet is a low cost, efficient and effective way to select and recruit employees for a further interview. Bremont could list their job openings online on popular recruiting websites and have the applicants upload their resume online. This would allow the HRM department to quickly and easily go through resumes by also adding important keywords (Such as Mechanical Engineer with min. Through their search and job listing to make sure that applicants can check if they are qualified on an impersonal level before an interview would take place. Job specification as well as a thorough job description is helpful in this case. This cuts down on cost of running an ad every week in the newspaper and allows the company to look themselves for qualified applicants quickly and efficiently without having to wait for a reply and then set up an interview in a hope that this person meets the basic impersonal requirements. Employment agencies are also another method but very costly for a company as money is paid for each person placed as well as the training cost for the employee. I would actually instead of using employment agencies I would put the money into promoting the Businesses brand. Advertising the brand such as on billboards, newspapers and internet would be a practical example. That combined with an online recruitment and selection process would cut down on many costs compared to formally interviewing every candidate without pre -qualifying them. Pre-qualifying through the internet would also free up the HR department so they can process every application in a allotted time they choose. Part (c ) The first main issue of marketing is how to market on the luxury level as this is a different type of customer and different type of competition. Can the marketing keep up with supply and demand? Operations as well need to be, set up and successfully running in order for the marketing to be successful. They run hand-in-hand with each other. Breaking into the global market is important. In order for this to be done, the name needs to be strongly established in the home country. This being the UK, once a successful there. It could be possible that other countries would be knocking at Bremont s doorstep. This would make things a lot easier for Bremont, and possibly make the barriers in countries such as China and India, easier to overcome. This combined with globalization only makes it much easier for Bremont to be successful internationally in the global market. Since Bremont does not have the same finance budget as a Swiss company, this would further confirm why making the name brand in the UK popular is a more important priority. Question 5 Part (a) Globalization is an expansion of economic activities which expands political boundaries and borders (Nayyar, 2002). At the moment Bremont has its parts made in Switzerland and assembled in the UK. This is an example of globalization across boundaries and borders. The company makes most of its sales from its exports the US and Asia. This system of selling in other countries has taken place because of globalization. It does have its negatives such as hurting the countrys local economy due to figure outside companies setting up shop within a foreign country. This is another reason why it is hard for small shops to compete with bigger stronger , Name Brand and even foreign companies. (b) The four drivers of globalization (Schaefer, 2006) are: Cost drivers In the case of Bremont, the cost of marketing and improving production and operations of the biggest cost drivers. Market drivers Market drivers in the case of Bremont would be an establishing the brand first strongly in the UK before they move on internationally. Government drivers Trade barriers need to be reduced in this case. As mentioned before with India and possibly other countries would help move the products forward for Bremont. Things such as import tax and customs duties could be negotiated between governments to allow marketing to be easier, while still protecting each countrys local market. Competition drivers This situation has already been created in the UK as there is a cross border and free movement of companies in EU and EEA countries to allow for a broader playing field for competition. This also allows for the companies to be strategically placed around the globe and make countries interdependent. The strongest driver for Bremont is the Government driver. Since Bremont is competing with Swiss watch companies on luxury brands, most Swiss companies still have a higher up as they are able to do more marketing internationally. As well as setting up companies globally. Globally they are more flexible but with time when Bremont sets up a workshop in the UK and markets properly this will allow the brand name to become stronger and might possibly open up certain economic issues that lie from lack of agreements from certain countries about borders, and duty tax rates etc.