From the case study, determine Staples’ competitive advantage and its current business model. Nex... more From the case study, determine Staples’ competitive advantage and its current business model. Next, use a brief SWOT analysis to analyze the primary way in which the company executes a strategy for growth based on its SWOT analysis.
From the e-Activity, evaluate the level of success of Apple’s current competitive strategy. Next,... more From the e-Activity, evaluate the level of success of Apple’s current competitive strategy. Next, suggest one (1) new innovation strategy for Apple geared toward maintaining an edge in the industry. Provide a rationale for your suggestion.
• From the e-Activity, determine the functional level strategy of both UPS and FedEx. Next, compa... more • From the e-Activity, determine the functional level strategy of both UPS and FedEx. Next, compare and contrast each company’s quality practices and level of responsiveness to customers. Note: Be sure to relate the "Six Strategies for Creating Competitive Advantage” from the video into your response.
Yahoo! is one of the most well-known MNC Internet corporations in the world. Headquartered in Sun... more Yahoo! is one of the most well-known MNC Internet corporations in the world. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Yahoo! is best known for its search engine, Yahoo! Search. It is also known for its Web portal and countless other related internet services. These related services include the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Finance (my favorite). But Yahoo! did not start out as Yahoo! Yahoo! was originally named, “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” (Trex). Yahoo! also has a very well-known social media website. It is one of the most popular sites in the United States. According to news sources, Yahoo! receives about a billion hits every month (Swartz). The Yahoo! domain was created during January of 1995. Once Jerry and David realized their website had massive business potential they went public, and in March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated (Clark). In April of ‘95, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital assisted Yahoo! with obtaining its initial venture capital. They raised approximately $3 million (Computer History). During April of ‘96, the Yahoo! IPO took place, resulting in $33.8 million from 2.6 million shares at $13 each. The growth of Yahoo! from ‘97 through ‘99 saw Yahoo! (as well as MSN, Lycos, Excite and other web portals) undergo exceptional growth. This led web portals to get in a race with each other in an attempt to acquire other firms. Yahoo! did this to expand their range of services, generally with the goal of increasing the time each user stays within the portal. After all, essentially, Yahoo! is little more than an eyeball aggregator. If people only stay one second the hit is meaningless. The longer Yahoo! can get visitors to stay on the website the more benefit advertisers get. Yahoo!’s strategy will be discussed in more detail as we proceed. After surviving the dot.com nightmare, Yahoo! stock achieved a record low of $8.11 (Flickr.com). During this time it was Microsoft that recognized a bargain in buying Yahoo! Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company offered to buy Yahoo! Yahoo! declined the offer. This devolved from there into a major source of contention between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Yahoo! shareholders and its board of directors. This lead to multiple lawsuits on the grounds the Yahoo! board failed to maximize shareholder value and failed in its fiduciary responsibilities. In my view they did. This is popularly known as the principle-agent dilemma. The current Yahoo! CEO is a previous Google employee, Ms. Marissa Mayer. She has been steering Yahoo since June 2012. We will discuss her in more detail throughout this paper. Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo! technologies currently in their beta testing phase, similar to Google Labs. Yahoo!’s CEO has said as many as 60 computer science Ph.Ds are employed there fulltime dedicated to strengthening Yahoo! code. Yahoo! Next contains forums for Yahoo! users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo! technologies. For example, back in early 2006, Yahoo! offered users the chance to beta test a new version of the Yahoo! homepage. However, it currently only supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Users of other browsers, such as Opera, have criticized Yahoo! for this move. Yahoo! did eventually support additional browsers but progress takes time. The important thing is if Yahoo! is working toward a better product. Back in August 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail. It added Yahoo! Messenger integration and text messages to mobile phones here and abroad; the U.S., Canada, India, and the Philippines (SiliconRepublic). Back in January 2008, Yahoo! announced the company’s first layoff of 1,000 employees. This resulted when the company suffered severely in its inability to compete with Google. Google is the search engine industry leader second to none. This layoff was about 7% of Yahoo!’s workforce (Kopytoff). Back in February 2008, Yahoo! acquired Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for $160 million. Yahoo! announced in November 2008, that Yang would be stepping down as CEO (Liedtke). That was a good move as many founders do not make good leaders. Steve Jobs was an exception to that rule. In December 2008, Yahoo! started terminating 1,520 employees around the world as the company worked its way through the global economic downturn (Kawamoto). Microsoft and Yahoo! continued to engage in unproductive merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all without success (Crane). Many analysts were skeptical about a business combination by Microsoft and Yahoo! (Associated Press). During the Microsoft and Yahoo! merger talks, Yahoo! began losing a lot of good employees who were becoming disillusioned with Yahoo! leadership and direction. According to market analysts, these pending departures impacted Wall Street’s perception of the company (Helft). Things really devolved or deteriorated from there. In July 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo! if all the company's directors were fired at the next annual meeting to be held in August 2008. Microsoft believed it would be able to better negotiate with a new board (Liedtke). Billionaire Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft and spearheaded a proxy fight to replace Yahoo!'s board. In July of 2008, Yahoo! settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two of his supporters to an extended BOD. During November of 2008, almost 10 months after Microsoft's initial offer of $33 per share, Yahoo!'s stock dropped to a 52-week low, trading at a low of $8.94 per share (NASDAQ). During November of 2008, Microsoft again attempted to buy Yahoo!'s search business with an offer $20 billion (Waples). Finally, in July of ‘09, a 10-year deal was struck that gave Microsoft full access to Yahoo!'s search engine. This access would be used in future Microsoft projects for its search engine, Bing (Edge Boston). Under the deal, Microsoft was not required to pay any cash up front to Yahoo!
From the e-Activity, evaluate the effectiveness of Starbuck’s current business strategy execution... more From the e-Activity, evaluate the effectiveness of Starbuck’s current business strategy execution in terms of pricing, differentiation, and market demand. Next, suggest one (1) modification to the strategy that could help the company to implement new distinctive competencies. Provide a rationale to support your response.
From the first and second e-Activities, evaluate the effectiveness of Dell’s current turnaround s... more From the first and second e-Activities, evaluate the effectiveness of Dell’s current turnaround strategies. Present at least three (3) examples to support your evaluation
From the first and second e-Activities, analyze the key ways in which Intel and Microsoft capital... more From the first and second e-Activities, analyze the key ways in which Intel and Microsoft capitalized on and reaped substantial first-mover advantages in pioneering new technologies. Provide a rationale to support your response.
In this assignment for business course 599, we are to analyze Federal Express’ value creation fro... more In this assignment for business course 599, we are to analyze Federal Express’ value creation frontier, and determine which of the four building blocks of competitive advantage the company needs in order to continue to maintain above-average profitability. We are to determine the main aspect of product differentiation and capacity control that Federal Express could use in order to maintain an edge over its rivals. We are to assess the efficiency of Federal Express’s current business model, and recommend one new business-level strategy that gives the company a competitive advantage over its rivals. We are also asked to examine the manner in which overall global competition may impact the new business strategy. And, finally, we are asked to suggest one significant way that Federal Express may confront its global competition.
From the e-Activity, analyze the essential manner in which the new Southwest-AirTran merger and r... more From the e-Activity, analyze the essential manner in which the new Southwest-AirTran merger and resulting low-cost structure strategy could maximize both companies’ long-term profitability. Support your response with at least two (2) examples that illustrate the manner in which each company would avoid risks associated with becoming too dependent upon its corporate partner.
From the case study, evaluate the efficiency of eBay’s evolving business model within the retail ... more From the case study, evaluate the efficiency of eBay’s evolving business model within the retail auction industry. Next, compare the key difference of the evolving business models of both eBay and its major competitors.
From the case study, evaluate the soundness of GE’s organizational design in terms of structure, ... more From the case study, evaluate the soundness of GE’s organizational design in terms of structure, strategic control systems, and organizational culture. GE’s organizational structure includes six divisions, each devoted to a specific product category: 1) Energy (the most profitable), 2) Capital (the largest division), 3) Home & Business Solutions, 4) Healthcare, 5) Aviation, and 6) Transportation.
Eastman Kodak is an American icon and household name. It is a name that stands for quality and lo... more Eastman Kodak is an American icon and household name. It is a name that stands for quality and longevity but in the past several decades the firm has fallen victim to its own hubris and the principle-agent dilemma. Since the 1970s the Eastman Kodak Company has been playing a lukewarm game of catchup against stiff competition and an unforgiving marketplace. Eastman Kodak has had to scramble to redefine and reinvent its core competencies. The firm lost sight of the changing technology front and the impact digitalization would ultimately have upon the photography industry. The company also held onto a bloated workforce of 145,300 employees at its peak in 1988. It would take several decades before the myopic senior management would wake up and come to grips with the new normal. Employees are not retained from the cradle to the grave. Employees come on board with the knowledge, skills and abilities the company needs to improve its core competencies and achieve the mission. When the objectives are achieved then employees are reshuffled, reassigned, retrained or released and go on to work for other companies. That is the new normal of the business world that started in the 1980s and 1990s. Eastman Kodak has made strides in streamlining and paring down the bloated size of its workforce since the 1980s. It has updated and modified its human resource practices in order to compete globally. Earlier, Eastman Kodak incorporated some unique strategies due to which the Eastman Kodak human resource department benefited a lot. Actually, Eastman Kodak researched numerous techniques and models to implement effective strategies; it has implemented specific HR practices by an Indian law firm by the name of Singhania and Partners as worthy so it has developed some of them. Eastman Kodak has progressed and developed a lot as it has worked to catch up to the digital age and leave behind the days of the Hybrid film technology that made it wealthy. Eastman Kodak has enjoyed a positive reputation as a firm where employees could retire from. But after the 1970s and 1980s that became less and less realistic and practical. The firm was subjected to the same market forces plaguing every other large corporation and layoffs came with the new normal. Eastman Kodak had to relinquish its old bureaucratic structure and stop being a dinosaur. Unfortunately, the Eastman Kodak Company was plagued with hubris and principle-agency problems that all but destroyed the once-venerable company. The organization’s HR department was possibly easier to revamp than was anything else due to Eastman Kodak’s obstinate and entrenched senior management. It was challenging to get into shape because the right CEO had to first come on board with power over senior management. One who was no longer hampered by the senior Kodak managers who were dragging the company toward insolvency was Eastman Kodak’s new CEO Anthony Perez who replaced CEO Carp in 2004. While some HR policies were effective in the United States, unfortunately, many HR practices and procedures must be specific and tailored to the unique national and legal requirements of every nation Eastman Kodak may operate within. Some of the HR strategies will be ineffective when multinational firms operate within the United States of America and vice a versa (Mayhew, 2012). The research project that is assigned for today deals with the innovative strategies of Eastman Kodak. The paper will cover key objectives related to operational, financial and human resource aspects. It will discuss objectives essential for the success of the Eastman Kodak Company. The research project will analyze Kodak’s horizontal and vertical integration strategy; its corporate level strategy and its competitive advantage in the Cloud Service Industry. Additionally, this research paper will come up with a multi-business model along with examples and recommendations for the implementation of such strategies. Finally, the corporate level strategy and implementation strategy practices will be recommended for sound ethical business practices.
From the case study, determine Staples’ competitive advantage and its current business model. Nex... more From the case study, determine Staples’ competitive advantage and its current business model. Next, use a brief SWOT analysis to analyze the primary way in which the company executes a strategy for growth based on its SWOT analysis.
From the e-Activity, evaluate the level of success of Apple’s current competitive strategy. Next,... more From the e-Activity, evaluate the level of success of Apple’s current competitive strategy. Next, suggest one (1) new innovation strategy for Apple geared toward maintaining an edge in the industry. Provide a rationale for your suggestion.
• From the e-Activity, determine the functional level strategy of both UPS and FedEx. Next, compa... more • From the e-Activity, determine the functional level strategy of both UPS and FedEx. Next, compare and contrast each company’s quality practices and level of responsiveness to customers. Note: Be sure to relate the "Six Strategies for Creating Competitive Advantage” from the video into your response.
Yahoo! is one of the most well-known MNC Internet corporations in the world. Headquartered in Sun... more Yahoo! is one of the most well-known MNC Internet corporations in the world. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Yahoo! is best known for its search engine, Yahoo! Search. It is also known for its Web portal and countless other related internet services. These related services include the Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Finance (my favorite). But Yahoo! did not start out as Yahoo! Yahoo! was originally named, “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” (Trex). Yahoo! also has a very well-known social media website. It is one of the most popular sites in the United States. According to news sources, Yahoo! receives about a billion hits every month (Swartz). The Yahoo! domain was created during January of 1995. Once Jerry and David realized their website had massive business potential they went public, and in March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated (Clark). In April of ‘95, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital assisted Yahoo! with obtaining its initial venture capital. They raised approximately $3 million (Computer History). During April of ‘96, the Yahoo! IPO took place, resulting in $33.8 million from 2.6 million shares at $13 each. The growth of Yahoo! from ‘97 through ‘99 saw Yahoo! (as well as MSN, Lycos, Excite and other web portals) undergo exceptional growth. This led web portals to get in a race with each other in an attempt to acquire other firms. Yahoo! did this to expand their range of services, generally with the goal of increasing the time each user stays within the portal. After all, essentially, Yahoo! is little more than an eyeball aggregator. If people only stay one second the hit is meaningless. The longer Yahoo! can get visitors to stay on the website the more benefit advertisers get. Yahoo!’s strategy will be discussed in more detail as we proceed. After surviving the dot.com nightmare, Yahoo! stock achieved a record low of $8.11 (Flickr.com). During this time it was Microsoft that recognized a bargain in buying Yahoo! Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company offered to buy Yahoo! Yahoo! declined the offer. This devolved from there into a major source of contention between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Yahoo! shareholders and its board of directors. This lead to multiple lawsuits on the grounds the Yahoo! board failed to maximize shareholder value and failed in its fiduciary responsibilities. In my view they did. This is popularly known as the principle-agent dilemma. The current Yahoo! CEO is a previous Google employee, Ms. Marissa Mayer. She has been steering Yahoo since June 2012. We will discuss her in more detail throughout this paper. Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo! technologies currently in their beta testing phase, similar to Google Labs. Yahoo!’s CEO has said as many as 60 computer science Ph.Ds are employed there fulltime dedicated to strengthening Yahoo! code. Yahoo! Next contains forums for Yahoo! users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo! technologies. For example, back in early 2006, Yahoo! offered users the chance to beta test a new version of the Yahoo! homepage. However, it currently only supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Users of other browsers, such as Opera, have criticized Yahoo! for this move. Yahoo! did eventually support additional browsers but progress takes time. The important thing is if Yahoo! is working toward a better product. Back in August 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail. It added Yahoo! Messenger integration and text messages to mobile phones here and abroad; the U.S., Canada, India, and the Philippines (SiliconRepublic). Back in January 2008, Yahoo! announced the company’s first layoff of 1,000 employees. This resulted when the company suffered severely in its inability to compete with Google. Google is the search engine industry leader second to none. This layoff was about 7% of Yahoo!’s workforce (Kopytoff). Back in February 2008, Yahoo! acquired Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for $160 million. Yahoo! announced in November 2008, that Yang would be stepping down as CEO (Liedtke). That was a good move as many founders do not make good leaders. Steve Jobs was an exception to that rule. In December 2008, Yahoo! started terminating 1,520 employees around the world as the company worked its way through the global economic downturn (Kawamoto). Microsoft and Yahoo! continued to engage in unproductive merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all without success (Crane). Many analysts were skeptical about a business combination by Microsoft and Yahoo! (Associated Press). During the Microsoft and Yahoo! merger talks, Yahoo! began losing a lot of good employees who were becoming disillusioned with Yahoo! leadership and direction. According to market analysts, these pending departures impacted Wall Street’s perception of the company (Helft). Things really devolved or deteriorated from there. In July 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo! if all the company's directors were fired at the next annual meeting to be held in August 2008. Microsoft believed it would be able to better negotiate with a new board (Liedtke). Billionaire Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft and spearheaded a proxy fight to replace Yahoo!'s board. In July of 2008, Yahoo! settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two of his supporters to an extended BOD. During November of 2008, almost 10 months after Microsoft's initial offer of $33 per share, Yahoo!'s stock dropped to a 52-week low, trading at a low of $8.94 per share (NASDAQ). During November of 2008, Microsoft again attempted to buy Yahoo!'s search business with an offer $20 billion (Waples). Finally, in July of ‘09, a 10-year deal was struck that gave Microsoft full access to Yahoo!'s search engine. This access would be used in future Microsoft projects for its search engine, Bing (Edge Boston). Under the deal, Microsoft was not required to pay any cash up front to Yahoo!
From the e-Activity, evaluate the effectiveness of Starbuck’s current business strategy execution... more From the e-Activity, evaluate the effectiveness of Starbuck’s current business strategy execution in terms of pricing, differentiation, and market demand. Next, suggest one (1) modification to the strategy that could help the company to implement new distinctive competencies. Provide a rationale to support your response.
From the first and second e-Activities, evaluate the effectiveness of Dell’s current turnaround s... more From the first and second e-Activities, evaluate the effectiveness of Dell’s current turnaround strategies. Present at least three (3) examples to support your evaluation
From the first and second e-Activities, analyze the key ways in which Intel and Microsoft capital... more From the first and second e-Activities, analyze the key ways in which Intel and Microsoft capitalized on and reaped substantial first-mover advantages in pioneering new technologies. Provide a rationale to support your response.
In this assignment for business course 599, we are to analyze Federal Express’ value creation fro... more In this assignment for business course 599, we are to analyze Federal Express’ value creation frontier, and determine which of the four building blocks of competitive advantage the company needs in order to continue to maintain above-average profitability. We are to determine the main aspect of product differentiation and capacity control that Federal Express could use in order to maintain an edge over its rivals. We are to assess the efficiency of Federal Express’s current business model, and recommend one new business-level strategy that gives the company a competitive advantage over its rivals. We are also asked to examine the manner in which overall global competition may impact the new business strategy. And, finally, we are asked to suggest one significant way that Federal Express may confront its global competition.
From the e-Activity, analyze the essential manner in which the new Southwest-AirTran merger and r... more From the e-Activity, analyze the essential manner in which the new Southwest-AirTran merger and resulting low-cost structure strategy could maximize both companies’ long-term profitability. Support your response with at least two (2) examples that illustrate the manner in which each company would avoid risks associated with becoming too dependent upon its corporate partner.
From the case study, evaluate the efficiency of eBay’s evolving business model within the retail ... more From the case study, evaluate the efficiency of eBay’s evolving business model within the retail auction industry. Next, compare the key difference of the evolving business models of both eBay and its major competitors.
From the case study, evaluate the soundness of GE’s organizational design in terms of structure, ... more From the case study, evaluate the soundness of GE’s organizational design in terms of structure, strategic control systems, and organizational culture. GE’s organizational structure includes six divisions, each devoted to a specific product category: 1) Energy (the most profitable), 2) Capital (the largest division), 3) Home & Business Solutions, 4) Healthcare, 5) Aviation, and 6) Transportation.
Eastman Kodak is an American icon and household name. It is a name that stands for quality and lo... more Eastman Kodak is an American icon and household name. It is a name that stands for quality and longevity but in the past several decades the firm has fallen victim to its own hubris and the principle-agent dilemma. Since the 1970s the Eastman Kodak Company has been playing a lukewarm game of catchup against stiff competition and an unforgiving marketplace. Eastman Kodak has had to scramble to redefine and reinvent its core competencies. The firm lost sight of the changing technology front and the impact digitalization would ultimately have upon the photography industry. The company also held onto a bloated workforce of 145,300 employees at its peak in 1988. It would take several decades before the myopic senior management would wake up and come to grips with the new normal. Employees are not retained from the cradle to the grave. Employees come on board with the knowledge, skills and abilities the company needs to improve its core competencies and achieve the mission. When the objectives are achieved then employees are reshuffled, reassigned, retrained or released and go on to work for other companies. That is the new normal of the business world that started in the 1980s and 1990s. Eastman Kodak has made strides in streamlining and paring down the bloated size of its workforce since the 1980s. It has updated and modified its human resource practices in order to compete globally. Earlier, Eastman Kodak incorporated some unique strategies due to which the Eastman Kodak human resource department benefited a lot. Actually, Eastman Kodak researched numerous techniques and models to implement effective strategies; it has implemented specific HR practices by an Indian law firm by the name of Singhania and Partners as worthy so it has developed some of them. Eastman Kodak has progressed and developed a lot as it has worked to catch up to the digital age and leave behind the days of the Hybrid film technology that made it wealthy. Eastman Kodak has enjoyed a positive reputation as a firm where employees could retire from. But after the 1970s and 1980s that became less and less realistic and practical. The firm was subjected to the same market forces plaguing every other large corporation and layoffs came with the new normal. Eastman Kodak had to relinquish its old bureaucratic structure and stop being a dinosaur. Unfortunately, the Eastman Kodak Company was plagued with hubris and principle-agency problems that all but destroyed the once-venerable company. The organization’s HR department was possibly easier to revamp than was anything else due to Eastman Kodak’s obstinate and entrenched senior management. It was challenging to get into shape because the right CEO had to first come on board with power over senior management. One who was no longer hampered by the senior Kodak managers who were dragging the company toward insolvency was Eastman Kodak’s new CEO Anthony Perez who replaced CEO Carp in 2004. While some HR policies were effective in the United States, unfortunately, many HR practices and procedures must be specific and tailored to the unique national and legal requirements of every nation Eastman Kodak may operate within. Some of the HR strategies will be ineffective when multinational firms operate within the United States of America and vice a versa (Mayhew, 2012). The research project that is assigned for today deals with the innovative strategies of Eastman Kodak. The paper will cover key objectives related to operational, financial and human resource aspects. It will discuss objectives essential for the success of the Eastman Kodak Company. The research project will analyze Kodak’s horizontal and vertical integration strategy; its corporate level strategy and its competitive advantage in the Cloud Service Industry. Additionally, this research paper will come up with a multi-business model along with examples and recommendations for the implementation of such strategies. Finally, the corporate level strategy and implementation strategy practices will be recommended for sound ethical business practices.
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According to news sources, Yahoo! receives about a billion hits every month (Swartz). The Yahoo! domain was created during January of 1995. Once Jerry and David realized their website had massive business potential they went public, and in March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated (Clark). In April of ‘95, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital assisted Yahoo! with obtaining its initial venture capital.
They raised approximately $3 million (Computer History). During April of ‘96, the Yahoo! IPO took place, resulting in $33.8 million from 2.6 million shares at $13 each. The growth of Yahoo! from ‘97 through ‘99 saw Yahoo! (as well as MSN, Lycos, Excite and other web portals) undergo exceptional growth. This led web portals to get in a race with each other in an attempt to acquire other firms. Yahoo! did this to expand their range of services, generally with the goal of increasing the time each user stays within the portal. After all, essentially, Yahoo! is little more than an eyeball aggregator.
If people only stay one second the hit is meaningless. The longer Yahoo! can get visitors to stay on the website the more benefit advertisers get. Yahoo!’s strategy will be discussed in more detail as we proceed. After surviving the dot.com nightmare, Yahoo! stock achieved a record low of $8.11 (Flickr.com). During this time it was Microsoft that recognized a bargain in buying Yahoo! Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company offered to buy Yahoo! Yahoo! declined the offer. This devolved from there into a major source of contention between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Yahoo! shareholders and its board of directors.
This lead to multiple lawsuits on the grounds the Yahoo! board failed to maximize shareholder value and failed in its fiduciary responsibilities. In my view they did. This is popularly known as the principle-agent dilemma. The current Yahoo! CEO is a previous Google employee, Ms. Marissa Mayer. She has been steering Yahoo since June 2012. We will discuss her in more detail throughout this paper.
Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo! technologies currently in their beta testing phase, similar to Google Labs. Yahoo!’s CEO has said as many as 60 computer science Ph.Ds are employed there fulltime dedicated to strengthening Yahoo! code. Yahoo! Next contains forums for Yahoo! users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo! technologies.
For example, back in early 2006, Yahoo! offered users the chance to beta test a new version of the Yahoo! homepage. However, it currently only supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Users of other browsers, such as Opera, have criticized Yahoo! for this move. Yahoo! did eventually support additional browsers but progress takes time. The important thing is if Yahoo! is working toward a better product.
Back in August 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail. It added Yahoo! Messenger integration and text messages to mobile phones here and abroad; the U.S., Canada, India, and the Philippines (SiliconRepublic). Back in January 2008, Yahoo! announced the company’s first layoff of 1,000 employees. This resulted when the company suffered severely in its inability to compete with Google. Google is the search engine industry leader second to none. This layoff was about 7% of Yahoo!’s workforce (Kopytoff). Back in February 2008, Yahoo! acquired Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for $160 million.
Yahoo! announced in November 2008, that Yang would be stepping down as CEO (Liedtke). That was a good move as many founders do not make good leaders. Steve Jobs was an exception to that rule. In December 2008, Yahoo! started terminating 1,520 employees around the world as the company worked its way through the global economic downturn (Kawamoto). Microsoft and Yahoo! continued to engage in unproductive merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all without success (Crane).
Many analysts were skeptical about a business combination by Microsoft and Yahoo! (Associated Press). During the Microsoft and Yahoo! merger talks, Yahoo! began losing a lot of good employees who were becoming disillusioned with Yahoo! leadership and direction. According to market analysts, these pending departures impacted Wall Street’s perception of the company (Helft). Things really devolved or deteriorated from there.
In July 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo! if all the company's directors were fired at the next annual meeting to be held in August 2008. Microsoft believed it would be able to better negotiate with a new board (Liedtke). Billionaire Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft and spearheaded a proxy fight to replace Yahoo!'s board. In July of 2008, Yahoo! settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two of his supporters to an extended BOD. During November of 2008, almost 10 months after Microsoft's initial offer of $33 per share, Yahoo!'s stock dropped to a 52-week low, trading at a low of $8.94 per share (NASDAQ).
During November of 2008, Microsoft again attempted to buy Yahoo!'s search business with an offer $20 billion (Waples). Finally, in July of ‘09, a 10-year deal was struck that gave Microsoft full access to Yahoo!'s search engine. This access would be used in future Microsoft projects for its search engine, Bing (Edge Boston). Under the deal, Microsoft was not required to pay any cash up front to Yahoo!
GE’s organizational structure includes six divisions, each devoted to a specific product category: 1) Energy (the most profitable), 2) Capital (the largest division), 3) Home & Business Solutions, 4) Healthcare, 5) Aviation, and 6) Transportation.
The firm lost sight of the changing technology front and the impact digitalization would ultimately have upon the photography industry. The company also held onto a bloated workforce of 145,300 employees at its peak in 1988. It would take several decades before the myopic senior management would wake up and come to grips with the new normal. Employees are not retained from the cradle to the grave. Employees come on board with the knowledge, skills and abilities the company needs to improve its core competencies and achieve the mission. When the objectives are achieved then employees are reshuffled, reassigned, retrained or released and go on to work for other companies. That is the new normal of the business world that started in the 1980s and 1990s.
Eastman Kodak has made strides in streamlining and paring down the bloated size of its workforce since the 1980s. It has updated and modified its human resource practices in order to compete globally. Earlier, Eastman Kodak incorporated some unique strategies due to which the Eastman Kodak human resource department benefited a lot. Actually, Eastman Kodak researched numerous techniques and models to implement effective strategies; it has implemented specific HR practices by an Indian law firm by the name of Singhania and Partners as worthy so it has developed some of them.
Eastman Kodak has progressed and developed a lot as it has worked to catch up to the digital age and leave behind the days of the Hybrid film technology that made it wealthy. Eastman Kodak has enjoyed a positive reputation as a firm where employees could retire from. But after the 1970s and 1980s that became less and less realistic and practical. The firm was subjected to the same market forces plaguing every other large corporation and layoffs came with the new normal. Eastman Kodak had to relinquish its old bureaucratic structure and stop being a dinosaur. Unfortunately, the Eastman Kodak Company was plagued with hubris and principle-agency problems that all but destroyed the once-venerable company.
The organization’s HR department was possibly easier to revamp than was anything else due to Eastman Kodak’s obstinate and entrenched senior management. It was challenging to get into shape because the right CEO had to first come on board with power over senior management. One who was no longer hampered by the senior Kodak managers who were dragging the company toward insolvency was Eastman Kodak’s new CEO Anthony Perez who replaced CEO Carp in 2004. While some HR policies were effective in the United States, unfortunately, many HR practices and procedures must be specific and tailored to the unique national and legal requirements of every nation Eastman Kodak may operate within. Some of the HR strategies will be ineffective when multinational firms operate within the United States of America and vice a versa (Mayhew, 2012).
The research project that is assigned for today deals with the innovative strategies of Eastman Kodak. The paper will cover key objectives related to operational, financial and human resource aspects. It will discuss objectives essential for the success of the Eastman Kodak Company. The research project will analyze Kodak’s horizontal and vertical integration strategy; its corporate level strategy and its competitive advantage in the Cloud Service Industry. Additionally, this research paper will come up with a multi-business model along with examples and recommendations for the implementation of such strategies. Finally, the corporate level strategy and implementation strategy practices will be recommended for sound ethical business practices.
According to news sources, Yahoo! receives about a billion hits every month (Swartz). The Yahoo! domain was created during January of 1995. Once Jerry and David realized their website had massive business potential they went public, and in March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated (Clark). In April of ‘95, Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital assisted Yahoo! with obtaining its initial venture capital.
They raised approximately $3 million (Computer History). During April of ‘96, the Yahoo! IPO took place, resulting in $33.8 million from 2.6 million shares at $13 each. The growth of Yahoo! from ‘97 through ‘99 saw Yahoo! (as well as MSN, Lycos, Excite and other web portals) undergo exceptional growth. This led web portals to get in a race with each other in an attempt to acquire other firms. Yahoo! did this to expand their range of services, generally with the goal of increasing the time each user stays within the portal. After all, essentially, Yahoo! is little more than an eyeball aggregator.
If people only stay one second the hit is meaningless. The longer Yahoo! can get visitors to stay on the website the more benefit advertisers get. Yahoo!’s strategy will be discussed in more detail as we proceed. After surviving the dot.com nightmare, Yahoo! stock achieved a record low of $8.11 (Flickr.com). During this time it was Microsoft that recognized a bargain in buying Yahoo! Bill Gates’ Microsoft Company offered to buy Yahoo! Yahoo! declined the offer. This devolved from there into a major source of contention between Yahoo! and Microsoft, Yahoo! shareholders and its board of directors.
This lead to multiple lawsuits on the grounds the Yahoo! board failed to maximize shareholder value and failed in its fiduciary responsibilities. In my view they did. This is popularly known as the principle-agent dilemma. The current Yahoo! CEO is a previous Google employee, Ms. Marissa Mayer. She has been steering Yahoo since June 2012. We will discuss her in more detail throughout this paper.
Yahoo! Next is an incubation ground for future Yahoo! technologies currently in their beta testing phase, similar to Google Labs. Yahoo!’s CEO has said as many as 60 computer science Ph.Ds are employed there fulltime dedicated to strengthening Yahoo! code. Yahoo! Next contains forums for Yahoo! users to give feedback to assist in the development of these future Yahoo! technologies.
For example, back in early 2006, Yahoo! offered users the chance to beta test a new version of the Yahoo! homepage. However, it currently only supports Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Users of other browsers, such as Opera, have criticized Yahoo! for this move. Yahoo! did eventually support additional browsers but progress takes time. The important thing is if Yahoo! is working toward a better product.
Back in August 2007, Yahoo! released a new version of Yahoo! Mail. It added Yahoo! Messenger integration and text messages to mobile phones here and abroad; the U.S., Canada, India, and the Philippines (SiliconRepublic). Back in January 2008, Yahoo! announced the company’s first layoff of 1,000 employees. This resulted when the company suffered severely in its inability to compete with Google. Google is the search engine industry leader second to none. This layoff was about 7% of Yahoo!’s workforce (Kopytoff). Back in February 2008, Yahoo! acquired Maven Networks, a supplier of internet video players and video advertising tools, for $160 million.
Yahoo! announced in November 2008, that Yang would be stepping down as CEO (Liedtke). That was a good move as many founders do not make good leaders. Steve Jobs was an exception to that rule. In December 2008, Yahoo! started terminating 1,520 employees around the world as the company worked its way through the global economic downturn (Kawamoto). Microsoft and Yahoo! continued to engage in unproductive merger discussions in 2005, 2006, and 2007, that were all without success (Crane).
Many analysts were skeptical about a business combination by Microsoft and Yahoo! (Associated Press). During the Microsoft and Yahoo! merger talks, Yahoo! began losing a lot of good employees who were becoming disillusioned with Yahoo! leadership and direction. According to market analysts, these pending departures impacted Wall Street’s perception of the company (Helft). Things really devolved or deteriorated from there.
In July 2008, Microsoft said it would reconsider proposing another bid for Yahoo! if all the company's directors were fired at the next annual meeting to be held in August 2008. Microsoft believed it would be able to better negotiate with a new board (Liedtke). Billionaire Carl Icahn, calling the current board irrational in its approach to talks with Microsoft and spearheaded a proxy fight to replace Yahoo!'s board. In July of 2008, Yahoo! settled with Carl Icahn, agreeing to appoint him and two of his supporters to an extended BOD. During November of 2008, almost 10 months after Microsoft's initial offer of $33 per share, Yahoo!'s stock dropped to a 52-week low, trading at a low of $8.94 per share (NASDAQ).
During November of 2008, Microsoft again attempted to buy Yahoo!'s search business with an offer $20 billion (Waples). Finally, in July of ‘09, a 10-year deal was struck that gave Microsoft full access to Yahoo!'s search engine. This access would be used in future Microsoft projects for its search engine, Bing (Edge Boston). Under the deal, Microsoft was not required to pay any cash up front to Yahoo!
GE’s organizational structure includes six divisions, each devoted to a specific product category: 1) Energy (the most profitable), 2) Capital (the largest division), 3) Home & Business Solutions, 4) Healthcare, 5) Aviation, and 6) Transportation.
The firm lost sight of the changing technology front and the impact digitalization would ultimately have upon the photography industry. The company also held onto a bloated workforce of 145,300 employees at its peak in 1988. It would take several decades before the myopic senior management would wake up and come to grips with the new normal. Employees are not retained from the cradle to the grave. Employees come on board with the knowledge, skills and abilities the company needs to improve its core competencies and achieve the mission. When the objectives are achieved then employees are reshuffled, reassigned, retrained or released and go on to work for other companies. That is the new normal of the business world that started in the 1980s and 1990s.
Eastman Kodak has made strides in streamlining and paring down the bloated size of its workforce since the 1980s. It has updated and modified its human resource practices in order to compete globally. Earlier, Eastman Kodak incorporated some unique strategies due to which the Eastman Kodak human resource department benefited a lot. Actually, Eastman Kodak researched numerous techniques and models to implement effective strategies; it has implemented specific HR practices by an Indian law firm by the name of Singhania and Partners as worthy so it has developed some of them.
Eastman Kodak has progressed and developed a lot as it has worked to catch up to the digital age and leave behind the days of the Hybrid film technology that made it wealthy. Eastman Kodak has enjoyed a positive reputation as a firm where employees could retire from. But after the 1970s and 1980s that became less and less realistic and practical. The firm was subjected to the same market forces plaguing every other large corporation and layoffs came with the new normal. Eastman Kodak had to relinquish its old bureaucratic structure and stop being a dinosaur. Unfortunately, the Eastman Kodak Company was plagued with hubris and principle-agency problems that all but destroyed the once-venerable company.
The organization’s HR department was possibly easier to revamp than was anything else due to Eastman Kodak’s obstinate and entrenched senior management. It was challenging to get into shape because the right CEO had to first come on board with power over senior management. One who was no longer hampered by the senior Kodak managers who were dragging the company toward insolvency was Eastman Kodak’s new CEO Anthony Perez who replaced CEO Carp in 2004. While some HR policies were effective in the United States, unfortunately, many HR practices and procedures must be specific and tailored to the unique national and legal requirements of every nation Eastman Kodak may operate within. Some of the HR strategies will be ineffective when multinational firms operate within the United States of America and vice a versa (Mayhew, 2012).
The research project that is assigned for today deals with the innovative strategies of Eastman Kodak. The paper will cover key objectives related to operational, financial and human resource aspects. It will discuss objectives essential for the success of the Eastman Kodak Company. The research project will analyze Kodak’s horizontal and vertical integration strategy; its corporate level strategy and its competitive advantage in the Cloud Service Industry. Additionally, this research paper will come up with a multi-business model along with examples and recommendations for the implementation of such strategies. Finally, the corporate level strategy and implementation strategy practices will be recommended for sound ethical business practices.