BUS561 Week 7

Greetings everyone! I am going to try this blog thing instead of the emails I've been sending you. Please let me know if this works better than the email, same as the email, or is not as good as the email. Your feedback is greatly valued!

This week:
* Sara Lee and Your Individual Case Due Next Week
* Drafts
* WSJ Articles for the Week
* Paper Rewrite
* Closing Thoughts

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Sara Lee and Your Individual Case Due Next Week

OK...there seems to be some confusion with the cases due next week. The Sara Lee case is for class discussion only--do not write a paper for the Sara Lee Case!
The case that you chose a couple of weeks ago IS due this coming week in a paper format. Do not forget citations and a reference list. You are welcome to use either the APA format or MLA format to develop and format your parenthetic citations and reference lists...but pick one! Your local library has both the APA and MLA manuals available at no cost to you, so please take care of that little detail. By the way, your individual cases will be graded as-is...no rewrites!

Does that help? If not, please email me your concerns--plmolina@comcast.net

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Drafts

I have read a few executive summary drafts and am VERY encouraged by what I have read! This coming week is the last week I'll review drafts for "free" feedback. After this coming Thursday, my availability will be limited, so get your drafts into me before next Thursday so I can provide you feedback before you are up against the deadline. Email me Word versions of your drafts and I'll shoot those back as soon as I can. Thanks! (This is optional, not required, so don't feel pressured to send me any drafts.)

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

WSJ Articles for the Week

Wendy's Comes Up With a New Strategic Recipe
by Janet Adamy
Sep 30, 2008
Page: B3
TOPICS: Strategy Implementation
SUMMARY: The new management of Wendy's has decided to reverse the strategy of courting 18- to 24-year-olds and target instead older customers between 24 and 49 years of age. Like its competitors, Wendy's is rethinking its 99-cent value meals in the light of rising food costs. Challenges include expanding its breakfast business, remodeling stores, and creating new products.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) How many of you have eaten at Wendy's recently? How would you characterize the menu and the décor? What kinds of customers tend to eat there? Could one tell that the chain was attempting to target the young?

2. (Introductory) What are some implications of the change in Wendy's target customer group? How do you think this will affect products and pricing? What are the implications for interior design and layout?

3. (Advanced) What kind of breakfast does McDonald's serve, the last time you looked? How should Wendy's position itself in comparison to McDonald's for breakfast?

4. (Advanced) Finally, what are some of the strengths of Wendy's currently? How can these strengths be leveraged even further?
Reviewed By: Mark Lehrer, Suffolk University
RELATED ARTICLES:
Food Marketers Cook Up 'Value' Campaigns
by Julie Jargon
Sep 29, 2008
Page: B1
________________________________________
Kohl's Makes Grab for Market Share
by Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan
Oct 01, 2008
Page: B1
TOPICS: Competitive Strategy
SUMMARY: While other retailers are bracing for a slowdown in consumer spending, Kohl's is aggressively opening new stores. Kohl's CEO makes no secret of his strategy of "outperforming the competition and gaining share at their expense" during the turbulent economic years foreseen ahead. Certain competitors, like financially troubled Mervyn's and some regional chains, are likely to be special targets. Others, like J.C. Penney and Macy's, dispose of better resources for resisting Kohl's incursion.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) What is Kohl's competitive strategy? Can you think of other industries where such a strategy has been deployed before?

2. (Advanced) In your assessment, how risky is this strategy? For instance, how have Kohl's sales actually progressed during past years, based on information provided in the article? Over what time period can Kohl's actually hope to see a real return on its investment?

3. (Advanced) In your judgment, how much sense does it actually make to pursue market share? Is apparel retailing an industry where having a larger market share is a significant advantage? In what operational areas, i.e. value chain segments, can a clothes retailer hope to gain economies of scale?

4. (Advanced) If you were given the task of analyzing whether Kohl's strategy is sound or not, what additional information would you try to collect? If you were given a budget to conduct research, how would you spend the funds?
Reviewed By: Mark Lehrer, Suffolk University
________________________________________
Food Giants Scrutinize Chinese Suppliers
by Aaron O. Patrick, Julie Jargon, Sky Canaves and Jason Dean
Sep 30, 2008
Page: B1
TOPICS: Global Value Chains
SUMMARY: The Chinese milk-safety crisis is causing a scramble among multinational companies seeking to ensure the purity of milk acquired from Chinese sources. Different strategic responses are possible. Some firms (Kraft) are trying to monitor the quality of local suppliers more closely. Others (Mars) seek Chinese suppliers who own their entire production chains.
QUESTIONS:
1. (Introductory) Why do large food companies find it difficult to monitor the quality of the milk they buy? Why does the Chinese market for milk not function like Western markets for milk?

2. (Introductory) What strategies are multinational food companies implementing to deal with the problem? How is Kraft addressing the issue? For instance, how is Mars handling the problem?

3. (Advanced) Beyond just fire fighting, what longer-term strategies could large food companies in China pursue to assure milk quality? Should they focus more on assisting the authorities to build up better regulatory institutions in the milk industry? Can or should they rely on market forces alone, e.g. by choosing their suppliers more carefully?

4. (Advanced) In reference to the related article (below), is it feasible for multinational firms to set up their own dairy farms? If so, should this be seen as a short-term or long-term solution?
Reviewed By: Mark Lehrer, Suffolk University
RELATED ARTICLES:
To Bag China's Snack Market, Pepsi Takes up Potato Farming
by Chad Terhune
Dec 19, 2005
Page: A1

> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Paper Rewrite

Folks, I was impressed with the content of your papers on the Bottled Water Industry. As I mentioned in class, many of you left points on the table for either improperly siting your sources or omitting your parenthetic citations altogether! When you put facts or ideas in your paper that you garnered from another person's (or persons') writing, you MUST give the author/authors' credit...otherwise, you have committed plagiarism---and that is enough to get you in a lot of trouble up to and including getting dropped from the graduate program! Ouch!!! Now that you know how serious plagiarism is, you know why: 1) so many points are dedicated to support in your paper (30%!), and 2) why I take citations and reference lists so seriously. As I mentioned above and in class, APA or MLA formatting of your citations and reference list is perfectly fine with me, pick one and use it throughout your paper. Heck, use it throughout your graduate career! According to James Saya, CSF uses both APA and MLA--it is up to each instructor to choose the format, so make sure you ask the instructor which format they prefer if it is not clearly indicated in their syllabus.

Remember, I have not prescribed a paper format for your case study papers--use a format/style you think is readable and professional. The citations and reference lists need to be APA or MLA. I hope that is clear and helpful to you all. If not, ping me!


> > > > > > > > > > > > > >

Closing Thoughts

Folks, for many of you, this is your first graduate class with CSF, and I understand that---what (I hope) you expect from me is open, honest feedback regarding your assignments, you expect me to facilitate a full night's worth of lecture and discussion, you expect me to take you out of your comfort zone and push you and your thinking to the next level, and you expect me to be firm yet flexible. I hope I have met those basic expectations thus far...if not, please let me know!

I chatted with James Saya about this class, and his expectations of you match mine--we expect each of you to work really hard (it's hard, isn't it?), we expect you to write well (we know many of you are rusty), and we expect you to take the feedback provided and improve! Of course, my feedback is not perfect, but I do my best to provide actionable feedback--feedback you can use to make corrections and continually improve your skills. Why do I allow graduate students to rewrite papers? Because I want each of you to correct your mistakes and omissions now, so that in future courses, you don't make those same mistakes! If I am approved to teach other graduate level business courses in the future, and you get me again (oh my!) expect me to expect EXCELLENCE from each of you! Not perfection, but excellence, indeed. I can tell you, your next instructor expects you to perform very well in your writing, your class participation, and in your execution of all assignments. Many of my grad students will tell me immediately after the 561 class is over that I was tough...then six months down the road, I'll hear that I was easy compared with other instructors in the program! Keep your chin up and nose to the proverbial grind stone---it's worth it!

That's all for now. As I hope you all know, my email and phone is always open. Take care and have a safe and productive week. PLM